South Africa: Cape Town up for water conservation award

25 novembre 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) - Cape Town, 25 nov. - The City of Cape Town has beenannounced as one of three finalists around the world for itswater conservation and water demand management (WCWDM)programme, Cape Town's mayor Patricia de Lille said today. Theaward in the adaptation category in the C40 Cities Award, is aninitiative of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, anetwork of the world's leading cities that fight to combatclimate change. The group gives recognition to the successes ofcities demonstrating world-leading policies and programmes thatreduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability. "It is a tremendous honour for Cape Town to be part of theC40 Cities Group and to be listed as a finalist in the C40Awards," said de Lille. "We are also extremely proud to beranked in the group of cities actively addressing climatechange and demonstrating a commitment to a future that is moreenergy secure, resource efficient and resilient to the effectsof climate change. "Our comprehensive WCWDM programme is anexample of the manner in which cities are in a unique positionto be able to drive initiatives on the ground that steer asustainable framework." The WCWDM programme is an initiativethat has, through careful management, ingenuity and consumereducation, managed to stabilise the demand on the Western Capeprovince's water supply system, the mayor said. The programme,which the City started in 2007, has seen the annual waterdemand in the Western Cape grow at 2.3% from the near 4%recorded just before 2011. As a result, the City hasestablished itself as the national leader in reducing waterdemand and losses in South Africa. The City has achieved watersavings of approximately 30% - this despite the more than 30%increase in the population in Cape Town since 2001. Cape Townwas also announced as one of 10 cities worldwide to meet theplanning and reporting requirements of the Compact of Mayors, acoalition of city leaders that was established at theInternational Climate Week in New York in September to addressclimate change. This saw Cape Town become the first Africancity to be "Compact-compliant" and to be recognised as a globalleader in addressing global change. The 2015 C40 Cities Awardswill take place on 3 December in Paris, France, to coincidewith the COP21 climate conference. (AGI).