The initial first phase of a new wastewater treatment plant installed at the One&Only Cape Town hotel is expected to deliver savings of 40 000 ℓ/d in potable municipal-treated water that was previously used to run the cooling towers and a R114 000-a-month reduction in water costs.

Biological wastewater treatment solutions specialist SewTreat completed the installation of the above-ground high-density polyethylene wastewater plant to complement the numerous water-saving measures already implemented at the One&Only resort.

“Looking at the current costs of municipal water and sewage treatment in Cape Town versus the savings that SewTreat’s plant will achieve for the One&Only, it is clear that recycling wastewater is an affordable and viable way for hotels in this region to save both water and money,” says SewTreat spokesperson Theunis Coetzer.

He notes that the current cost of potable water sourced from the Cape Town Metropolitan is R57 per 1 000 ℓ and the cost of sewage disposal is R38.

“Even if dam levels rise following the winter rainfall, the long-term impact of the drought is that a high cost for water will remain in place for at least the next five years. This has potentially devastating consequences for hospitality businesses in the Cape,” he comments,

Phase 1 will save the hotel R3 800 a day, or R114 000 a month, equating to a yearly savings of R1.36-million.

Phase 2 involves the installation of a second plant to treat sewage to potable standards for reuse in swimming pools, and for general cleaning, washing machines and the flushing of toilets.

The second phase of the project will result in an additional 80 000 ℓ/d saving for the hotel, bringing total monetary savings from both plants to R4.1-million a year.

The operations of both plants will cut One&Only Cape Town’s municipal potable water use from 220 000 ℓ/d to just 40 000 ℓ/d.

The hotel will ultimately draw only 15% of its water needs from Cape Town’s municipal potable water to be used for drinking, food preparation and showers, while all other water requirements, such as cooling tower water, pool filling, irrigation, car washes, general cleaning and laundry will be met through recycling.

Coetzer adds that the One&Only will see a full return on investment for the project within eight months, with the timeframe for complete installation and operation of both phases being eight weeks.

“The One&Only had previously considered desalination, but it proved to be three times more expensive than the SewTreat plant in terms of total installation costs, ongoing maintenance and operation and power use,” he says.

The total power consumption of SewTreat’s plants is 6 kW, with the monthly consumable cost R2 500 for the system.

As part of the installation, SewTreat included an air scrubbing system to ensure odourless emissions from the plant.