Cape Town: Mining indaba delegates given lesson on keeping their hands clean: Diamonds are forever but not fresh water

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Cape Town: Mining indaba delegates given lesson on keeping their hands clean: Diamonds are forever but not fresh water

3:52 CAT | 05 Feb 2018

Police patrol a canal near the Cape Town International Convention Centre December 3, 2009. The final draw, involving the 32 teams that qualified for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, takes place on Friday evening at the convention centre and will see 1,000 police deployed to protect dignitaries. Soccer stars such as David Beckham are expected to attend. REUTERS/Rogan Ward (SOUTH AFRICA SPORT SOCCER) - RTXREUC

The Cape Town International Convention Centre. Picture: Reuters

Diamonds are forever‚ but not fresh water, which is in short supply at this year’s mining indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

Delegates arriving on Monday at the country’s biggest mining talk-shop had to wash up with hand sanitiser and are being offered biodegradable crockery to reduce their water “footprint”.

On Monday, the convention centre’s CEO, Julie-May Ellingson, confirmed several new measures aimed at water saving at all CTICC events. Even bottled water was being imported from suppliers outside the Western Cape‚ Ellingson said.

“In addition‚ our water account shows the CTICC has already recorded a 42% saving in water consumption for the first quarter of its current financial year compared to the same period last year. Indeed‚ our rain water and grey water re-use system has been very effective in reducing our use of municipal water over the past year‚” she said.

All basins for hand-washing only offer hand sanitiser, and linen napkins have been replaced with high-quality disposable napkins to “reduce laundry loads”.

Ellingson said CTICC’s water supply would not be affected in the unlikely event of Day Zero — when the city plans to cut supply to a large proportion of urban households — because the central business district is one of the areas excluded from Day Zero cut-offs.

“As such‚ our doors will remain open and we will continue to host all our events. The only area that might be affected is air-conditioning‚ which requires relatively large amounts of potable water. As a purpose-built convention centre we can‚ however‚ assure fresh air is circulated throughout all venues‚” she said.

Source: Business Live