Water, Sewage & Effluent November-December 2017 | Page 12

Aerial view showing the dairy and cow handling facility in the background (green roof), and sludge and wash water ponds in the foreground. Milking water-wise opportunities The Wittekleibosch dairy is an inspiring example of what can be achieved by positive government intervention and sound collaboration with the private sector. By Kim Kemp T he Wittekleibosch Dairy Trust’s new milking facility in the Tsitsikamma region of the Eastern Cape is not just a milestone land restitution project; it is also applying some ‘water-wise’ thinking that will save 30 000 litres of water a day. The Wittekleibosch Development Trust represents 152 families from the AmaMfengu tribe who were forcibly 10 removed from the area between 1977 and 1978. Following the fall of apartheid, the land was returned to the families in terms of the Land Claims Restitution Act. Now, with funding from the province’s Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR), the Trust is joint-venturing with commercial partner Johan du Water Sewage & Effluent November/December 2017 Plessis to construct and run this R30- million rotary dairy. The new 66-point rotary milking platform, capable of milking 1  200 cows twice a day, has come not a moment too soon to replace the Trust’s one ageing milking parlour. With a combined capacity for just 600 cows, these facilities were no longer keeping up with demand. Once the