Waste not, want not
PARKVIEW – A resident accuses golf club of not adhering to water restrictions imposed by the City.
The Parkview Golf Club has been accused by residents of non-compliance to the City’s imposed level two water restrictions.
Amid pressure from the Department of Water and Sanitation to reduce water usage by 15 per cent, the City has enlisted the help of Metro police to ensure that residents are complying, and failure to do so will be met with hefty fines.
On 8 September during the 702 radio show, Afternoon Drive with Xolani Gwala, a weekly show that discusses each day’s top stories, a caller claimed that the Parkview Golf Club had sprinklers on throughout the day, disregarding the bylaw to reduce water usage. He expressed major concern at the blatant act.
Jerry Fraser, the club’s director refuted the claims, saying the club was in full compliance with restrictions. He said the sprinklers were on only to water the greens, not the whole golf course. He explained that the water used in the irrigation was purely from the Braamfontein Spruit which runs through the golf club.
“We are not watering, all that we are doing is cooling the greens down with these high temperatures,” explained Fraser.
“We have a light spray over the greens and that’s it. We pull our water from the spruit, and we have done so for 100 years.”
When asked about the frequency of watering the greens and course, Fraser said the club was not using municipal water, therefore, it watered or sprayed as frequently as needed. “It depends, we are talking in the region of between four to five million rand worth of club assets, so one has to look after one’s assets and that’s what we do, but the water is from the river,” said Fraser.
“We pump from the river into a reservoir and from there the system distributes throughout the whole golf course.”
Fraser raised concerns about the quality of the water, saying it was grey and murky and emphasised that the club only used water from the river for irrigation purposes. “[The City] knows about [the quality of water], we have had people inspect [the river] and the river infrastructure is collapsing,” he said.
“We have begged and pleaded and now we are going to have to try and do our own repairs, if we can.” He added that the club understood that there were areas of the river which it was not allowed to touch and that they would do repairs, as a club, where they could. He concluded by saying the water pumped from the river was regularly tested to prevent damage to the greens on the course.
“[The greens] cost a lot of money but we are purely pumping from the river.”
Also read:
Water restrictions: How much do you use?
You can top up your swimming pools
BREAKING NEWS: Tighter water restrictions in place
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