“The water quality is very high indeed, it tastes very good”
THE ISLAND’S first mobile desalination plant providing drinking water for Limassol and people in the south-west is now fully operational.
At a cost of nearly €20 million and built in record time, the plant in Moni started producing water just after Christmas and has now fully replaced expensive imports from Greece, which until last month, provided the entire amount of drinking water to the town’s residents.
“It’s the fastest mobile desalination plant to be up and running. We managed to construct the unit in just eight months and have already delivered two billion litres of water since December,” David Dwek the director of Subsea Infrastructure told the Sunday Mail.
Over 200 experts from Scandinavia, the United States and Israel were involved in the mammoth operation, which is located near the main EAC electrical station.
The site now pumps 20,000 cubic metres of drinking water a day – and should ensure that Limassol no longer has to bear the brunt of water cuts during the hot summer months.
Subsea Infrastructure has signed a contract to provide water from the Moni site for the next three years, and if no longer required, the plant can be easily packed up and taken elsewhere.
“The site belongs to us; the government is just purchasing the water. So if the unit is not needed in the future, we can take it anywhere else in the world. We are charging €1.38 per cubic metre of water, which is pretty good value.”
Concerns that treated sea water would taste notably different, after some consumers in Australia said they could taste salt in their morning coffee, were brushed off by Dwek, who insisted that new technology has solved such issues.
“The quality of the water is very high indeed, you can drink it. It tastes very good, and the quality is very high.”
Desalination is a relatively recent solution, coming of age in the Middle East in the 1980s. The Moni plant uses a process known as “reverse osmosis” to draw salt from the sea.
It works by pushing salty water through a series of ultra-fine membranes which draw out the tiny sodium and chloride ions.
Greens and conservationists are concerned about the energy that the Moni plant uses, saying it would increase carbon dioxide emissions, however, Dwek insists that the plant is equipped with the most up-to-date processing methods.
“We are using the latest energy recovery techniques in order to reduce the amount of energy required. Reverse osmosis does require pumping pressure to separate the salty water from the clean drinking water. However there is absolutely no reason you can’t use, if available, green energy such as solar or wind power.”
A third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed countries now. By 2025, this is expected to rise to two-thirds.
“Cyprus is a microcosm of the world water shortage. This is what is going to happen in more and more places, and we see desalination as an important way to provide water in large quantities rapidly,” added Dwek.
Global water consumption rose six fold between 1900 and 1995 – more than double the rate of population growth – and goes on growing as farming, industry and domestic demand all increase.
“Desalination is an important part of the government’s water management strategy and it is working. This plant will ensure the future supply of water for Limassol,” he said.
Earlier this year the government announced plans to buy water from a floating desalination platform, to be installed off Limassol.
Following a government invitation for interest in building the unit, there are now three companies short-listed for the project, which should be complete by the end of next year.
