While the rest of the country battles a drought a local free range dairy continues to forge ahead to cement its place as the Greenest Dairy in the Eastern Cape, with an R8 million investment.

As users of between 2- to 300 000 litres of water per day, primarily used to clean the factory and production lines, crates and vehicles, dairies are one of the largest consumers of water.

According to Sundale Free Range Dairy CEO Pierre van Rensburg, “South Africa is a water stressed country and the deepening water crisis is becoming as pressing as the supply of electricity, if not more so.

“Owing to the nature of the business, it is critically important for us to find more efficient ways in which to use this scarce resource for the long term sustainability of operations by investing in treating our water so that it is up to SABS standards of potable water.”

Van Rensburg went on to say “we won’t be using the recycled water in our products although it meets the requirements for purified water. We will only be using it for cleaning applications.”

The project commenced when Sundale built in 2010 and installed a Memcon system where water could be put back into the municipal system through storm water drains.

They are now in the final stages of the recycling plant which is ozone and UV treatment works. The R8 million investments will allow Sundale to lead the pack in efficiency, further cementing their green status.