Nedbank commits R9m to WWF water programme
Volume: Volume 2 Issue 7 |  Tuesday, 11 October 2011 |  Christy van der Merwe  |  0 comment

Image from savingwater.co.za

Banking giant Nedbank has committed R9-million over five years towards the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF’s) Water Balance programme, and would rehabilitate the priority catchment areas of the Enkangala Grasslands in Mpumalanga, and the Upper Umgeni in KwaZulu-Natal.

Through Nedbank’s investment in the programme, which clears water-sapping alien invasive plants and deals with issues threatening water supply, the WWF expects to rehabilitate some 450 ha of land, and release about 550 000 kl of water a year, explained WWF Biodiversity Unit manager Dr Deon Nel.

This was the largest investment by a corporation into the Water Balance programme to date.

Through the Water Balance pilot phase, the WWF rehabilitated some 1 200 ha of land in the Kouga catchment area in the Eastern Cape.

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown said that the company’s increased focus on water was a key part of its climate change response strategy, focussing on tackling climate change impacts as would be addressed at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties in Durban later this year.

South Africa is water scarce and the WWF estimated that around 98% of the country’s freshwater supplies are currently allocated. It said that demand would outstrip supply by 2025, jeopardising economic growth that was vital for ongoing socioeconomic development.

“Through our provision of water infrastructure funding, our 20-year involvement with The Green Trust and our own sustainability initiatives, we have invested in a range of water-related projects in line with our water stewardship programme, which addresses water scarcity, water quality and access to water. This new multimillion-rand investment raises our water stewardship efforts to a much higher and more impactful level,” added Brown.

Through its sustainability journey, in addition to becoming Africa’s first carbon-neutral financial organisation in 2010, Nedbank reduced its water consumption by 17% over two years. The Water Balance programme would allow Nedbank to move beyond merely reducing its water consumption, to making an investment back into water provisioning ecosystems.

Further, the programme complements government’s work in this area through its Working for Water (WfW) Programme. Further spinoffs included job creation and support for farmers who showed commitment to environmental sustainability.

Department of Environmental Affairs Natural Resource Management Programme head of operations Christo Marais said that resource management in South Africa had the potential to create some 230 000 jobs. This could be done through government initiatives such as WfW, Working for Land, Working on Fire, Working for Wetlands, Working for Energy and other programmes.

This would, however, require some R57-billion in funding. Marais said that government has allocated about R1.8-billion towards achieving the management of natural resources, and emphasised that there was “a huge gap” between what was needed and what government could afford. This highlighted the fact that private sector participation was required to optimise the current government investment.

Without adequate freshwater supplies, economic growth and social development would be seriously hampered.

“Water, energy and food security are inextricably linked and it is a pleasing addition to the programme that we can support the agriculture sector through this work too. We are enthusiastic about this next step in our sustainability journey and hope this encourages other corporates to play their role in making things happen,” stated Brown.