THE Mossel Bay Municipality has reassured concerned residents that it will fully rehabilitate the dunes and beach at Voorbaai where a desalination plant will be built to relieve the town’s dire water shortage.

Municipal manager Dr Michele Gratz said the dune between the tank farm and the estuary adjacent to the desalination plant – which would be erected on PetroSA’s logistics base property in Voorbaai – would be affected by the construction of a pump station.

The pump station would be buried in the dune and pipelines would be laid under the beach to pump seawater to the desalination plant and pump brine back into the ocean.

An access road would also be built to the pump station and pipeline construction sites.

“Mossel Bay’s beaches and the sea are important aspects of its attractiveness to tourists. Tourism, in turn, is one of the mainstays of the local economy.

“While the possibility of running out of potable water is possibly the biggest threat yet to face the local economy, we will do our utmost to ensure the environment receives maximum protection in the process to supplement Mossel Bay’s water supply and that the economy is not harmed,” Gratz said.

She said environmental specialists had been involved with the project from the start and had already made a full assessment of the dunes and the beach.