Novus Holdings’s Paarl Media Cape says it spent R10m on water saving over the past year, meaning it would still be able to print You magazine and other titles if Cape Town taps run dry.
PMC, which operates in Milnerton, Cape Town, was reducing its reliance on municipal water through a waste-water treatment pilot project and other initiatives, said MD Kelvin Pillay.
"We have installed two new boreholes. With that comes a full waste-water treatment plant which I believe is the first of its kind in the printing industry," Pillay said. "This is a pilot project for us. We hope that other businesses are able to learn from us." The company is one of many to have announced contingency plans for the water crisis in the Western Cape.
Netcare CEO Richard Friedland said recently that the private-hospital group was investing in desalination technology and it was also conducting a feasibility study on reusing sewage water. Paarl Media, which also printed Drum, Cosmopolitan and Fresh Living, titles as well as retail inserts, had spent R8m on the waste-water treatment system and R2m on other water-saving initiatives since early 2017, Pillay said.
Printing is a water-intensive, industry as water is used to recover solvents and generate steam, among many other applications. Apart from the waste-water facility, Paarl Media had installed water-saving devices and a filtration system at its two biggest presses, with the latter yielding "a saving of up to 7,000l each month through recycling".
Another initiative to use steam at its solvent-recovery plant had saved "up to 1,200kl each month", said Pillay. "Overall, the plant has reduced consumption by over 20%, including a saving of up to 80% on some processes."
Day Zero – the day when taps will run dry in Cape Town – would not hamper production as Paarl Media could now move "completely off-grid" in terms of water use, said Pillay said.
This was thanks to the installation of a new water reservoir, the addition of three 20kl water tanks, and the waste-water treatment plant.
Pillay said that the company’s Paarl Labels unit would provide the labels for the bottles of water that South African Breweries was donating to the province.
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