Clean water for Zandspruit

Zandspruit informal settlement’s water need is growing and the Northcliff Rotary Club has taken matters into their own hands.

With the support of The Rotary Foundation, the club  has began addressing the problem and first up is cleaning a septic tank at the Emthonjeni Community Centre.

According to managing director of Emthonjeni Community Centre, Louise Rivett, this will improve up to 70 000 people’s lives in Zandspruit.

“Clean water is the foundation of all sustainable development; this initiative will contribute to Emthonjeni’s vision of bringing sustainable change to the community of Zandspruit.”

The rotary club shares this sentiment. “Our partnership between The Rotary Clubs of Sevenoaks, Chislehurst and Ashford in the UK and Helderberg Sunrise in the Western Cape, focuses on the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation for the sustainable management of water as a resource. We hope to solve the existing sewage problem, thereby removing a health hazard and enabling the utilisation of the resultant recycled domestic water for toilet flushing and the irrigation of the sports field and vegetable garden. This in turn will free up borehole water for drinking and kitchen use, reducing reliance on expensive municipal water,” president of Northcliff’s Rotary Club Hans Mostert said.

“The final phase of the project will be to establish a sustainable food garden to feed the centre and generate an income for it by focusing on training and education to manage the water supply, vegetable gardens and ensure skills transfers. This is key to sustainability in the medium and long term,” Mostert said.

The Northcliff Rotary Club has appointed Calcamite Sanitary Services as the service provider to the Zandspruit Emthonjeni Water and Sanitation Project. Scientific Roots will provide training and education to establish the vegetable garden in the final phase of the project. A member of Northcliff Rotary Club, Ansie Hibberd, will monitor the operations. “This has been a goal of mine for the past 18 months. When everything is finished I would like to have a picnic with the children on the grass,” she said.