Saints makes water security a priority
At St Stithians, we take our environmental responsibility seriously and our Water Security Programme is a critical Green and Sustainability imperative of the College. We have made our Water Security a priority, with the goal of ensuring a continuous supply of portable water, compliant to SANS 241 standards and irrigation water to be delivered across the Campus and that it should not be compromised by water source restrictions, power outages or any other services failures that cause interruption to the Campus.
The Water Security Programme mandate for the College, over the long term, is to materially reduce reliance on the Municipal Water grid and strive to be as self-sustainable as possible. The College has invested resources to build a Water Treatment Plant to process Borehole water sources. The processed water is to be the primary source of portable water delivered across the Campus, whilst the municipal source will be as a secondary (back up) supply. The process will be in full compliance with SANS 241 standards.
“(SANS) 241 Safe drinking water that complies with the South African National Standard (SANS) 241. Drinking Water Specification that does not pose a significant risk to health over a lifetime of consumption, including different sensitivities that may occur between life stages (babies and infants, the immuno- compromised and the elderly)”
It is critical to the College to ensure that the volume of water supplied to the Water Treatment Plant and Irrigation operations is continuously balanced within the extraction limits consented by City of Johannesburg Municipality and approved by the Department of Water Affairs, as well as in consultation with the College stakeholders
In line with our St Sithians Procurement Policy, the College went through a rigorous tender process to source a service provider that would provide the College with an Integrated Water Solution. Pure Care (Pty) Ltd were awarded the tender to render the integrated services which includes the overall Water Management as well as the construction of a Water Treatment Plant and Storage facilities with all related infrastructure services. The Water Treatment Plant and Storage facilities are located next to the Corlett Gate entrance and for all of our Saints family that have enter through this gate, the progress of this project is visible for all to see.
It is important that our Saints Community is also made aware of why so many trees needed to be removed during the project - here is a bit of an explanation from our resident St Stithians gardener, Pauline Dickson,
"Firstly, for histories sake - it has always been policy to only remove trees (particularly the alien invasive trees) - if they posed a health and safety concern, or if a building/project was planned for that site.
Over the past 45 years we have taken the blue gum and black Wattle forest back to accommodate development. With the Water project- it was essential to fell 20 Blue Gum trees as they are inherently an unstable species and are not deep rooted hence a chance of them falling was high. Damage to any of the tanks would result in major flooding between the project, small and big dams towards Girls Collage. Also, fill needed to be brought to site to create berms to protect the tanks and building from rain water. The berms divert any water to the natural watercourse. The lower site has been well protected so all runoff does not put the tanks at risk in any way. Once the berms and landscaping is completed, donation trees will be planted around the berms and the site will form a part of the rest of the beautiful campus landscape".
As an educational institution, St Stithians is committed to ensuring that our students are exposed to as many learning opportunities as possible. With this in mind, Pure Care (Pty) Ltd has committed to a Learning Centre alongside the Water Treatment Plant to provide Learners and other stakeholders access to knowledge regarding both the value and the science of water - one of our most valuable assets.
To view the project journey from start to finish as put together by Elfas Ncube of Pure Care, click here.
On the 17th March 2022, our St Stithians College Council enjoyed a tour of the recently completed facility which is now fully operational and supplying more than 70% of the Campus' water needs, only being topped up by municipal water supply when needed.
#InspiringExcellence #MakingAWorldOfDifference #PurposeInspired #PassionDriven
