Cape Town - The V&A Waterfront, which is set for a R20 billion upgrade, functions like a mini metropolis. It saves 200 000 litres of water a day, runs on enough clean energy to power 2 500 homes, and has its own waste and sewer management system.
A black water treatment plant that can process 200 000 litres a day produces treated effluent used to flush toilets.
For 16 years, the V&A Waterfront has been investing in creating a greener space which can sustain itself.
This week, the Weekend Argus team was taken on an exclusive tour of their vision, and green and energy saving sites, as World Environment Day was observed.
The team met at Portswood Café which is set to open later this year and prides itself on being built 97% out of recycled building materials from construction sites around the V&A.
Its rustic features lead to a vegetable garden which is expected to sustain the café and other community projects.
The building was the brainchild of Okhela Gampu, project manager for development, who watched and nurtured the process of choosing material for the site from old construction venues.
When the V&A team noted the wastage by their tenants of produce, such as leftover food, they knew they had to step in, to create a system of saving and recycling.
Their Waste Management unit diverts 62% of its waste from landfills and this includes more than 2 300 tons of organic waste and 2 100 tons of recycling every year.
The V&A is home to 22 buildings that have been Green Star-rated by the Green Building Council of South Africa, making it one of the greenest neighbourhoods on the continent.
Inside just over 50 women work in shifts sorting the waste from plastics to glass.
Petro Myburgh, senior operations manager at the V&A, explained their green thinking.
“This is my pride and joy, all the waste we produce in the precinct, we manage ourselves and yes, the City does provide us with water and electricity. We manage all our systems and infrastructure, the roads we walk on, the street lights, sewer network, fresh water supply pipeline including waste, is all being managed by the V&A Waterfront management companies.
“Our waste services are outsourced, our service provider is called Waste Plan, and we built this facility in 2018. At the time it was an R18 million investment.
“The core purpose here was that all the waste we collect throughout the precinct gets taken to a central facility, where we recycle as much as we can and then dispose of it in the most responsible way.
“In the last couple of years we have intensified our awareness campaigns to our tenants to ensure they separate waste.”
The desalination plant, which stands at the back of the property, is set to be operational at a later stage, and is in its testing phase. One day it will assist in taking the facility off the grid for fresh water.
“What you see here this is the most critical part of the plant because the seawater waste and the salt have to be removed from the actual water. It goes through intensive filtering processes and these pipes are all filled with membranes,” Myburgh said.
“Like traditional water treatment facilities, it would then go through the next steps.”
The V&A has reduced its energy use by 40%. Its 2MW photovoltaic solar panels generate 1 640 000 kWh of clean energy annually.
Donald Kau, communications manager for the V&A, shared more of their vision for going green in all aspects at the premises.
“In another recent development, a café was built using only waste materials harvested throughout the Waterfront precinct.
“The construction industry is responsible for about 19% of global carbon emissions and the Portswood Café was designed to show what can be achieved with an innovative approach.
“This is a low-tech, low energy building and certainly the first of its kind in the Waterfront.
“We believe that this demonstration can highlight the role of alternative building methodologies for broader applications and sector development, demonstrating circular economy thinking in practice.”
The black water treatment plant which has been in existence since 2022, resembles a green house standing in the middle of the hustle and bustle.
”Our entire sewer network is below sea level, which means from all our buildings it needs to be pumped to a central pumping station where it gets pumped into the City’s sewer network,” Kau added.
“Our main pump station is located right here. We placed the water treatment plant next to it and the sewage is pumped into the plant, where oxygen is created and there is filtration and other stages.”