Cape Town - Ahead of World Water Day on Thursday, the #SaveWater initiative hosted a round table with business and government leaders about best practices and programmes corporates had implemented in answer to the Western Cape’s water crisis.
Chief water ambassador Yusuf Abramjee opened the event, hosted by the Tsogo Sun Cullinan Inn, by thanking businesses for their efforts to cut water consumption.
Keynote speaker Dr Charon Marais, from the Stellenbosch Water Collaborative, spoke about the value of healthy rivers, in both a rural and urban context.
“People will often say, the river is making us sick; the water in the river is polluting our bodies but what have we done to the river that has made it unhealthy? We need to re-evaluate our relationship with our rivers, which are the lifeblood of our cities,” she said.
Wesgro chief executive Tim Harris said Cape Town and the Western Cape were still open for business, and their marketing campaigns have focused on getting tourists to also cut down on their water usage when visiting the province.
@LanceTheWitten of @TheCapeArgus giving an update on #EveryDropCounts #NationalWaterWeek event. We all need to #SaveWater #CapeTownWaterCrisis #WaterSmartNation #WorldWaterDay pic.twitter.com/0yk9f6loE1
— Cape Town-South Africa Water Crisis by @bridgetti (@CPTWaterCrisis) March 22, 2018
He said the City of Cape Town was already tapping into the streams flowing under the city, and underground springs.
Harris said the residents and businesses of Cape Town were doing sterling work in their efforts to save water and avoid a Day Zero scenario.
“We’re using the same levels of water now as we did in the late ’90s. The engineers working on our water projects are world class, our leak detection systems are on par with first world countries. We are doing amazing work in saving water,” he said.
When it came to water innovation, Cape Town was streets ahead in sourcing “new water”.
“About 12% of our water now comes from new sources. Soon we will have four sources of water: rain-fed dams, aquifers, desalination, and re-use. This is how we build a resilient city and province.”
CEO of @Wesgro Tim Harris @timharris addressing the round table #SaveWater #EveryDropCounts pic.twitter.com/nZufyOKqiV
— Lance Witten (@LanceTheWitten) March 20, 2018
Garry Reed, general manager of the Tsogo Sun Cullinan Inn, said the hotel was always on the lookout for innovative ways to save water. “We collect all the half-drunk bottles of water off tables at conferences such as these, the half-empty jugs of ice water, the unfinished bottles of water from hotel rooms after guests leave, and we store it in massive JoJo tanks. We use that water in our pool, gardens and laundry,” he said.
By collecting half-drunk water bottles, they had managed to store around 500 litres of water a week, Reed said.
The hotel had also stopped using table cloths and fabric napkins in order to save water on laundry.
They had retrofitted misting heads on all their taps and replaced showerheads.
Our incredible partner @tsogosun does so much across the country to #SaveWater. @GarryReed2 GM of #CullinanHotel is telling us how they have transformed their hotel to be water smart because #EveryDropCounts! #NationalWaterWeek @DWS_RSA pic.twitter.com/aE2eXKT20T
— Miss Earth SA (@missearth_sa) March 20, 2018
Other companies, like Reckitt-Benckiser, Bosch, Unilever, and Cobra Watertech also highlighted their public education projects and product development that led to water savings.
“By using a dishwasher, you’re using 6.5 litres of water per cycle. You could be saving 57 litres over hand washing,” a
representative said.
Cobra Watertech was on a drive to replace free-flow taps in public schools, starting with Mary Harding in Athlone on Saturday, which would cut water flow from 50 litres a minute to 6 litres.
Andy from Cobra Watertech. They've been developing waterwise products since 2011 #SaveWater #EveryDropCounts #NationalWaterWeek pic.twitter.com/ARoUbNunTw
— Lance Witten (@LanceTheWitten) March 20, 2018
Virgin Active said it had managed to effect a 61% water saving in 18 months, and were investing a further R23 million in water savings infrastructure.
Virgin Active says they've managed a 61% water saving in 18months. They've invested R23m in infrastructure last month alone pic.twitter.com/oPQ0tYWKGX
— Lance Witten (@LanceTheWitten) March 20, 2018
Murray & Roberts detailed their development of bespoke water treatment plants, the latest at Vincent Pallotti hospital at a cost of R2.1m, which converted groundwater into potable water.
Gugu from Murray and Roberts talking about their bespoke water treatment plants which converts groundwater to potable water pic.twitter.com/HxKLzMteEE
— Lance Witten (@LanceTheWitten) March 20, 2018
A number of companies are already committed to a “net zero” water footprint, so they are not placing any additional strain on the municipality’s water grid, by reusing grey water and utilising groundwater and rainwater harvesting.
The Department of Water and Sanitation's regional head, Rashid Khan, commended the #SaveWater initiative for driving the change in mindset.
Abramjee also thanked the Cape Argus for supporting the initiative and driving its #EveryDropCounts campaign, which seeks to educate residents about the need to think about water and its use differently.
Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said: “If we all continue to work together like this, we can become a shining example to the rest of the world of how we can turn a crisis into a positive.”