Fynbos is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and Eyre Peninsula in the west to Cape Spencer and Yorke Peninsula in the east.
Hessequa Municipality, known before 24 June 2005 as Langeberg Municipality, is a local municipality within the Garden Route District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is flanked by the lower Breede River to the west and the Gourits River to the east. As of 2011, the population was 52,642. Its municipality code is WC042. The name Hessequa, meaning "people of the trees", refers to the indigenous Khoikhoi people.
The Breede River, also known as Breë River, is a river in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Travelling inland north from the city of Cape Town, the river runs in a west to east direction. The surrounding western mountains formed the first continental divide experienced by European settlers in the 18th century. The Titus River and Dwars River become the Breë River.
Swellendam is the fourth oldest town in South Africa, a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them buildings of Cape Dutch architecture. Swellendam is situated on the N2, approximately 220 km from both Cape Town and George.
Wonthaggi is a seaside town located 132 kilometres (82 mi) south east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Known originally for its coal mining, it is now the largest town in South Gippsland, a regional area with extensive tourism, beef and dairy industries.
Worcester is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is the third-largest city in the western cape province of South Africa. It is located 120 kilometres (75 mi) north-east of Cape Town on the N1 highway north to Johannesburg.
Jeffrey's Bay is a town of 27,107 inhabitants as of the 2011 census in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It Is the seat of the Kouga municipality and is famous amongst surfers as a surf capital due to the right-hand point break at Supertubes Beach. The town is situated just off the N2 Highway, about 75 kilometres southwest of Port Elizabeth.
The Victorian Desalination Plant is a water desalination plant in Dalyston, on the Bass Coast in southern Victoria, Australia. The project was announced by Premier Steve Bracks in June 2007, at the height of the millennium drought when Melbourne's water storage levels dropped to 28.4%, a drop of more than 20% from the previous year. Increased winter-spring rains after mid-2007 took water storage levels above 40%, but it was not until 2011 that storages returned to pre-2006 levels.
The Adelaide Desalination plant (ADP), formerly known as the Port Stanvac Desalination Plant, is a sea water reverse osmosis desalination plant located in Lonsdale, South Australia which has the capacity to provide the city of Adelaide with up to 50% of its drinking water needs.
Palmiet River is a river located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The Palmiet River is a typical Western Cape river, experiencing winter rainfall and it is important for the Western Cape Water Supply System. It has a small catchment area of 500 km2, flows through the expanse of the Elgin Valley, and reaches the ocean through an estuary.
Australia is the driest habitable continent on Earth and its installed desalination capacity has been increasing. Until a few decades ago, Australia met its demands for water by drawing freshwater from dams and water catchments. As a result of the water supply crisis during the severe 1997–2009 drought, state governments began building desalination plants that purify seawater using reverse osmosis technology. Approximately one percent of the world's drinkable water originates from desalination plants.
Touws River is a small railway town of 8,126 people in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located on the river of the same name, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) north-east of Cape Town. The Touwsrivier CPV Solar Project is located just outside of the town and supplies 50 MW to the national electrical grid.
Port Beaufort is a settlement in Garden Route District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Malgas is a settlement on the right (southwest) bank of the Breede River in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. It is situated 25 kilometres north-west of the Breede River mouth at Witsand, and 30 kilometres south-east of Swellendam.
There are approximately 16,000 operational desalination plants, located across 177 countries, which generate an estimated 95 million m3/day of fresh water. Micro desalination plants operate near almost every natural gas or fracking facility in the United States. Furthermore, micro desalination facilities exist in textile, leather, food industries, etc.
The Cape Town water crisis in South Africa was a period of severe water shortage in the Western Cape region, most notably affecting the City of Cape Town. While dam water levels had been decreasing since 2015, the Cape Town water crisis peaked during mid-2017 to mid-2018 when water levels hovered between 14 and 29 percent of total dam capacity.
Witsand Solar Desalination Plant (WSDP) is a water purification project under construction in South Africa.
The De Hoop Marine Protected Area lies between Arniston and the mouth of the Breede River on the south coast of South Africa adjacent to the De Hoop Nature Reserve. The MPA is 51 kilometres long, and extends 5 nautical miles to sea. The whole MPA is a restricted area and is part of the migratory route and calving area for Southern right whales. The area protects habitats for several economically important inshore reef fish species, and ensures the retention of marine biomass in this part of the coast. The limestone coastline is includes archaeological sites and middens that date back centuries. The MPA is close to the Breede River estuary and, provides protection for species like cob that breed in the estuary and then return to the ocean.
The Erongo Desalination Plant, also known as the Orano Desalination Plant, is a sea water desalination plant in Namibia. The facility was constructed between 2008 and 2010 by Orano Mining Namibia, which at the time was known as Areva Resources Namibia. The desalination plant was established to supply water to Orano’s Trekkopje Uranium Mine. At the time this plant was commissioned, it was the largest reverse osmosis desalination plant in Southern Africa.
