Case Study: Water Savings on Government Sites in Gauteng, South Africa

The Department of Public Works (Head Office, Pretoria) awarded a performance contract tender for energy and water savings to SEM in Dec. 1999. We started working on the contract in Jan. 2000. The sites are in the Johannesburg region, south of Midrand. Within the first year the potential of water savings already became clear. The monetary value of the water savings turned out to be 80% of the savings. The average water savings on 24 sites is close to 50%, compared to the energy savings that is 20%. Some sites run at 10% of its original water consumption. The total water saving per month on the 24 sites is about 350 000 m³ of water, which represents about 0.35% of water supplied by Rand Water. The paper will point out the basic strategy that was followed on the relevant sites to achieve these savings. Some statistics will be given and graphs of water consumption to indicate the reduction in consumption. The 24 sites are divided in four categories, which are offices, military bases, prisons and police stations. The importance of continuous monitoring and continuous maintenance to maintain the low level of consumption, is high lighted. The paper proves that the potential for water savings in general is between 10 and 90%.