Water savvy wineries ensure water-wise OmmiBerg Harvest Celebration

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Annelize Stroebel, general manager of the Drakenstein Local Tourism Association, said: “All our event plans have included water-wise activations and we have liaised closely with the participating wineries to ensure that wine lovers can still enjoy this amazing celebration of the annual harvest while conserving water. After all, the members of the Paarl Wine Route have to deal with water restrictions on a daily basis and have all become really savvy at saving every drop possible."

Water savvy wineries

"Most of the farms have alternative water sources, which have been tapped into for a significant period already. Participants have adapted their activities to ensure that no water wastage will take place. Bottled water will be on sale at each venue as it has become the norm over the past couple of years,” mentions Stroebel.

Standard operating procedures on the wineries have included recycling, placing bricks in toilet cisterns and providing hand sanitisers to minimise hand washing. Several venues such as Boland Kelder, Perdeberg, Domaine Brahms and Ridgeback will be utilising portable toilets, which operates with chemical supply tanks of recycled water. Boland will be closing off their existing toilets for the duration of the event and an additional water car will be on standby.

Wineries such as Landskroon and Mellasat have cancelled the slip-n-slides that normally form part of their kids’ entertainment and replaced it with jumping castles. Mellasat will also be offering hand sanitisers for hand washing and will be using their usual grey water collection facility to cover operational uses. Water collected through this system is treated again and then used for irrigation of the vineyards.

Rhebokskloof and Windmeul have independent water supplies and festival visitors will not place any burden on potable water supplies. Domaine Brahms also has two boreholes that are being used exclusively for drinking water and food preparation.

“OmmiBerg celebrates the harvest, which is one of the most important periods on our agricultural calendar and as a single-day event, it does not place a significant burden on our water resources,” concludes Stroebel.