RAND WATER ANNUAL REPORT 2023

REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL CONTRAVENTIONS

Responding to Climate Change Rand Water regards climate change as one of the greatest threats to its ability to provide sustainable, uninterrupted world class potable water at an affordable cost to its customers. In response to climate change challenges, we have implemented the following projects and programmes: • Planting and replacing of trees: Rand Water has a nursery on its Zwartkopjes site that propagates, purchases and distributes plants to all Rand Water sites. In the 2022/23 Financial Year, a total of 2 489 plants were planted at various Rand Water sites. • The Green building initiative has been another aspect included as part of the climate change strategy endeavours in Rand Water. The aim of the green building initiative will ensure that selected large buildings and new buildings of Rand Water will be built and operated in an environmentally friendly manner. • Rain Harvesting Project: The potential of Rainwater harvesting has been investigated in 2016 and it was found that the initiative will be useful for both climate change and carbon footprint reduction thereby recycling water from the roofs and parking areas. The project involves construction of a water storage facility on site. Stored water will then be circulated back for non-potable use. In the 2022/23 Financial Year, specifications were finalised and Rand water is looking at the appointment of a construction service provider. • Waste Reduction and Recycling initiative has been running at Rand Water. Employees are encouraged to reduce the use of papers by only printing when necessary. These measures are reducing wastage in the amount of paper used. • Re-greening of servitudes after pipeline constructions: 89 190m 2 of land impacted by Rand Water’s pipeline construction was revegetated through grass seeding and instant lawn installation in this year.

Rand Water has seen a significant decline in environmental incidents. This is due to our emphasis on protecting the environment for future generations while also meeting our legal obligation in complying to environmental legislations. For the 2022/23 Financial Year, 30 environmental incidents were recorded, 21 of which were minor in nature, eight (8) of which were major in nature, and one (1) of which was reportable to external authorities. Our Environmental Management System (ISO 14001:2015) was maintained in the last audit conducted by SABS. The graph below depicts Rand Water’s environmental performance in the last Financial Year: Environmental Incidents

1

8

21

c Minor c Major c Reportable

Figure 26: Environmental Incidents Rand Water manages its safety in line with the following legislation, policies and procedures: • Occupational Health and Safety Act and Construction Regulations • Contractor Management Procedure • Contractor Induction Procedure • Contraction Specifications • SHE File Requirements • Appointment of Competent Contractors

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