SCT currently abstracts water from the sea, which is treated through a water treatment facility, for cleaning purposes including surface floors, process machinery and leftover fish guts in the fish factory. They have a permit for the abstraction of 2.190.000 m3 per annum of seawater, which was issued by the Ministry of Agriculture Water and Land Reform’s (MAWL) - Department of Water Affairs (DWA). However, SCT only abstracts up to a maximum of ±1.576.800 m3 per annum as per the current operational demand, i.e. 1.051.200 m3 per annum (2880 m3/d) for the existing treatment facility and 525.600 m3 per annum (1440 m3 /d) for the ice plant. The existing treatment facility treats the seawater by means of sand filtration and UV technology to remove bacterial contamination prior to usage in the fish factory. However, the treatment plant lacks the capacity to reduce the salinity of seawater. This means the treated water still contains high levels of salinity, which is problematic as the seawater corrodes process machinery. This issue leads to equipment maintenance challenges and reduction in the service life, risking production at the factory. The corrosion problem therefore increases the operation and maintenance cost and decreases the operation time of the factory to as much as 50% of its capacity. It is with this background that SCT intends to upgrade their existing treatment facility by constructing a Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plant for improved treatment of the seawater and to overcome the current corrosion challenges during the cleaning activities. The proposed desalination facility will be able to treat up to 1200 m3/day abstracted seawater. 40% of the abstracted seawater (480 m3 /day) will be freshwater and used for process machinery cleaning purposes. The remaining 60% (720 m3 /day) brine will be diluted with waste water from the ice plant and discharged back into the sea. The existing treatment plant will continue operating in parallel with the proposed desalination plant, however at reduced capacity (i.e. 1440 m3 /d). Abstracted seawater for the ice plant will also continue to be used. Waste water, from cleaning the fish factory, is drained to the nearby fishmeal plant. At the fishmeal plant, solids/particles (i.e. fish bones, etc.) are removed from the waste water for use as fish meal. The resultant waste water is discharged at the existing discharge point. This discharge point will continue to be used in future. Currently, the discharge volume balances the total intake volume. The waste water from the ice plant is filtered (200 µ) to remove solid particles before being. SCT appointed Marvin Environmental Project Consultants (Marvin Consultants) to undertake the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for the proposed activity.