Carving out a more Resilient World

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SAB is tackling sustainability at a fundamental level with activities and programmes that form part of its ongoing Prosper inititiave. These programs take place on the ground, with real people facing and overcoming exceptional challenges.

Part of building a Resilient World for future generations is empowering communities, such as the people of Tshirunzini, located 70km from Thohoyandou in . The village relied on one borehole equipped with a diesel driven mono-pump and two 10 000 litre storage tanks with one communal tap for their water supply.

The 3000, mostly unemployed, villagers of Tshirunzini have no municipal supply of running water and have until recently relied on pooling their limited finances for diesel to pump water into the two local tanks.

Hearing of the village’s plight from the Royal Council of Tshikundamalema, SAB invested in equipping a second borehole and erecting a galvanised pressed steel water reservoir which can hold 108 000 liters of fresh drinking water, all powered by solar energy.

Today, the community has more than 12 new taps around the village and access to free, clean, running water every day. Villagers no longer need to dig deep into their pockets as the new water supply system operates on natural energy, ensuring the sustainability of the intervention.

While getting involved with projects like this, SAB itself is also on track to meet its world-class 2020 water saving objective of cutting water consumption down to three litres for every litre of beer, and with SAB’s added involvement with local communities like Tshirunzini, the culture of sustainable energy consumption can only grow.

Making a real change in the long run can often rely on making small changes in the day-to-day way that we live our lives. This mantra extends from general consumers all the way through to big business. Water conservation has never been more topical, never more serious, and it is the responsibility of all South Africans to step up their own sustainabiliy programs to lessen the demands on our strained natural resources.

In our own daily lives, we should aim to:

  • Re-use water where possible.
  • Limit the amount of water that we use for daily tasks like bathing and washing clothes.
  • Collect rainwater for use in washing cars and watering plants.

With our various industries putting conservation systems in place, and with ordinary South Africans following just these simple tips, we’ll be one step closer to truly building a more Resilient World.