Spearheaded by the United Nations (UN), World Water Day is designed to raise awareness around the global water crisis, as an estimated 2.2 billion people around the world currently live without access to safe water. In South Africa, this is the reality for nearly 40% of households.
This year, the United Nations' World Water Day theme centres on groundwater, which is water held underground in rocks, sand and gravel. When sourced responsibly, groundwater extracted through boreholes can provide a great alternative supply.
At Vodacom's Techno Centre in Midrand, collected and filtered water from the company's borehole project has reduced the office's consumption of municipal water from 30 kilolitres to 2 kilolitres a day. The company also has water awareness messages in most of our facilities to encourage water saving practices, which helped reduce its overall water usage by 75%.
"South Africa is a water scarce country and over the years we have seen some communities battling to have access to water due to drought. Being part of the communities in which we operate, in 2017, we began amplifying water-saving efforts that have yielded results as our water consumption has been reduced by 75% since that time," says Takalani Netshitenzhe, executive director of external affairs at Vodacom South Africa.
A water storage dam was erected at Vodacom's headquarters in 2013 for the company's ongoing rainwater-harvesting project. Rainwater collected in this dam, which can store up to a mega-litre of water, is used to irrigate the campus gardens and to run the air-conditioning system at the Vodacom Commercial Park building.
Considering rainfall recharges groundwater, the recent rains have also proved useful for Vodacom's borehole project. Understanding that responsible water use is something all South Africans must embrace, Vodacom has also focused its efforts on helping communities tackle water scarcity.
"Since 2019, we have spent over R6m on water-relief measures, like the installation of Jojo tanks to supply sustainable drinking water in 90 schools and eight Early Childhood Development Centres across the country," Netshitenzhe says.
