In response to the water shortages which have plagued the Western Cape throughout summer the owner of the Engen False Bay 1Stop has built his own desalination plant to ensure that his customers have purified water.

Kobus Pretorius, who is the Engen False Bay 1Stop situated 10km outside of Somerset West, says that as a responsible business owner operating a time when water shortages and the urgency to save water to prevent Day Zero were a reality he had to do something about it.

Converting borehole water

Pretorius’s first response was to sink a borehole but he soon found that whilst there was water in abundance, it would need to be purified of various metals and solids to be pure and drinkable. At this point he decided to install a water desalination plant that converts borehole water into purified water.

“I spoke to Water Purification Solutions and they suggested to us to install a treatment plant to get the water to a quality that exceeds municipal water,” he explains.

Within six months, Water Purification Solutions designed, manufactured and installed a Primary Water Treatment plant capable of providing the daily needs of the business. It can be described as having a small factory on-site, but Pretorius believes that the effort is well worth it.

Ensuring continuity of supply

“After all, only by controlling my own water resource can I ensure that every customer enjoys water quality of the finest,” Pretorius adds.

In honour of Pretorius’s achievement, a number of Engen head office and regional managers, as well as fellow service station owners, visited the Engen False Bay 1Stop on 23 May 2018 for what Pretorius calls his ‘Water-baby Shower’, and their introduction to a model for ensuring continuity of water supply in drought areas.