CAPE TOWN - South African Breweries (SAB) has collaborated with local municipalities in Cape Town and Tshwane to help provide a total 4.4-billion litres of additional water per year for use by residents in those cities.
According to SAB, the additional flow of water is accredited to leak reduction and advanced water pressure management in municipality reticulation networks.
The City of Cape Town has an additional 4.67-million litres per day of water available to residents or 1.7-billion litres of water per annum.
This was previously being lost through water leakages in the municipal system.
Cape Town suffered extreme water shortages in 2018 with threats of a looming Day Zero when taps were expected to run dry and water collection points made available for residents’ basic and daily water requirements.
The additional 1.7-billion litres of water is able to provide for 58,000 households, of 4 people with a basic 100 litres per day based on the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for basic needs.
Last year, SAB partnered with the City of Tshwane to refurbish two existing water pump stations, Groenkloof, and Kentron in Centurion.
This has allowed the city to reduce its reliance on Rand Water for purchase of water, and has contributed an additional 7.5-million litres of water for use by residents each day or a total of 2.7-billion litres of water per annum.
This amounts to a saving of more than R60,000 for the city per day or R23 million per year. “SAB recognises the importance of working in partnership with relevant stakeholders to bring about sustainable solutions to key water challenges that we collectively face in South Africa,” said Bishen Morgan, Procurement Director, Sustainability & Capabilities, SAB and AB InBev Africa.
“Understanding the source and vulnerability of our water supplies has placed us in a position where we can take proactive measures to put programs in place to protect this key resource with partners such as the WWF and others.”
The company added that it was working on expanding its collaboration on water savings with other water-stressed municipalities across South Africa, with an additional two city partnerships due to be launched in 2019.
In the Outeniqua water catchment area in the city of George in the Western Cape, SAB has led an alien vegetation-clearing initiative since 2016, which has increased water flow in excess of 1-billion litres per year. The project has created more than 120 jobs for local communities assisting with clearing alien plant species, which sap the area of water.
In other parts of Africa which include Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, SAB’s parent company, AB InBev, has implemented initiatives to rehabilitate key catchments and improve community access to quality water.