Virgin Active no drip in bid to save water

Sauna and steam rooms closed, pools unfilled

VIRGIN Active is doing its bit to conserve water in the Western Cape. It has closed saunas and steam rooms at its gyms, as well as stopped filling swimming pools.

Wesley Noble, head of Changing Business for Good at Virgin Active, said these measures came after it had already shut off high-pressure sensation showers, along with limiting water usage in other areas of its business.

Noble said the health club chain had implemented water conservation programmes in branches countrywide for several years, and consumption was down 11% nationally on a year-on-year basis.

But he added that the situation in the Western Cape “has really focused our minds and we calculate we’ve saved as much as 10.5 million litres in the region, which is the equivalent of seven extra glasses of drinking water for every resident in the Western Cape”.

The reduced consumption needed to become a permanent habit, Noble said.

“Water is such a precious resource everywhere in South Africa and we have to find every way to conserve it,” he said.

The conservation measures already implemented across the Virgin Active group include: eco-showerheads, lowflow aerated taps, dual-flush toilets, replacing PVC piping with stainless steel to prevent leaks, pulse metres to monitor use and identify leaks, rainwater harvesting and water-recycling projects, especially for pool top-ups, enhanced pool management to reduce backwash times, regular water audits, training staff on water management, educating members on water conservation through the Save The Drop Campaign, and the “2-Minute Power Shower Challenge” posters in changing rooms.

Noble said a scheme to re-use purified waste water from pools and showers for ablutions had also been tested.

“Virgin Active will be alive to our obligations if the Cape crisis deepens and are preparing contingency plans,” he said.

Meanwhile, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said in her budget vote speech in Parliament yesterday that South Africans lived in a country that was the 30th driest in the world, and where water and sanitation were previously used to promote inequality.

But with the dawn of democracy, she added, the government had found it fit to use water and sanitation to unify the country, alleviate poverty and create jobs.

“Since the coming into office of the 5th administration, the country has been hit by the worst drought in the last 100 years, and the severest for the Western Cape in the last 104 years,” Mokonyane said.

“This drought has not only affected South Africa, but also the rest of the world.”

Last week, the total capacity of the 215 major dams in the country measured on a weekly basis at 72.6%, she said.

“As we previously said, we have not fully recovered and it will take a period of not less than two to three years to fully recover and worst for the Western Cape, with its winter rainfall where even climate scientists remain non-committal on the predictions.”

Confederation of Employers of Southern Africa chairperson, Dr Lawrence McCrystal, said action, not road shows and analysis, was needed.

McCrystal said 1.8 billion people could face absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions, in less than 10 years.

Cape Town’s water crisis was a wake-up call for everyone, he added. “Even in California, one million California residents are currently without access to clean, drinkable water. Global warming affects world-class cities,” McCrystal added.

He called on the government to immediately avert a national catastrophe.

McCrystal also believes it is time to establish public-private partnerships, as well as engage with donor countries that have set aside large amounts for development funding in Africa.