Tsogo Sun Building Desalination Plant for Cape Town Properties

South Africa’s leading casino and hotel operator is doing all it can to counter the water crisis facing Cape Town. Besides rationing water and saving in any way possible, the operator also announced this week that it is building its own desalination plant to serve its properties in the Mother City.

Tsogo Sun said that the desalination plant will be ready in the coming weeks, comfortably ahead of Day Zero, currently scheduled for May 11th, when authorities say that they will be forced to turn off taps to residential suburbs in Cape Town. The Chief Operating Officer of Tsogo Sun, Ravi Nadasen, told reporters this week that the desalination plant should be up and operating in the middle of March.

Speaking in Johannesburg, Nadasen said: “There is a plan in place that all of the alternative water sources will come on board before Day Zero comes. The current situation in Cape Town is going to become the new normal. We’ve got to be responsible as well.”

Tsogo Sun hopes that the extra water sources will allow clients at its Cape hotels to bath, shower and flush toilets.

The hotel and casino operator opens many properties in Cape Town and the surrounds. These include the Southern Sun The Cullinan, the Southern Sun Waterfront, SunSquare and StayEasy Cape Town, both in the City Bowl area, Southern Sun Cape Sun, Southern Sun Newlands, SunSquare Cape Town Gardens, Garden Court Nelson Mandela Boulevard, StayEasy Century City, SUN1 Milnerton, SUN1 Parow and SUN1 Foreshore.

After a three year drought, Cape Town is facing the prospect of having the water literally run dry in its taps. Local reservoirs have been exhausted and the current daily allocation is 50 liters per person.

Tsogo Sun and other South African casino operators have taken drastic measures to help counter the water crisis, including urging visitors to keep toilet flushing to the bare minimum and removing bath plugs. On the other hand, Nadasen said that it was important for hotels to do what they could to make sure that guests remained as unaffected as possible within reasonable means.

“South Africa cannot afford to lose confidence as a tourist destination,” he said.

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