Twenty innovative sustainable drinking water systems called ‘GreenSource. Sports for Water’, produced using the high-grade synthetic turf and geotextiles by TenCate, will be installed in South Africa, with The Advanced Materials Manufacturing Oost-Nederland (AMMON) foundation monitoring the innovation.

The Sustainable Water Fund of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs has commissioned Pentair, TenCate and Wavin jointly to work on the project that is to be realised in the South African province of North West, with the support of the local contractors, such as the Saxion University of Applied Sciences and Mmapula Community Development.

The water treatment part of this integrated system will be produced by Pentair, the manufacturer of water filters and pump systems. The water buffering and pipe systems will be manufactured by Wavin, which provides pipe systems for hot and cold tap water, soil and waste, and storm water management.

Water management

Many periods of severe drought have persuaded the provincial government in the north-west of South Africa and the South African Water Research Commission to acquire the water management for both agriculture and drinking water, as the groundwater is becoming increasingly polluted, for example through intensive mining, industrial activities and unclean irrigation of agriculture.

With the new project, the provincial South African government also aims to increase the well-being of the local population by building more sports facilities near to schools. According to AMMON, this will be possible with the GreenSource system, which not only provides sustainable water buffering, filtration and distribution, but also allows multi-sports activities on synthetic turf that is available for use all year round.

Another major challenge in water management is the ability to grow sufficient healthy food to feed a growing population and at the same time to satisfy the many other demands made on limited water resources. By supporting the project, the Sustainable Water Fund of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs aims to improve the safety and security of water supplies in developing countries.

GreenSource. Sports for Water

The GreenSource project is designed to provide safe water storage that makes possible a continuous clean and safe water supply. The filtered water can be used for drinking, irrigation or for sanitary purposes, according to AMMON foundation. Rainwater, river water and groundwater can all be stored in the non-clean water tanks.

Viruses and bacteria said to be removed by means of membrane technology. The treated water will be stored in clean-water tanks and used for drinking water, the irrigation of agricultural crops and for spraying the synthetic turf sports pitch. The system can provide approximately 50 litres a minute of filtered, safe drinking water, the foundation reports.

When it is used for 16 hours a day, it is said to be able to filter approximately 50,000 litres a day, or about 17 million litres annually.

www.ammon-innovation.com