The City of Cape Town’s water and sanitation directorate rewarded the recipients for excellent compliance with the City’s water by-laws, during a special Water Star-Rating Award Ceremony held at the Old Mutual head office in Pinelands last week.
Recently 17 businesses and organisations were recognised for their remarkable efforts in implementing good water management practices at their premises, one of them being Kronendal Retirement Village in Hout Bay.
The City of Cape Town’s water and sanitation directorate rewarded the recipients for excellent compliance with the City’s water by-laws, during a special Water Star-Rating Award Ceremony held at the Old Mutual head office in Pinelands last week.
Introduced by the City of Cape Town in 2016, the Water Star Rating Certification was introduced to promote a different aspect of regulation, that went beyond enforcement.
The chair of the Kronendal Retirement Village’s Home Owners’ Association Guy Dickerson told People’s Post their four-star rating “puts quite a feather in our cap as a mere retirement village competing against big corporations in the city”.
The City’s water and sanitation directorate gives star-rating certification to commercial and industrial businesses, residential estates, educational campuses and healthcare facilities, based on their compliance with the City’s water-related by-laws, as well as their advocacy for water conservation and prevention of water pollution.
Recipients of one star are certified as compliant, having demonstrated adherence to all of the relevant legislation, which in itself is worthy of recognition. Participating organisations can, however, achieve up to five stars, for applying best practices in water use, water supply, water conservation and water discharge.
This is one of multiple community initiatives to help deliver on the commitments made in the City’s water strategy. It promotes the drive for cleaner inland waterways and Cape Town becoming a water-sensitive city.
Zahid Badroodien, Mayco member for water and sanitation, praised Kronendal. “Self-regulation, coupled with appreciation of the efforts made to comply with water by-laws as part of their organisational culture, has proven to motivate many industries to make sustainable changes in a positive way,” he commented.
The 17 recipients this year represent a diverse range of industries and sectors, who voluntarily participated in the comprehensive assessments.
Among them, Finlar Fine Foods, Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital and the University of Stellenbosch (Tygerberg Campus) were the three top-performing organisations that achieved a five-star rating.
Some of the noteworthy solutions that these organisations put into place include:
- Installation of a commercial, reverse osmosis filter plant
- Re-evaluating cleaning methods to reduce water consumption
- Using a greywater harvesting system, which channels wastewater from the renal dialysis filtration plant.
- Installed water-efficient fittings across premises
- Removed taps from bathtubs and discontinued car washes
- Switched irrigation systems from potable water to alternative water
- Introduced alternative water sources such as a greywater-centralised system and borehole water
- Ran a “War on Leaks Programme”, which focuses on educational awareness to change behaviour, as well as installed electronic meters to detect leaks.
For Kronendal, Dickerson explained that, because the village is situated on wetlands, “we had a very high underground water level”. Due to the construction of a service park on their premises, the underground water had to be pumped out.
“That’s when we installed water tanks to capture this underground water which we now use for irrigation. We additionally installed a water purification plant which would allow us to get off the City’s water grid completely, but due to issues relating to the separation of water and sanitation’s licensing processes, we are unable to use this system until we get the license,” added Dickerson.
Organisations that achieved between two- and four-star certification were:
Double Tree by Hilton Cape Town; AECI Food and Beverage; the Vineyard; Kay’s Caravan Park; PEPKOR; University of the Western Cape; Cape Town International Convention Centre and Sanlam Life Insurance Limited.
“We want to congratulate the participants whose endeavours have become so successful that their stories can now inspire others. We also invite more organisations to take up the call to review how water is utilised within their operations and find ways to make adjustments aligned with the legislature and work together with the City to be water-wise,” Badroodien concluded.
Organisations that would like to apply for assessment can do so on Cityweb or email waterpollution.control@capetown.gov.za
