Cape Town hotel saves through water recycling

SewTreat has completed the installation of a waste water-treatment plant at the One&Only Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront – which will result in a 40 kl saving in municipal water per day, and R114 000 per month reduction in water costs.

The Above Ground HDPE Waste Water Treatment will remove 40 kl of sewage per day from the hotel’s plumbing system and purify it to product water standards. The purified water will then be used in the hotel’s cooling towers.

“Even if dam levels rise following the winter rainfall, the long-term impact of the drought is that a high cost for water will remain in place for at least the next five years. This has potentially devastating consequences for the hospitality businesses in the Cape,” says SewTreat spokesperson, Theunis Coetzer.

“The current cost of potable water from the Cape Town Metro is R57 per 1 000 litres and the cost of sewage disposal is R38 per 1 000 litres. In One&Only’s case, annually they save R1,368 million from Phase 1 alone,” he explains.

Phase 2 involves the installation of a second plant that will be used to treat sewage to potable standards for reuse in swimming pools, general cleaning, washing machines and the flushing of toilets. It will see an additional 80 kl saving for the hotel every day.

After both phases are complete and operational, One&Only Cape Town will have cut potable water usage from 220 kl per day to just 40 kl per day, drawn from municipal lines.

According to Coetzer, this will cover the hotel’s water needs for potable water to be used for drinking water, food preparation and showers. All other water requirements will be met through recycling.

Coetzer says that the additional benefits for the One&Only include power usage and monthly operational costs of the plants. “The total power consumption of SewTreat’s plants is a mere six kilowatts, which is comparable to the power consumption of three swimming pool pumps. The consumable cost of the SewTreat system is just R2 500 per month.”

As part of the installation, SewTreat included an air-scrubbing system to ensure that there are absolutely no odour emissions from the plant.

“SewTreat will also be involved in the design and implementation of ‘Liveview’ platforms that the hotel wants to install, so that the water savings can be tracked in real time,” Coetzer says.