chapter 20: Water and Oude Molen – a case study in the illusion of abundance
open, green spaces in this scenario have been designed in a way that it complements and connects to the whole of the TRUP. Not only will the historic Manor House be restored as a cultural hub or centre, but space surrounding the Manor House has been made available to be shared by indigenous groups such as the Khoisan and amaXhosa. There are a number of technical conditions to be taken into account in terms of efficient and renewable resource usage: the Oude Molen project should not “connect up”, to the grid waste treatment system. The Athlone sewerage works are running at full capacity and to connect to the grid system would cost in the region of R70m. In this scenario this does not constitute an insurmountable problem. A combination of on-site waste treatment systems and technologies, such as a biodigester, biolytix and vertically constructed wetland, have been included to answer the challenge of “zero waste”. Equally, with the predicted increase in both demand for and costs of water and energy resources and services in future, the Oude Molen project cannot assume a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. In this scenario all possibilities of rainwater harvesting and saving as well as solar and wind energy generation have been factored into planning for a future of reducing Oude Molen’s dependency on the water and electricity grid systems to an absolute minimum. Unlocking this potential is dependent on recognising the following: The National Water Resource Strategy has been unable to have a matching implementation effect at the municipal scale. Attitudes of policy makers, planners, and investors are notoriously rooted in the logic of “no return, no investment”. Environmental sanitation is considered an investment dead-end, an environmental rather an economic viability issue. Significant energy is required to deliver water and to process waste. So the corollary applies – change can bring significant energy savings. There are real opportunity costs in ignoring the energy and other resources in the waste, resources that current techniques and designs render less accessible through wholesale collection from highly differentiated sources and massive dilution. Investing in wastewater treatment must be seen as economically and financially advantageous, much like urban water supply. Attitudes, technologies, and costs are a dominant part of the complex set of causes of this problematic situation. Influencing and persuasion of these constituencies has to be ramped up aggressively. There is enough innovation, experimentation, good science and technology and concrete examples to implement sustainable neighborhood practices with some fundamentally different foundation concepts: • Modular installations instead of (ie or as adjuncts to) city wide trunk and branch systems in notserved (and refurbishment) areas. • Cascading water use from white to gray. The products and technology exist for transforming effluent into reusable inputs for a range of needs. Waste must be seen as input into new and existing value chains. • Acceptance of a mosaic of methods and choices within a single administration or institutional framework; adoption of the idea of “getting started” with an initial module, and incremental implementation (as opposed to waiting until finance is available for the conventional full scope model). • Collection and piping systems that allow “like sewage/wastewater” to be collected and treated (which could opens doors to ecosystem, small scale and biological methods), among other new high tech, even energy harvesting methods. • Treatment which corresponds to the next use of the water, whether aquifer or river recharge, agricultural or industrial use. “Just clean enough”, “Cascading uses for water” and “Fit for next use” are concepts that could revolutionise this field. Nutrients can be saved, health better protected and costs cut deeply. A Technology Inventory that presents a matrix of scalable choices for developers that will focus on least life cycle cost (in terms of money, energy, and water) – the decision to clean sufficiently, not more. 146
the sUSTAINABLE Water Resource HANDBOOK