In light of Cape Town’s on-going drought, businesses need to know how to save water. Since people spend around 8 hours per day at work, businesses consume vast amounts of water. We have put together a short and simple list of ways businesses can save water.
1. How To Save Water? Awareness Is Number 1!
The best way to conserve our most precious and scarce resource is education. Simply making staff aware of the issue and how to help is by far the simplest and most effective method of saving water.
- Limit your usage – Be conscious not to let taps run unnecessarily while making alternative arrangements like utilizing water coolers for drinking.
- If its yellow, let it mellow – Every flush of a toilet can use at least 3 litres of water, rather consolidate a few uses into one flush
- Washing of dishes – Try make use of recyclable cutlery and crockery.
As discovered by Jeremy Clarkson, fuel efficiency is not necessarily dictated by what car one drives, but rather how one drives it. Similarly, the saving of water is dependent on how we use it.
2. Install Private Water Meters
If your business is located within a body corporate, you might want to think about installing a private water meter for your office. While this will not directly save water, it will certainly provide you with direct feedback on usage. This will allow you to monitor how much water is being used and implement your own water saving measures.
3. Install Water Efficient Taps
Switch out your old fashioned taps for more efficient units or simply add aerators to your current taps. This will help stem the flow of water and reduce usage. Standard taps can use 20 to 30 litres of water per minute which can be reduced to 6 to 10 litres!
4. Adjust Toilet Flushes / Waterless Urinals
Firstly, the addition of dual flush systems allow for appropriate usage of water per flush. Secondly, adjusting the flush on the toilets can decrease usage to 9 Liters (Full Flush) / 3 Litres (Half Flush) – A decrease from around 13 litres in traditional toilets. Waterless urinals make use of one way valves to drain and require absolutely no water for flushing!
5. Don’t irrigate / Use Non-Potable Water
There should be absolutely no irrigation with potable water. Should your office building require irrigation, it is absolutely imperative that non-potable / treated effluent water is used. We have seen great results in Century City of treated effluent water being used for irrigation where Rabie Property Administrators and CCPOA have really stepped up to the plate with water conservation efforts.
Horizon Capital is dedicated to water conservation and undertakes to save water in all of our 75 managed commercial properties in Cape Town.