By Ella Smook
Metro Writer
Bottled water could soon be banished from council meetings and municipal buildings if one Cape Town city councillor has his way.
The councillor, Stuart Pringle, is set to table a motion at next week's meeting of the corporate services and human resources portfolio committee, that the purchase of bottled water by the city be prohibited.
In addition, he wants to stop the sale of bottled water at municipal buildings.
Pringle told the Cape Argus on Thursday that the motivation for the motion was to save money, to spare the environment and to put the city's money where its mouth was in terms of its assurances about water quality.
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"We are still going through economically depressed times and, although the budget for bottled water is minuscule by comparison with the city's overall budget, we are encouraging residents to tighten their belts and ought to set an example by not spending their money on this luxury," he said.
While a 500ml bottle of water cost about R6, the same amount of tap water cost less than half a cent.
The motion claimed that the city spent more than R125 000 on bottled water during the 2008/2009 financial year.
This accounted for almost 21 000 bottles of water at an estimated environmental cost of 9 000kg of fossil fuels being depleted and 6 000kg of greenhouse gas being emitted.
Since bottled water had a negative impact on the environment, it was incumbent on the city, as a responsible administration, to act to limit its environmental impact, Pringle said.
"Bottled water is a form of consumer manipulation which contributes significantly to environmental degradation."
Pringle recommended that the city immediately stop all procurement of bottled water and that it be banned from all official city meetings. The sale of bottled water at municipal premises should be phased out by October, he added.
Pringle's motion echoes the moves in 2009 by Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, who ordered her department to stop using bottled water.
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This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on July 30, 2010
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