Overall city water use still exceeding restriction target

The City of Cape Town is calling on residents to intensify their efforts to save water. Overall usage of drinking water is currently approximately 10% higher than the required savings target to prevent drawing dams down to dangerous levels by the end of summer.

 

The City of Cape Town advises residents that overall water consumption since the imposition of Level 3 restrictions is still 10% above the savings target of 800 million litres per day. In order to protect our water resources, residents have been asked to keep their water consumption over the coming summer months in line with their consumption over winter.

 

“The start of the hot summer months generally carries with it a spike in water use as residents fill up their pools and use more water in their gardens. If we are to meet our targets, residents will need to cut these activities back to winter levels, or intensify their efforts to save in other areas to keep their consumption in line with how much they used during winter. Approximately 70% of water in Cape Town is used by residential customers, and as such these consumers will have the biggest influence on how secure our future water supplies are”Alderman Ernest SonnenbergCity Mayoral Committee Member: Utility Services

 

Residents who would like to save water could consider harvesting rainwater or installing a borehole or water-well provided they register these with the City. This investment will also result in savings for residents in the long-run.

In addition to adhering to restrictions, residents can also employ the following tips in their homes:

 

  • Ensure that washing machines or dishwashers have a full load before running them
  • Rinse dishes and vegetables in a basin of water rather than under a running tap, and reuse the water for pot plants or in the garden
  • Reuse rinse water for the next cycle of washing up
  • Thaw frozen foods in the fridge, at room temperature, in a basin of water, or in a microwave rather than placing them under running water
  • When using taps, don’t let the water run down the drain while waiting for the hot water or for the water to cool. Rather collect the water in a bottle
  • Close the tap when brushing your teeth
  • Plug the sink when shaving rather than rinsing your razor under running water
  • Shower rather than taking a bath – a half-filled bath uses 113 litres of water, while a five-minute shower uses about 56 litres
  • Install a water-saving showerhead, take shorter showers, don’t run the water at full force, and turn off the shower when soaping
  • Reuse bath water in your garden
  • Install a new water-saving toilet
  • Check if your toilet is leaking. Furthermore, residents can place a 2-litre bottle filled with sand into their cistern to reduce the amount of water used with each flush
  • Ensure that gardens do not require large amounts of water to maintain

 

For more information on water restrictions as well as a more exhaustive list of water savings suggestions, residents can visitwww.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater. The City will also be advising consumers of restrictions in an insert in their next municipal invoices. We encourage residents to familiarise themselves with these restrictions and display them prominently in their homes.

 

If residents would like to get clarity on any of the restrictions, they can also view the FAQ document at the link above. If this does not provide an explanation they need they can send an enquiry to water.restrictions@capetown.gov.za. Residents who would like to report contraventions by members of the public can do so by contacting the City’s call centre on 0860 103 089, sending an SMS to 31373, or sending an e-mail to contact.us@capetown.gov.za.

 

Click here to read and download the formal water restriction notice from the City of Cape Town

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2016

SRBIDAll members of the Salt River Business Improvement District NPC and all property owners of property situated inside the Salt River Business Improvement District SRA are invited to attend the Annual General Meetings to be held on 15 November 2016 at 16:00 at the Conference Venue, Double Tree by Hilton Cape Town, Upper East Side, 31 Brickfield Road, Woodstock where the following items will be discussed.

Please confirm your attendance / non-attendance by email to info@srbid.co.za.

Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Salt River Business Improvement District NPC.  This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial and industrial property within the Salt River Business Improvement District SRA, but they must be registered before 1 November 2016.

If you are not the registered owner of this property, kindly forward this notice to the registered owner immediately.

THE AGM DOCUMENTS ALONG WITH OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE ACCESSED BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO OUR AGM PAGE

Click here to go to the AGM 2016 page

For further information, AGM documentation and how to register go to www.srbid.co.za or e-mail info@srbid.co.za or call 083 255 7657

Give where it will make a difference

The Salt River BID team would like to urge business owners not to give recycled material to homeless people and in the same light, also help to discourage members of the public to give money to beggars. “In both cases, this humble gesture causes more harm than good”, says Gene Lorentz, manager of Geocentric Urban Management.

Gene says that by giving money to people begging, in whatever form, causes them to stay on the street without trying to find jobs and create better lives for themselves. It is easy to collect money or material which they can recycle for money and live of that for a day. The next day they do the same. It is just not sustainable.

He is a great supporter of the Give Responsible campaign, an initiative of the City of Cape Town and the Central City Improvement District. The campaign urges the public to rather give their money or donations to NGOs such as shelters of halfway houses that are helping provide people living on the streets with warm beds, hot meals, family reunification services, trauma therapy and the necessary life skills to help them built a new life for themselves. For more information on the Give Responsible Campaign, go to www.giveresponsibly.co.za

 

Businesses taking action

Over the past few months, a lot of the local businesses in the area are taking an active role in making the area a much neater place, such as repainting or restoring parts of their business premises. Businesses in the area are benefiting from this new exciting growth and positive attitude shown of late in the Salt River BID and the team thank the people responsible for improving the look and cleanliness of the area.

One such example is the upgrading of Fashion Fabrics at no 33 Salt River road which is being restored and window frames painted. Another firm, Strandfoam on the corner of Birkdale avenue and Victoria road, deployed their own maintenance team to restore their building. Window frames were painted and broken windows and window sun shades were replaced

Fourth member joins SRBID’s cleaning team

Although the SRBID cleaning and urban maintenance plan makes provision for only three urban management workers, Geocentric decided to employ a fourth worker at the company’s own cost to ensure that there is enough hands to cover the vast area and getting it into a better condition. This extra deployment coincided with the refinement of the urban cleaning plan for the SRBID which for now consists of four cleaning sectors, each with its own dedicated worker.

Gene Lorentz, CEO of Geocentric Urban Management, said with the 4th member of the urban maintenance team is another step in the right direction towards the overall improvement of the Salt River area.

The cleaning team takes on a huge array of tasks every day which includes clearing of illegal dumping and removal of illegal posters, general area cleaning and litter picking, dumping of collected waste at the designated drop-off facility and cleaning of public open spaces and parks (see photos below).

 

How can we help?

One of the priorities is to assist members of the public at large. The safety officers help with directions, vehicle break-downs, assist in medical emergencies or even finding lost children.  There is a high number of visually impaired persons in the area and you regularly see the SRBID’s public safety officers assisting such people, especially when there are crossing busy roads and intersections.

Speak to us

If you have anything you want to share with us in this newsletter, please write to us at:

info@srbid.co.za

You are our eyes and ears in this area and please feel free to contact us with your suggestions and ideas to improve our area.

SRBID contact information

BID manager: Shaun Phillips 084 722 5567 or shaun@geocentric.co.za]
Zonewatch control room: 086 15 15 800.

General enquiries: info@srbid.co.za
Website: www.srbid.co.za

Where to find us

SRBID offices: 97 Durham Road, Salt River.

We aim to have all businesses operating within the SRBID listed on the website directory. If you require any changes to be made to your listing or your business to be added please emailinfo@srbid.co.za with your name, the name of your company, your company’s address, company contact number and a brief description of what you manufacture, produce, provide as a service, etc. We will list your business free of charge as part of our campaign to promote the Salt River Business District.