Are icebergs a realistic option for augmenting Cape Town’s water supply?

Abstract

Towing icebergs is not a new phenomenon, the idea crops up pretty much any time a major coastal city is beset by watersupply issues, as a series of feasibility studies by both US and Australian authorities (and most recently Abu Dhabi) in the second half of the twentieth century can attest. That icebergs attract this kind of attention is perhaps not surprising, given the enormous size of the polar freshwater resource – a single large (in the order of 10 km long) berg contains enough water to supply Cape Town for a couple of decades. So, is it as simple as grabbing some free freshwater, or is this just the tip of … er … iceberg? One can go pretty deeply into this topic, but some frequently asked questions are summarised below: Can we get it there? The short answer: Maybe… Probably. The long answer: Icebergs are large, and heavy. Therefore, in order to get a decent-sized (say 20 km-long) iceberg it is estimated that some twenty large oceangoing tugs would be needed to move the Are icebergs a realistic option for augmenting Cape Town’s water supply?

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