Mauritius Gov’t Considers Setting Up Water Desalination Plants

Following a severe drought that has hit Mauritius in the second half of 2007, the government is considering the setting up of desalination plants on the coastal regions of the island, the Director General (DG) of the Central Water Authority (CWA), Harry Booluck said in Port Louis on Wednesday.

Meeting journalists at his office on Wednesday, Booluck urged the press to help in the campaign to sensitize the public for the need to save water.

He explained that all the reservoirs of the country are half empty and if no immediate action is taken to save water, the CWA will be compelled to release water for only three hours daily.

The Director General indicated that the only option remaining is to desalinate sea water, but that the cost of desalinated water is 25 US cents per cubic metre, which he said is five times higher than the price that the public is presently paying. It will be the public which will have to bear the increase, he said.

Booluck added that certain plants in Dubai desalinate up to one million cubic metres of water daily and that the Mauritius government has invited a delegation of experts from that country to advise the government of what type of plant is most convenient for the island.

Some hotels have already resorted to desalination to resolve the lack of water. Bel Ombre Hotel, in the south of the island is already equipped with such equipment and the hotel intends to increase its capacity to supply all the six hotels of the group with desalinated water.

Booluck said the island of Rodrigues, about 550 km to the east of Mauritius, has already taken the bull by the horns and that tenders have already been launched for the setting up of four such plants to purify sea and brackish water by the end of the year.

The Director General said CWA has no choice but to invest in such equipment, as climate change was affecting the whole planet; and it would be hard to make any forecasts as to the future situation of water supply in the island.

Source African Press Agency

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