An artificial soccer pitch equipped with an innovative water harvesting system has been installed at a school in South Africa. This field not only captures and stores rainwater but also purifies rain- and borehole water, ensuring the provision of millions of litres of healthy drinking water to Kayamandi Primary School every year.
Stellenbosch, South Africa (24 January 2024) – Nestled near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province, a renowned tourism hub brimming with picturesque wine farms and scenic landscapes, Kayamandi stands as the second oldest township in South Africa.
Much like others in the region, this community grapples with the impact of severe weather patterns. The dry Summer months usher in drought, while the wet Winter months result in flooding exacerbated by inadequate drainage. The perpetual challenge is a delicate balance between too much and too little water.
The recent Blue Drop Report findings highlight the gravity of the water situation, which disclosed that nearly half of the country’s water is microbiologically unsafe for consumption. This alarming scenario is primarily attributed to mismanagement of facilities, poor governance, climate impact, and the strain imposed by burgeoning populations.
That is why we must explore innovative solutions that ensure widespread access to clean drinking water for communities in need.
Introducing GreenSource: a groundbreaking ‘Sports for Water’ innovation featuring a 40×20 soccer pitch designed to store and purify up to 17 million litres of rainwater and borehole water annually.
In partnership with the Open Play Foundation and its founding partners Remgro and Stellenbosch Football Club (SFC), a new GreenSource synthetic turf was installed at Kayamandi Primary School. Other funding partners are Vumatel, Hungry Lion and Global United Football Club, a non-profit from Germany.

[GreenSource collects rainwater and well water, and its high-tech ultrafiltration units can remove contamination to provide safe water to the community. Even more, GreenSource is a state-of-the-art multi-sport playground where children and the community can come together.]
This pioneering concept emerged when Dutch engineers visited South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. They observed the nation’s passion for soccer and recognised the concurrent challenge of severe water insecurity.
That is when Royal TenCate, Pentair, Drain Products, Saxion University, Ammon Foundation, and Royal Turf SA joined their efforts to find a sustainable solution for the drinking water problem in South Africa, prompting the birth of the innovative GreenSource solution, which is funded mainly by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mmapula Community Development, based in South Africa, is the main project implementing partner of GreenSource NPC, led by Corne Theunissen. Corne has been working with GreenSource for a few years and has installed just under 20 fields in South Africa already, impacting many schools across the country.
Official Opening
Kayamandi Primary School is one of four public schools in Kayamandi. It has 1,500 learners from Grades R to 7 and, according to research by Ranyaka Community Development, is located in the part of Kayamandi with the highest distribution of low-income households, the highest dwelling-unit density (mostly informal structures), and the highest population density per capita. Most of these households don’t have their own municipal taps and/or ablution facilities, having to share communal taps, toilets and washing areas.
This reality drew the Open Play Foundation to the school, making it an ideal beneficiary of a GreenSource Sports for Water system, formally unveiled on 29 November 2023.
Happiness Mdoda, the former principal of the school, was the one who brought this idea into action by working with the Open Play Foundation. Happiness then handed over the project to the current principal, Bella Witbooi, who oversaw the development of the soccer field.
However, they were sceptical when Open Play pitched the idea. Speaking at their first meeting on 13 March 2023, Mdoda said to Open Play CEO Marco Botha and their community programmes coordinator, “I will only believe you when I see you again. This has become the language of our time: the language of broken promises.” In a later conversation, Witbooi, who succeeded Mdoda in July, remarked, “When you become an educator, you make a promise to the child sitting in front of you. The promise of a better future.”
Making and keeping promises became the theme driving all interactions between Kayamandi Primary, Open Play Foundation and GreenSource.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Botha recalled these early conversations and added, “Cutting a ribbon does not represent the fulfilment of our promise. The infrastructure itself is also not the fulfilment of a promise. Cutting the ribbon today is just the start – the start of a promise that promises so much more – the promise of a better future.
“This project is merely a platform to work from to ensure that tomorrow is better than today and the following day will be even better than tomorrow. Together, we are making a commitment to maintain this platform, to look after it and to further develop it for the sake of this school, its learners, and the community at large. The real work starts now:”
Implementing innovative solutions like the GreenSource system marks a transformative step in addressing water challenges faced by communities in South Africa. It is also so inspiring to see sponsors get so involved!
Key to the success in delivering the Kayamandi project was a partnership in the truest sense of the word between GreenSource, Open Play and the school. Botha lauded GreenSource for its leadership, innovative attitude and ‘taking-care-of-business’ mindset.
“It has been a dream working with the Dutch, complemented by Corne and her team. On a fundamental level, they are driven by their passion for bringing about sustainable social change in communities with a dire need for the solutions GreenSource created. On a practical level, they execute projects with machine-like efficiency without losing their human touch. When challenges arise, they find solutions. When timelines are threatened, they double down in effort. They do what needs to be done until the system can deliver on the GreenSource promise, and that includes empowering the beneficiary community to confidently take ownership as soon as implementation has been concluded.”
Similarly, GreenSource found a project partner in Open Play Foundation willing to graft their way towards success.
“We are more than a sponsor – a tremendous amount of work and project management went into preparing the site and enabling the project, including getting government approval, facilitating community engagement and consultation, onboarding service providers, and drafting local workers. Our job was made easier by the sustained support we received from the school, and Bella Witbooi in particular, but we both knew what was at stake, and we prioritised creating an environment that would make it easy and enjoyable for GreenSource to work with us.”.” Marco Botha Open Play Foundation
Ongoing support
“Open Play and SFC will also remain involved at the school following the official opening ceremony – from activating the space to providing coaches and community facilitators, setting up local enterprises around water bottling, and continuous involvement in managing the water system, maintaining the pitch, and using the borehole responsibly and sustainably.
“Countless social infrastructure investments fail because of a ‘build it and they will come’ mindset. Activating spaces drives impact and not the mere existence of infrastructure. This truth is deeply ingrained in GreenSource’s project design methodology, and we owe it to them and the school to remain involved as a ‘supporting actor’.” Marco Botha
Spin-offs
What is so great about GreenSource is that the community has multiple spin-offs to benefit from. In addition to providing drinking water and a water-bottling social venture,, the GreenSource system has been designed to recapture water used to rinse the purification system (similar to a swimming pool pump’s backwash system). This water is collected in an underground wastewater tank, then pumped into a 10,000-litre water tank, and used to provide year-round irrigation water for the school’s vegetable garden.
“The school will use one-half of the garden to grow fresh produce for their feeding scheme, and the other half is currently being converted into 20 “home gardens”.- Marco Botha.
These 20 community beneficiaries are primarily the school’s unemployed mothers who can decide whether to keep produce for their own families or sell it to the community. Global United’s financial contribution as part of its Green Kicks programme made this part of the project possible – a new fence, irrigation pump, garden tools, soil treatment, raised garden beds for the beneficiaries, and seeds and seedlings
To ensure this initiative’s success, the Open Play Foundation has also partnered with an NGO called Love To Give, a dedicated local NGO to assist with the gardens. Love To Give will support the project with advice and access to a professional garden manager, and they will also be hosting a six-month development programme to boost employability.
Water Security
Understanding that South Africa grapples with the stark reality of being a water-stressed nation, contending with significant challenges in securing access to safe drinking water, it is clear why the sports field is such an important asset to Kayamandi.
Beyond providing millions of litres of clean drinking water, this initiative offers sustainable benefits. By combining sports and water innovation, we nurture a love for soccer and inspire minds to see what types of technologies and solutions are out there, especially among the youth in water-stressed regions.
The Executive Mayor of the Stellenbosch Local Municipality, Gesie van Deventer, mentioned that through steps like this, installing a world-class sporting facility that also provides water can ignite the potential hidden in so many kids who lack the opportunity and foundations to step into their potential.
The mayor used Siya Kolisi as an example of an inspiring grassroots story. Affording children a chance to have access to a sporting facility like this, which also has the benefit of providing water, will be what gives the children hope.
As we celebrate these innovative advancements, it becomes evident that the intersection of technology and environmental stewardship can pave the way for a more sustainable and water-secure future.
For more information on the installation, please contact Marco Botha from Open Play Foundation and Corne Theunissen from GreenSource NPC.