The Managing Director of aQuellé has personally driven thousands of litres of water down to Cape Town to kick off his campaign to assist the city.
Major South African bottled water brand aQuellé is lending a hand to the drought-stricken Western Cape ahead of Day Zero, with its managing director joining a convoy of trucks from the company’s KwaZulu-Natal headquarters to deliver an initial donation of approximately 30,000 litres of bottled water to the needy in Cape Town.
aQuellé MD Arno Stegen said he felt compelled to do something after the latest news hit that Day Zero in Cape Town was pegged for mid-April. The company is also working with its retail partners and NGOs to assess where and how they can help further.
“The drought in the Western Cape is of great concern to us,” said Stegen on Monday while en route after leaving the Kranskop plant on Sunday. “As a brand that is committed to being 100% for people, this is a crisis which we could not simply watch unfold from the sidelines.”
On Tuesday (30 January) the company delivered the donation to NGO, Water Shortage South Africa, which in turn will distribute the water to registered institutions in the Mother City. This is to aid the elderly and those who will not be able to stand in queues for their daily water quota.
“Together with the SA National Bottled Water Association (SANBWA) and other NGOs, we are identifying areas of vulnerability and will be assisting wherever possible,” said Stegen.
aQuellé products consist of natural spring water, sourced from renewable groundwater which is replenished on an ongoing basis. As a member of SANBWA, aQuellé adheres to the stringent environmental and quality measures to ensure sustainability.
There are two sources for the water: the main plant situated in Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, and a smaller secondary plant in Franschhoek which services the Western Cape and was set up to reduce the carbon footprint in transporting the product from the main plant. The sources are monitored on an ongoing basis and together with experts in the hydrogeological field, a sustainable extraction rate is determined.
However, given the current crisis in the Western Cape, the company is transporting an additional 804 097 litres of natural spring water from Kranskop this week in order to assist further.
The company has not increased the prices of its products since October 2016 and has passed discounts on to retailers so they could further pass savings on to the end consumers, which some were doing.
“Although there are significant costs involved in producing such a commodity [such as pumping and extraction costs, equipment, packaging, adherence to legal, health and safety regulations and so-forth], aQuellé has always endeavoured to offer an affordable but quality product,” he said.
The City of Cape Town needs approximately 500 million litres of water a day.
However, the BMI research shows that the South African water industry produced a total of 500 million litres during the year 2016, making it quite clear that the bottled water industry cannot solve the Western Cape crisis single-handedly.
“As a brand, aQuellé wants to be part of the solution and do all we can to assist in this unprecedented situation,” said Stegen.
“We wish everyone affected strength and hope as we pray for rain.”
by 