Sustainability Vision

The purpose of this document is to define a sustainability vision of the St Josephine Bakhita church property which was recently purchased in order to provide a spiritual and social home for the Catholic community in Zandspruit, Roodepoort.  –

The property at Zandspruit is located at 41 Marina Road, Zandspruit, Roodepoort, and consists of 6 buildings on an area of approximately 4Ha owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Johannesburg.

To provide a sustainable future, we need to think about a future where access to electricity, food and water will become more sporadic and more expensive. It therefore makes sense to invest in technology that provides sustainable electricity, clean water and food.

We also need to think about the impact on our common home, Mother Earth, in line with the social teachings of the church and caring for God’s creation. In Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, he urges us to transition to renewable energy. The drivers behind this are to preserve the earth’s resources, to make use of natural resources i.e. the sun and to reduce costs such as those of using electricity supplies from utilities.

Water

The property gets water from a borehole that is not filtered. Given a burgeoning population in the area and the prospect of malls and other businesses that will come into the area means there will be competition for groundwater resources when new boreholes are sunk.

To mitigate this we need to harvest and store rainwater as well as accessing groundwater.

  • Test borehole water quality at Set Point Labs (near OR Tambo) to assay for organic and inorganic components in the water
  • Implement a filtration setup from the borehole to ensure clean water is available everywhere on the property.
  • Implement rainwater harvesting, reticulation, filtration and storage system using gutters from all buildings.
  • Recycle kitchen, bath and shower wastewater for use in the gardens

Electricity

It is important to have sustainable electricity at a reasonable price. Unfortunately the grid will become more expensive and given the number of illegal connections in Zandspruit electricity will be unstable for the foreseeable future. To mitigate this –

  • Installation of a solar system that is sufficiently powerful to run key appliances such as lighting, security, gates, computers etc. using existing wiring and sockets.
  • Installation of a solar borehole pump system to overcome electricity supply instability and to increase irrigation capacity. This will enable larger scale vegetable growing activities which will benefit the Zandspruit community
  • Installation of a solar system for heating water a heating as a replacement for the existing electric geysers which consume significant amounts of electricity
  • Removal of energy inefficient system components such as electric stoves, incandescent bulbs, electric ovens and replace these with more efficient technologies to reduce grid-sourced electricity consumption

Food

Cost of food is rising and this trend seems to be continuing. We have a large property that could provide a space to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit for use by residents and for sale. This has been started on a small scale already. Using a permaculture model, there are many possibilities.

Security

Challenges and constraints: It is likely that with an influx of businesses in the area there will be more people and therefore more opportunities for crime.

   Mitigation

  • Installation of IP night vision movement detection cameras at key entrance points. The cameras can be monitored via a PC or smartphone and should be operational 24/7
  • Installation of a burglar alarm system linked to the security cameras which is linked to an armed response service
  • Installation of a motor on the gate at the entrance to the property with a link to the burglar alarm
  • Linking of the electric fence to the burglar alarm and armed response service
  • Able to be produced or sustained for an indefinite period without damaging the environment, or without depleting a resource; renewable.

Strategic Plan

This vision document will be complemented with a Strategic Plan in which business cases including benefits, financial requirements and high level plans will be defined.

Acknowledgement: Valued contribution provided by Steve Banhegyi to this vision.