The local and district municipalities together with local consultants and universities are currently conducting research and running scenarios. Scheme management will most likely be run in the same fashion, with the Saldanha Bay municipality and West Coast District Municipality taking ownership of the scheme and working with local institutions and consultants with expertise to monitor and guide the scheme’s efficiency and sustainability. Though not yet implemented, the approach adopted with MAR development on the Cape West Coast can already provide lessons.

A Phased Implementation Approach

The area requires a phased approach to MAR implementation including the following:

• behavior of newly drilled abstraction wellfields needs to be established prior to testing of artificial recharge options;
• different options can start being tested after water chemistry tests have been done to evaluate mixing of groundwater sources and final water composition;
• evaluate the suitability of the area that has been identified as a potential site for artificial recharge, and consider alternatives if necessary;
• evaluate whether the preliminary estimates of the major infrastructure requirements are accurate and improve the estimates as needed;
• conduct infiltration tests prior to basin construction;
• evaluate whether treatment of final water is necessary and design the treatment if needed; and,
• monitor changes in pH, redox potential, temperature and relevant ion concentrations over time as early warning signs of clogging.