Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa has been shortlisted among four cities bidding to host the 2021 global desalination conference.
More than 2,500 delegates consisting of key players in desalination and water reuse technologies are expected to attend the high-profile event scheduled for October 2021.
Despite being a coastal city, Mombasa faces acute water shortage, prompting Kenya to consider creating awareness on desalination and water reuse as it seeks to exploit sea water to end perennial shortages of the commodity in the country.
A delegation of inspectors has been sent to the county to assess its ability to host the global congress.
In a press briefing, Mombasa Deputy Governor William Kingi said the conference will help educate people and create awareness on desalination.
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“Today is indeed a great day for us. We are one of the four cities which if qualified will host the desalination conference. They are here to assess and we are very confident that we have the capacity and infrastructure to hold the conference, “said Dr Kingi.
He further added that the technologies would be a solution to water shortage in Africa.
“We are going to be the first county in Africa to host it. The technology is very important to us as a solution to the water problems. The conference will bring a lot of awareness to this technology,” he said.
National water harvesting and storage authority CEO Sammy Mburu said that Kenya’s central government was in full support of the conference.
He reiterated that it was important for the technology to be showcased and that the conference is scheduled at an opportune time since desalination has not quite taken effect in Africa yet the resources of the ocean are limitless.
International Desalination Association (IDA) is in 60 countries serving more than 2,600 core members and an additional 4,000 affiliate members around the world consisting of engineers, scientists, consultants, developers, utilities and other end-users, financiers, corporations and academia, researchers and students representing governments.
IDA Secretary- General Shannon McCarthy said the organization started 45 years ago to help in desalination, water reuse and recycling.