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Dairies water saving improves 40%

Dairy is a water intensive industry. But Windhoek needs its milk, therefore the only local milk producer, Namibia Dairies, pledged its commitment to support the City of Windhoek and all Windhoek residents by ensuring that every possible drop of water is saved when they produce the city’s favourite milk and milk derivatives.
Namibia Dairies’ Head: Technical, Pieter van Wyk said the Dairies have made remarkable strides in saving water usage at its plant and operations. “We have a savings improvement of 40% (4200m³) since the start of our initiatives and this also represents a good improvement on the required City of Windhoek quota. The main indicator on savings however is the ratio of litre water used per litre product produced. This ratio has improved from 3.51L water to 2.61L water per litre product produced” he emphasised.
A Water Crisis Committee (WCC) was established at Namibia Dairies to focus on the reduction of water usage, reclamation of usable water and the change in water consumption. Implemented measures and actions include additional flow meters which are monitored and noted on a daily basis; various buffer tanks, pumps and pipes to accumulate and redistribute the water; re-engineering of cleaning processes and programmes; installation of water saving devices throughout the plant and ablution facilities; weekly WCC tracking meetings and constant awareness discussions at all meetings throughout the business. All three Windhoek-based Namibia Dairies operations i.e Avis, Prosperita and Windhoek Schlachterei are included in the exercise.
Van Wyk said “We had a very negative outlook on the situation at the beginning of the water crisis in terms of product supply, job stability, future business opportunities, etc. Fortunately we, as a Namibia Dairies team, have become accustomed to face all sorts of challenges and we therefore decided that this will also not hamper our spirit. This was an absolute team effort and all credit goes to the team who really thought out of the box and made things happen as it was identified.
Van Wyk stated that the Dairies did not have to waive one single litre or unit of product or production as a result of the water crisis. “Each and every department and area in the business is still fully operational. Although all initiatives implemented are sustainable and will still be in effect even after the water crisis is something of the past, we are still looking at possibilities to reduce water usage, or use available water more effectively.”

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