City aims at water wasters in business
WHILE the City’s efforts to cut water wastage have largely been targeted at households, they have also set their sights on businesses to bring down their water consumption.
Mayco member for informal settlements, water and waste services and energy, Xanthea Limberg, said retail/offices and industry account for 12.8% and 4.2% of water usage respectively.
“All water users, including businesses that are in contravention of the water restrictions are being fined or issued with notices.”
The latest drive is aimed at residential consumption only, by far the greatest consumption category, Limberg added.
“We have engaged in other means with commercial users, such as one-on-one meetings, phone calls to question usage and to monitor usage patterns, inspections, providing waterrelated information to them for their use, education and awareness drives and meeting larger industry bodies.
“The reaction has been quite positive and efforts continue in this regard.”
‘It is shocking to note the collective consumption of 629 million litres of water per day’
Businesses had relayed the implementation of enhanced water-wise training for staff, retrofitting sanitary ware to comply with water-efficiency standards, engaging customers on water saving and, in some case, whole operations have been overhauled.
“Others are using alternative water sources for irrigation, car wash, toilet flushing, construction and industrial activities.
“The City’s message to the business sector has been that adaptation is key, as we are in a new normal scenario,” Limberg said.
At the full council meeting yesterday, mayor Patricia de Lille said the City would invest over R2 billion in new desalination, ground water extraction and water re-use plants and another R1.3bn in operational costs in the next two financial years.
A water resilience advisory committee, with experts from academia, the business sector, and NGO sector, has also been established to advise De Lille and the City.
Usable water in dams stands at 22.5%.
“It is shocking to note the collective consumption of 629 million litres of water per day, which is 129 million litres above the target of 500 million litres per day needed to build reserves for the expected harsh summer ahead,” De Lille said.
Water management devices have been installed in areas including Constantia, Claremont, Durbanville, Southfield, Retreat, Oakdale, Rondebosch, Maitland, Elsies River, Crawford, Three Anchor Bay and Parklands.
The National Disaster Management Centre in the Department of Co-operative Governance has also allocated R20.8 million towards the City’s emergency disaster relief for the drilling of boreholes and the installation of pumps and pipelines.