SBS Tanks® are delighted to announce a partnership with QFS and Osmoflo in providing quality water storage for an emergency desalination plant at the V&A Waterfront area of Cape Town. With the region in the grips of its worst drought on record, the City of Cape Town Municipality have launched a number of alternative water sources projects to mitigate the drought’s effects, with this project being one of the landmarks.
The 7 Osmoflo containers making there way from Cape Town harbour
The project is centred around a fully containerised “seawater reverse osmosis and multimedia filtration plant”. Being a 2 MLD plant (which stands for Minimum Liquid Discharge) made up of 7 containers, it will be able to deliver 2 million litres of water per day to the city’s municipal supply! These 7 containers have been rented out to QFS for a minimum period of 24 months, and were installed within a tight schedule of 8 weeks.
SBS Tanks® were the perfect option for high quality water storage, of which 3 different tanks were needed for the various stages of the reverse osmosis and filtration process. Together they provide a total of 436,000 litres of water storage.
The second container is offloaded and placed in position
Overall it’s been a prime example of swift operations, with the seven containers being shipped from origin in Dubai to Cape Town in under 30 days, and then set up at the Waterfront in under 8 weeks. The City of Cape Town’s dire need to augment water sources has been a major driving force behind the urgency of the project, and has been more than adequately met by some of the world’s best in the water industry.
2 of the SBS Tanks® for the project in position
SBS Tanks® Managing Director, Delayne Gray, was recently in Cape Town to inspect the progress of the installation, and was exceptionally happy with the progress of the project to date: “This is a true unifying project. Everyone has come together with the understanding that the situation in Cape Town is serious.” Gray explains, “And for us we have committed to getting these tanks up in the best possible lead time – I am very pleased with my team’s performance thus far.”
Collaboration is key in order for projects of this scale to be successfully rolled out, and the urgency of the situation in Cape Town shows just how much can be achieved when powerful companies pull together. Over the last 20 years, SBS Tanks® has performed thousands of tank installations around the world – and it is projects such as these, where the true need for access to water is so significantly pronounced – that are the most rewarding.
© SBS Holdings 2026
