
Tsogo Sun plans to build a desalination plant that will help supply its Cape Town hotels with their own water, shielding guests of South Africa’s biggest hotel and casino operator from the city’s deepening water crisis.
The water shortage across the Cape region means supplies will cut off completely with residents needing to collect a daily allowance from water tankers around the city.
‘Day Zero’, as it has become known, was forecast to happen as soon as April but efforts by farmers and businesses have extended the deadline to June.
Tsogo Sun says its alternative source should be in operation for properties including the five-star Westin within a month at the latest, Tsogo Chief Operating Officer Ravi Nadasen told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday. That’s comfortably ahead of the scheduled May 11 date for so-called Day Zero, when city authorities threaten to turn off the taps to residential suburbs.
“There is a plan in place that all of the alternative water sources will come on board before Day Zero comes,” Nadasen said. “The current situation in Cape Town is going to become the new normal. We’ve got to be responsible as well.”