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A STRATEGY to protect the
environment is on the cards at Joburg Water, which is drawing up an
Environmental Management System.
Treatment works are a priority for Joburg Water
J
OBURG WATER is drawing up a dynamic strategy to protect people’s right to live in a healthy environment. It will encourage sound environmental practices and ensure that Joburg is protected from water pollution and ecological damage.
“Johannesburg Water [will] continue to protect the rights of every resident of this city,” said Gerald Themba Dumas, the company’s managing director. The utility is responsible for water and sanitation services within the metro, and is committed to protecting the environment.
Through its Environmental Management System (EMS) plan, it aims to improve its workers’ health and safety, boost the City’s public image, increase compliance with environmental legislation, and decrease environmental problems, among other interventions.
“An EMS is a system focused on the environment … It will go further to complement and enhance the organisation’s existing commitment to environmental protection,” Dumas noted, adding that the utility acknowledged its role in the protection of the environment.
Through its EMS, Joburg Water would identify and effectively manage the negative environmental repercussions associated with its operations, he said. “It is a mechanism to achieve and demonstrate sound environmental management practices and manage environmental risks based on the internationally recognised and practised ISO 14001 standards.”
The International Organisation for Standardisation, or ISO, regulates standards internationally. Its ISO 14001 is reserved for environmental management systems.
Dumas said the EMS was part of his company’s efforts to become the leading water utility in the country, one which was committed to the sustainability of the environment while delivering water and sanitation services. “This action aims at demonstrating [Joburg Water’s] commitment to the future sustainability of the environment.”
It would draw Joburg Water’s attention to environmental issues, placing them in the mainstream of corporate decision-making.
Dumas said the plan would be sustainable, while hinting that it should ensure that the use of resources today did not restrict their use by future generations. “It will involve the simultaneous improvement of the economy, the environment, and the wellbeing of people.”
The EMS would be divided into five key components, comprising of an environmental policy statement, a planning phase, an implementation and operational phase where responsibilities were defined, a checking phase aimed at measuring and monitoring its performance, and a senior management review phase.
Joburg Water was a large organisation, Dumas added; the first round of the EMS would be targeted at four key divisions.
Waste water treatment works, sludge handling and spillages had been identified as priorities, as had sewer blockages and pump stations. Construction and urgent projects would also be attended to during the first round of the EMS.
“We should all unite in prescribing to the environmental principles and best practices advocated by this system.”
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