With the drought that nearly strangled Cape Town still fresh in the memory, one business decided to be ahead of the next one by, among other things, making use of borehole and recycled water to keep its green areas in pristine condition.
GrandWest has been awarded a prestigious 4-star rating certification by the City of Cape Town for the property's ongoing commitment to conserve water since the drought which brought the city to the brink of day zero in 2018.
“This is our second 4-star certification, but we are still delighted to be lauded by the city in this way,” said GrandWest general manager Mervyn Naidoo.
“As a business, we knew we had to change our water supply mix and to be less reliant on public resources. During the drought the continuity of our operation, and the livelihood of Capetonians depended on us pulling together as water warriors to save every drop of water we could.
“The severity of that impending drought situation taught us the importance of having access to alternative resources, which we now have through our boreholes and water treatment plant.
“We remain mindful, however, that underground water is not an unlimited resource and its management is critical. Although the drought broke, we can never again become complacent about how we use water.”
Water-wise measures adopted by GrandWest include using grey water for irrigation, installing flow restrictors on taps and showers, replacing gardens with indigenous water-wise plants, banning washing of cars on the property, and even saving melted water from the ice rink after each skating session, to be reused when irrigating the gardens.
The company has also installed online live meters to track water consumption on the premises to identify abnormal flows and leaks. Educational awareness programmes have been implemented to encourage staff, concessionaires and service providers to all be water-wise.
In 2018, GrandWest officially launched its water purification plant on the property to treat borehole water to potable standards.
GrandWest's engineering manager, Kallie Niemand, said, “The plant consists of four boreholes and water drawn from these is passed through pre-filters that remove most of the metals and suspended solids. The filters are aerated to assist with oxidisation of the water and from there, it is stored in a holding or buffer tank.
“The water is then taken through reverse osmosis filters from where it is finally pumped into a 400 000 litre holding tank. As required, the water is pumped to the main water reservoir by a UV generator unit which stops bacteria and further purifies the water.”
“The borehole solution was built in phases. First we established the boreholes and tested the water quality. The appropriate purification process was then designed and, once City approval was obtained, the purification plant was built. The plant produced its first purified water on 15 May 15, 2018.”
Each certification is valid for three years.
“At GrandWest we have made saving water part of our culture, and we now practise sustainable water management on a daily basis. When the water restrictions were lifted in 2018, management agreed to continue striving to improve our water saving initiatives. We received our first three-year certification in 2019, so by 2026 we are aiming for a 5-star water rating,” said Naidoo.