Cape Town - A water project which can save between 15 to 35 percent of a school's water bill is to be extended to ten more schools in Cape Town.
The project, which involves fitting water efficient adaptors onto taps, showers and toilets at schools and hostels, will be extended to ten other schools with high water consumption in Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha.
Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC, Pierre Uys said promising results were achieved at the first three schools which have hostels, namely Laingsburg High School, Teske Primary School in Beaufort West and Bridgton Secondary School in Oudtshoorn, where the device was installed.
After a year the schools were saving 15 to 35 percents of their water, based on average figures for the year preceding the fitting of adaptors to the year following the intervention.
Mr Uys said the cost of such fittings could be recovered from savings within a few months to two years. The savings varied between R1 270 to R6 100 per year.
The project forms part of the overall programme by the department, which aims at reducing the carbon footprint of the province through various efforts to reduce waste and be energy and water efficient.
"We all have to learn to adapt our ways and conserve as much as possible in order for more people to be sustained for longer on our available resources.
"Without water conservation now, the water crisis in the already drier parts of the Western Cape is likely to increase in the future," he said.
Water is one of the most vulnerable resources in the province under accelerated climate change and due to strong demand as a result of growth. Mr Uys called on all people to join hands in saving resources to save the planet.
