Hosted by the City of Cape Town, the 25th forum took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre( CTICC) and boasted over 400 delegates. The forum showcased case studies, expert views, panel discussions, and the City of Cape Town’ s updates on financing options, innovation, policy and training, and advisory opportunities mostly focused on getting through the water crisis. Running alongside the forum was an exhibition where 34 service providers shared various systems and equipment available for water conservation, including options for water recycling and rainwater harvesting.
This was not the first Energy, Water and Waste Forum, but due to the current drought situation affecting the Cape, last year’ s forum centred heavily on water— although it did touch on energy and waste as well.
Among the keynote speakers was the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, who praised Capetonians for rising to the challenge when it came to saving water and being innovative in finding solutions to becoming water resilient.
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De Lille did not mince her words and had a clear message:“ We must accept that in future, drought will be normal, and we can no longer rely on rain as our primary source of water. We are appealing to business people to partner with the City. Business people have the ability to drive change and innovation and they need to partner with the City to overcome the water crisis. Cape Town needs to reduce water usage to 500 million litres a day to last until March 2018 and this can only be achieved if we all work together.”( Ed.’ s note: It has since been reduced to 450 million litres.)
A total of 55 000 users were identified as not participating in saving water and their consumption would be tracked.
“ We also need to dispel the myth that water is wasted by informal settlements,” said De Lille.“ In reality, they only use 4 % of the City’ s water while residential homes’ use is at 55 %.”
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Photos by John Ackermann |
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1. Les Lange( left), manufacturer of WaterBank based in Krugersdorp, with Carl Bayhack of Future Comfort, distributor of WaterBank in Cape Town.
2. Peter Flower( centre), director for Water and Sanitation at the City of Cape Town, responded to questions from delegates about the City’ s water infrastructure.
3. Helene Fourie was on hand to promote the unique features of the Optima dry steamer.
4. There was a huge focus towards saving water on the exhibition side, too. Since then, the 87 litres have been reduced even further.
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