Cape Town - The dispute over the tender drafted by the City of Cape Town for a desalination plant at the V&A Waterfront will head to arbitration next year.
The private resolution process comes five years after Quality Filtration Systems (QFS) terminated its water supply contract with the City, in which it claimed the water was “extraordinarily contaminated” and the tender was insufficient.
QFS confirmed the matter was in arbitration.
Mayco member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien said: “The City confirms that it is currently involved in arbitration proceedings with QFS as a claimant. The arbitration is set down for hearing during the latter part of March and early April 2024. The City is not in a position to make any further comments concerning the arbitration as the proceedings are subject to confidentiality.”
The desalination plant was decommissioned in 2022 after QFS terminated the contract in 2019.
The two parties went through a mediation process that concluded with no settlement.
The City meanwhile said it invested R1.6 billion in water and sanitation infrastructure over the 2022/23 financial year.
Included in these projects were the Atlantis Aquifer, R90 million, Cape Flats Aquifer Recharge, R255m, and the Table Mountain Group Aquifer, R51.5m
STOP CoCT founder Sandra Dickson criticised the lack of progress of projects since 2018.
“This past week’s water usage shot up to 972m litres a day, but the six traditional feeder dams are still over 97% full. Cape Town therefore has no water shortage for the coming season.
“We all know that rainfall might decrease again in years to come and a drought will certainly occur again. In spite of CoCT charging an additional fixed water charge since 2018, no substantial addition has been made to the water supply since the last drought. This should be a concern to each Capetonian.”