The researchers set up the Water Hub in an abandoned wastewater site, turning old drying beds into a network of filtration cells. Photograph: Courtesy of Water Hub<\/p>\n
Winter says of the treated water: \u201cYou\u2019d be very hard pressed to know the difference between it and your municipal treated water, which has been through a treatment plant and been chlorinated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Established in 2018, the project has only this year succeeded in reducing bacteria and pathogens to a level that allows the water to be used for irrigation, though not for drinking.<\/p>\n
Winter says the system now removes about 99% of the toxins before most of the water is released back into the river, where it feeds surrounding ecosystems. About 3,000 litres is held back to irrigate food-producing gardens at the Water<\/a> Hub.<\/p>\n The Stiebeuel River is polluted with rubbish, sewage and grey water. Photograph: Water Hub<\/p>\n Working in the area since 2006, Winter has seen the population of Langrug grow from 3,000 people to more than 26,000, mostly driven by seasonal work on farms and in the wealthy nearby town of Franschhoek.<\/p>\n Langrug\u2019s unplanned growth left residents without access to clean water or sewage facilities. Local water plants were stretched beyond their capacity and so Winter\u2019s team took on the task.<\/p>\n They built their nature-based system in an abandoned wastewater site, turning old drying beds into a network of filtration cells. The system is off-grid, using solar power to pump water from the river into the cells, where it slowly filters through over five days.<\/p>\n Large stones are used to trap particles and chemicals; then a layer of biochar \u2013 wood burned at 800C (1,470F) \u2013 filters out traces of drugs, pharmaceutical waste and ammonia; and the final layers of smaller stones and sand absorb the remaining toxins and pollutants.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every fortnight<\/p>\n Sign up to Global Dispatch<\/p>\n Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features, opinion and photography, curated by our global development team<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The treatment plant filters toxins from the water, which is then released back to supply surrounding ecosystems. Photograph: Courtesy of Water Hub<\/p>\n Winter says the filtration system is not designed to replace conventional plants cleaning industrial-levels of water for towns and cities, but that it does provide clean water for rural communities.<\/p>\n The Western Cape faced an almost catastrophic water crisis in 2018<\/a>, when reservoirs came close to running dry after a period of extended drought. For months, households in the region were forced to ration water and about 31,000 farm workers<\/a> lost their jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely crucial that we start looking at how we do this. Climate in the next 30 years, particularly in our region here, is going to look very, very different,\u201d says Winter. \u201cYes, it\u2019ll have all the wildfires, it will have all the flooding, but it will have prolonged periods of drought when food and access to water is scarce.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking water available for food, and for food security, as a climate-change strategy is absolutely crucial worldwide and we\u2019ve got to learn to be able to do that more and more,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All it took to turn the murky, heavily polluted waters of South Africa\u2019s Stiebeuel River into a resource…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-592918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788786651_466_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n