Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA), in partnership with the Department Water and Sanitation (DWS), has launched a series of off-grid, solar-powered groundwater harvesting and treatment projects in Gqeberha to pump, treat, store and distribute clean water to communities distressed by the ongoing drought.

The Coke Ville projects, launched across Nelson Mandela Bay, comprise nine turnkey borehole systems that will be able to supply about 90-million litres of water a year under full capacity at no cost to the residents of the communities where they are located.

CCBSA is deploying the systems to the worst-affected areas within the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, including Walmer, Lorraine and Kariega.

“The drought in Nelson Mandela Bay, as we saw in Cape Town in 2017/18, has again brought home how fragile our world is and how susceptible we are to environmental occurrences such as drought, particularly in a water-stressed nation such as ours,” says Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu.

“We also realise that, in order to overcome such challenges, we need behavioural change at individual, as well as a global level.”

Mchunu highlights the critical need for all stakeholders to work together, from the different levels of government to the corporate sector, relief and aid organisations and communities, to develop solutions.

“The launch of the Coke Ville systems shows what can be achieved. We are deeply grateful to CCBSA for their continued commitment at a time such as [now].”

“As part of building resilient communities, we have deployed a number of Coke Ville projects to pump, treat, store and distribute clean water in periurban and rural communities. Since its inception in 2020, the project has distributed over 300-million litres of water in Limpopo, Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal,” says CCBSA public affairs, communications and sustainability director Nozicelo Ngcobo.

This year, the company is rolling out 12 new systems, including the nine in the Gqeberha area.

Each Coke Ville features a tank stand, storage tanks, a lockable manhole for a pump, an alarm system for security, palisade fencing around the tank stand and solar panels with a lockable gate.

The taps are located outside the system to allow communities to collect water at their convenience.

CCBSA is working with the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality and other key stakeholders, including Gift of the Givers, to assist vulnerable and distressed communities.

Besides the Coke Ville systems, CCBSA has, in recent months, also arranged for the delivery of water to key points in the metropolitan area and donated twenty 5 000 ℓ water tanks, which were placed at identified water collection points around the city as part of the municipality’s response plan. The company has also distributed 500 water wheelers throughout the Coke Ville project locations, particularly to assist the elderly or households with persons with disabilities, to aid with water collection and storage.

Ngcobo is confident that Day Zero can be averted in Nelson Mandela Bay; however, this will require a collective effort and radical changes in user behaviour.

“This is possible through partnerships and collaboration.

“As a company that uses water as one of its key ingredients, we are very conscious of the importance of preserving water as we operate in a water-scarce country also prone to droughts. Our Water Stewardship Strategy and efforts are reflected in how we approach the preservation of this valuable resource,” Ngcobo says.

“We live in a water-stressed country, and we need to actively reduce unnecessary wastage and alter consumption patterns, and education to build awareness is an important part of this exercise.”