Atterbury reduces water use by 250 000 ℓ a day across eight properties

19th March 2021 By: Schalk Burger - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Property investment and development company Atterbury's intensive water consumption reduction drive, using sustainable water management systems at eight of its buildings, has enabled it to use 250 000 ℓ less a day compared with historical consumption.

It achieved this through a combination of improved efficiencies, optimisation and augmentation with a mix of rainwater, groundwater and borehole water.

Atterbury now harvests rainwater from more than 15 000 m2 of roof area. Its water-saving projects include developments such as the Deloitte HQ Building at Waterfall City and Newtown Junction Shopping Centre in the heart of Johannesburg.

Atterbury appointed water management specialist company AQUAffection to design, install and commission sustainable water management systems at the eight buildings, to understand and manage demand.

Atterbury embarked on its water-saving journey by looking at how much water its buildings had used in the past, which is called a building’s design demand. It then implemented monitoring and efficiency measures to lower the water demand.

Based on the reduced demand, it also added alternative water sources to the municipal supply and designed backup systems.

“Water efficiency makes both environmental and economic sense for commercial property owners because it future-proofs property assets,” says Atterbury South Africa head of technical Wessel Boshoff.

“Efficiency measures typically involve finding and fixing leaks, eliminating unnecessary water waste from toilets and taps, and optimising irrigation systems. These measures are tracked and monitored with electronic monitoring devices. However, some buildings present the opportunity for even bigger positive impacts.”

The Deloitte headquarters building has an underground basement parking that experiences an influx of groundwater into basements sumps. In the past, this water would typically have been pumped out into the stormwater system to avoid flooding, but it was identified as a useful water source to augment aspects of the building’s overall water demand.

This water is now filtered and used for irrigation, flushing toilets and other purposes. Between 40 kℓ and 50 kℓ a day of groundwater is collected in the basement sumps and then pumped to a central raw water holding tank.

Rainwater collected from a 7 500 m2 catchment area on the building’s roof is added to this.

The Newtown Junction Shopping Centre was another great success where the daily water from council was reduced by 120 kℓ a day to less than 70 kℓ. Further, about 60 kℓ of the shopping centre’s daily water is now supplied from a groundwater sump.

This constitutes a reduction in daily demand of more than 60% and yearly water savings of more than 40-million litres. This has an enormous financial saving associated with it and also mitigates risk in times of water outages.

“South Africa has moved from being a water-stressed country to a water-scarce country, and we are currently the thirtieth driest country in the world. Predictions are that, by 2025, South Africa will form part of the ‘extreme scarcity’ category.

“Investing in water security is both responsible and also makes investment sense. At Atterbury, we are committed to doing our part in saving water to get #SurplusWater2025,” says Boshoff.