Walking the water, from source to tap

Published Nov 17, 2013

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Cape Town - They suffered blisters, bruises, spider bites, heat, rain and sandstorms, and even a broken ankle that required a medevac by helicopter.

But these weren’t enough to deter an enthusiastic group of about 25 hikers who undertook a four-day, 85km hike in the Greater Cape Town area a few weeks ago to highlight the critical conservation needs of the planet’s most precious commodity: life-sustaining water.

The group that included environmentalists, scientists, celebrities, comedians, musicians, journalists and representatives from many supporting companies and organisations, was taking part in the Journey of Water walk that literally traced the path of local water from source to tap.

Organised by conservation group WWF-SA, the walk started at the Berg River Dam in the Boland mountains between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch – the headwaters of the Berg, Breede and Eerste rivers – and followed a trail that also took in some river sections and other water courses like the Vygekraal stream in Athlone and even the city’s stormwater tunnels, as well as water infrastructure like wastewater treatment and recycling plants, a water pressure management facility, wetlands, and formal and informal settlements with their respective water demands.

It ended at the Castle of Good Hope in the city, and was celebrated that evening at a function in Kirstenbosch.

Dr Christine Colvin, a hydrogeologist who heads WWF-SA’s Freshwater Programmes, told the Cape Argus that even though she knew the route and was familiar with some of its elements, “I’ve definitely been to places that I’ve never seen before!”

She explained that the conservation group’s advertising agency had come up with the idea for the walk that had been organised as a campaign involving a “wonderfully mixed bag of people” and especially young people who had been “fantastic” and who had a broad reach through social media.

“These are not the kind of people we would normally reach (in campaigns) ourselves, and we’ve been encouraging them to tell their own stories about water, and it’s been an amazing adventure.”

The centrepiece of the walk had been to demonstrate where water comes from and the importance of nature in providing it, Colvin explained.

It had started at the Berg River Dam because of its unique construction that had included an engineering design to simulate natural environmental flow at a cost of R110-million.

“It’s an example of how South Africa is a world leader,” Colvin said.

“We’re more familiar with hard engineering infrastructure, now we need to get the government and people interested in ecological infrastructure as well, for our future water security.”

Last year, the government adopted a National Infrastructure Plan intended to transform South Africa’s economic landscape while simultaneously creating a significant number of new jobs and strengthening the delivery of basic services.

Under this plan, 18 Strategic Integrated Projects, known by their acronym “Sips”, have been developed and approved to support economic development and address service delivery in the poorest provinces.

Each Sip comprises a large number of specific infrastructure components and programmes.

Colvin said a motivation had been submitted to the government to create a 19thSip for future water security, based on ecological infrastructure.

“So a lot of this journey is to raise public awareness but also to get political buy-in for that.

“We have the ingenuity to overcome our water challenges, but we need public awareness and we need the political will.”

For WWF-SA, this was part of the overall vision of creating a low-carbon future of renewable, but nevertheless finite, natural resources like water, she added. - Cape Argus

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