According to BMI Foodpack census figures, the Bottled
Water Industry in South Africa produced and sold 280
million litres during the season 2006/2007. This converts
to 8.9 L/sec (litre per second is a common unit of water
supply volume used by the Groundwater and Water-supply
Industry). Bottled water plants use between 1.5 to 2.5
litres of water to produce 1 litre of bottled product, and
the estimated average is 2 litres used. Thus at present
the total usage of water by the South African bottled
water industry is 17.8 L/sec for the year. The estimated
monetary turnover is R1 738 million, and the industry has
1474 employees in direct employment.
In order to put this amount of water into perspective two
examples are used for comparison, namely golf courses, and
irrigation farming.
For a golf course the water usage is usually calculated at
1 L/sec per hole. This is a normal golf course without the
gated villages usually associated with many recent golf
course developments. Thus a normal 18 hole golf course
will use 18 L/sec, a touch more than the total bottled
water industry in South Africa. Such a normal golf course
including the club-house, will employ 20 to 30 persons and
have an annual turnover, including the club-house, of less
than R40 million.
The second example is irrigation farming of Lucerne. In a
low rainfall area, 30 hectares of Lucerne requires about
23 L/sec, and in a wetter area the requirement is 18
L/sec, ie about the same as the current water usage by
water bottlers in South Africa. Over a year this
irrigation will produce about 600 tons of Lucerne, which
can be used to feed about 275 milk-cows, producing about 2
500 000 litres of milk, which equates to an annual
turnover of about R20 million. The total labour employed
by such a farming operation will be about 20 to 30 persons
in direct employment.
These comparisons serve to show that using water directly
for satisfying thirst via bottled water is both
employment-wise and finance-wise one of the most efficient
uses of water.
Water Stewardship is a recent concept that high
volume water users can take both responsibility for and
credit for responsible water management, right across the
water usage cycle. For example the following is the
statement made by the Government of British Colombia,
Canada on their website: “Water stewardship is an ethic by
which British Columbians care for, and are responsible
for, the sustainability of our water resource and aquatic
ecosystems. Water stewardship places a priority on
partnerships and capacity building.
SANBWA is embarking on examining how water stewardship can
be applied by our members and how this concept can be
incorporated into the regular audits of our member’s
bottling plant. Our aim is to ensure that we continue to
regard our water resource with the utmost respect, and to
understand how this respect can be evaluated and
quantified.
Our existing requirement for bottlers of Natural Water is
that a report is provided by a qualified Hydrogeologist (a
geologist who has specialized in the field of groundwater)
in which the water resource is properly described, and
also that any existing, if any, polluting activities in
the regional area are noted. The hydrogeologist is
required to certify that the resource supply the bottling
plant is free from any pollution potential. This can be
regarded as a first step on the path of water stewardship.
Water Footprint is another recent concept that
evaluates the amount of water needed to produce an item of
consumption, for example the production of one kilogram of
beef requires 16 000 litres of water, to produce 1 kg of
maize requires 900 litres of water, to produce one cup of
coffee we need 140 litres of water, and to produce 1 sheet
of A4 paper requires 10 litres of water. Despite extensive
research we have not been able to find the amount of water
required to produce 1 litre of water. As can be seen in
the section above, the bottled water industry will have
relatively small water footprint in comparison to the
example of golf course and milk production. The important
point is that in order to follow the precepts of water
stewardship, one of the first tasks is to identify the
water footprint, identify the areas where water is used,
and then to set targets of reduction. For further
information see
http://www.waterfootprint.org/
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