Marine salvage experts believe that icebergs could be the answer to the Western Cape’s water crisis.

In an interview with Reuters, salvage master Nick Sloane said he was looking for government and private investors to assist in financing his plan to tug huge chunks of ice across the ocean, chop them into slurry and melt them down into millions of litres of drinking water.

“We want to show that if there is no other source to solve the water crisis, we have another idea no one else has thought of yet,” Sloane explained.

Describing the process, Cape Town based Sloane, told Reuters that his team could wrap passing icebergs in fabric skirts to protect them and reduce evaporation. Large tankers could then guide the blocks into the Benguela Current that flows along the west coast of southern Africa.

A milling machine would then cut into the ice, producing slurry and forming a saucer structure that will speed up the natural process, he said.

A single iceberg “could produce about 150 million litres per day for about a year,” around 30% of the city’s needs, said Sloane, a director at the U.S. marine salvage firm Resolve Marine.

He said he was planning to hold a conference later this month to try and sell the $130 million project to city officials and investors. The city council was not immediately available for comment.

–Reuters