Water Wheel May/June 2022: Water Infrastructure

Abstract

Independent water producers – The opportunities and the challenges for SA Marine salvage expert Nicholas Sloane became world-famous in 2013 for his leading role in righting and later refloating the capsized Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast of Italy in January 2012. He was back in the news again in 2018 with his proposal to tow an iceberg from Antarctica to help relieve Cape Town’s water crisis during the Western Cape drought. His plan was to get private investors to fund the project, and then sell the freshwater released from the iceberg as it melted to the City of Cape Town municipality. This would have made Sloane and his partners independent water producers, or IWPs, according to a definition contained in a WRC Working Paper titled “The opportunity of independent water producers in South Africa” .

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