R7.5m smart park in Seawinds
HUNDREDS of children were joined by their parents from Seawinds near Lavender Hill yesterday at the opening of their newly unveiled R7.5 million park.
City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith officially opened the Seawinds Smart Park. He said the project included upgrading a portion of an existing Recreation and Parks facility into an integrated facility that offers informal and formal recreational opportunities.
“The smart park design landed our Recreation and Parks Department an award for excellence from the Institute for Landscape Architecture two years ago and it’s no surprise, because it provides a whole new take on outdoor recreation. Through this approach, we are developing high quality parks in the city’s most under-served areas and opening opportunities to residents that they would have had to travel great distances before to access,” said Smith.
The park is the latest smart park and the sixth of its kind, following similar ventures in Atlantis, Nomzamo, Delft, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.
“It includes a water play area, where children can learn about the water cycle and two multi-purpose playgrounds with two multi-purpose courts and a picnic area as well as a covered stage and an outdoor exercise area. The water play area includes a mechanism for recycling the water and reusing it. Essentially, what we are doing here is bringing these quality parks to residents within reasonable travel distance and to all residents in the city,” he said.
The water play area works on a recycle process, where water is reused and circulates through the river stream and log channel. Inside the pump house, the reused water is cycled through a filtration process. Overflow is fed back into the surrounding trees via a subsoil drain pipe. In terms of landscaping, 120 drought-tolerant trees will provide shade to visitors and add to the aesthetic of the park.