Today marks World Water Day, and while Capetonians brace themselves for another potential Day Zero, a local municipality has teamed up with a fishing group to do their bit to conserve every drop of water.
Also read: The City wants to build a R1.8-billion desalination plant
Construction of the road between the towns of Stompneusbaai and Vredenburg, along the arid West Coast, requires between 50 000 and 200 000 litres a kilometre, depending on the terrain and construction methods.
In an effort to minimise environmental impact, the local municipality has teamed up with the fishing group, Oceana, which owns and operates two canning factories in the region for its Lucky Star range.
For years, Oceana has implemented water saving and conservation initiatives in its plants, including recycling waste water and installing rainwater harvesting systems. These have reduced reliance on municipal supply by between 30% and 40%.
However, after Cape Town’s water crisis in 2018, the group realised it needed to be even less dependent on municipal supply.
“We faced the real prospect of running out of water for our plants in St Helena Bay and Laaiplek,” explains CEO Neville Brink.
“We’re a major employer in the region and suspending operations or closing the plants would directly affect the livelihood of 2 500 employees, with a considerable knock-on effect for the broader community. So we invested R35 million to build two desalination plants to serve the factories and ensure lack of water would not interrupt production or put jobs at risk.”
This move has been enormously successful, with the desalination plants still producing more water than the factories require, and Oceana will now be collaborating with the local government to help develop infrastructure.
Between October 2022 and January 2023, Oceana’s West Coast plants donated over 26 million litres of water to facilitate the construction of six kilometres of road.
The project is due to be completed in April.
Excess water will then be donated to other projects, according to Brink, with the group also planning to build a solar plant that will considerably lessen the reliance on Eskom’s supply, effectively freeing up more electricity for other users.
“The water project has proved what can be done. As well as securing jobs in a region where these are scarce, innovative, collaborative projects such as this help improve the standards of living for surrounding communities,” Brink added.
Also read:
The V&A is getting a desalination plant to prevent water crises in Cape Town
Picture: Supplied