‘Table Mountain Water Source Partnership’ Safeguards South Africa’s Water Sources


10/19/2020

AB InBev in partnership with WWF and the government of Denmark to address groundwater monitoring in Cape Town besides establishing a monitoring network promoting sustainable water management.


Dailycsr.com – 19 October 2020 – Two years ago in the summer months the ‘Day Zero’ drought at Cape Town underscored the importance of protecting earth’s water resources to secure our future, whereby on October 12, 2020, AB InBev made an announcement to reveal about “a two-year sponsorship” coming from the government of Denmark with the aim of creating a sustainable water management system for the “city’s groundwater supply”.
 
In recent times, when faced with drought, the city dwellers cut down on their water consumption, delved in grey water reusage along with increasing their frequency of tapping the groundwater, whereby increasing the need to have a sustainable groundwater management system for private as well as “bulk water supply going forward”.
 
During droughts, groundwater is a backup resource, therefore it is important to monitor its use else unregulated use combined with the changing climate will lead to water security related risks. The ‘Day Zero’ drought saw, although “undocumented”, yet a “substantial” rise in the well points as well as number of boreholes across the City of Cape Town.
 
In order to comprehend the groundwater level of the city, AB InBev sponsored a pilot project which involved the citizen scientists for collecting data based on the latter’s survey. Following this, the company initiated a network of groundwater monitoring within Cape Town. The said project has helped the company to get a better understanding of the use of groundwater in certain industrial as well as residential areas while initiating an awareness of “monitoring network” which provides the appropriate data for managing “groundwater abstraction in the greater Cape Town area”.
 
AB InBev has successfully entered into a partnership with the Embassy of Denmark and WWF celebrating the following step involved in the process which is the “signing of an R11-million agreement” which will scale this work under “Table Mountain Water Source Partnership” banner.
 
In the words of the chief executive of the WWF South Africa, Dr Morné du Plessis:
“We would like to express our gratitude to AB InBev and the Danish Embassy, both essential partners in funding groundwater activities, for their contribution towards establishing the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership. This partnership will help to safeguard the smallest and most westerly water source area in South Africa and help us to build resilience in the face of climate change which, climate scientists tell us, is likely to bring with it more severe droughts in future.”
 
While, the Denmark’s Ambassador to South Africa, Mr Tobias Elling Rehfeld added:
“We are very proud to be joining and supporting this partnership. It is a strong group of partners and I have great expectations for what this partnership can do in supporting the management of the important ground water resource. I believe in the partnership approach for natural resource management – an approach we have practised with great success in Denmark for the last 150 years. I also expect that the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership can set best practice standards that can be applied both nationally and on the African continent.”
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com