Committed to responsible and sustainable construction practices

Biodiversity is under considerable threat due to the extensive development taking place in the Milnerton area. The Royal Ascot, a multi-use development on Milnerton’s old race course, was developed near the Table Bay Reserve. The reserve is situated at an intersection of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and West Coast Strandveld and has an exceptionally high biodiversity despite its small size. Botanists have recorded more than 230 plant species in the reserve, of which twelve plant species are considered threatened, and have Red Data status. As a result, an environmental management committee was appointed to oversee compliance of the development’s environmental management plan.

Isipani Construction received three environmental awards for work done at Royal Ascot and was the only company on site during the development of Ascot Terraces not to incur environmental fines. Isipani also received a merit award from the Royal Ascot Environmental Management Committee for its work on Ascot Terraces, in recognition of its exceptional attention to environmental concerns.

Isipani also received two environmental awards for the Hirsch’s Family Store project: an award of merit from Royal Ascot’s environmental management, and an achievement award from Ecosense Consulting Environmentalists, for our company’s high degree of environmental management compliance.

Isipani worked on a number of projects at Century City. Like at Royal Ascot, building activity in the Century City precinct was governed by additional environmental considerations due to the proximity of an ecologically sensitive wetland area and bird sanctuary.

These environmental specifications posed many challenges to the construction team on site, as great care had to be taken at all times to prevent building material and construction effluent from contaminating the soil and adjacent waterways.

The drought of 2017/2018

The Western Cape experienced severe water restrictions in 2017 and 2018 as a result of three years of below-average rainfall. Dam levels in the province declined rapidly despite concerted efforts to conserve water, and by the end of 2017 the City of Cape Town was faced with a very real threat of running out of water with “Day Zero” predicted for mid-March 2018.

Isipani’s first priority was to reduce its own dependence on municipal drinking water. This process started in the winter of 2017 when tanks with a 30,000-litre capacity were installed at the company’s office and yard in Daljosaphat. All the company’s construction sites were also supplied with 5,000 litre tanks for non-potable water, and an intensive campaign was launched to increase employees’ awareness of the water shortage, and to provide staff with practical ways in which to save water.

Given the severity of the water restrictions, the company was fortunate to be working on the Woodstock Quarter site where excavation work had opened a strong fresh-water spring. The site produced enough non-potable water to supply all of Isipani’s construction sites, the City of Cape Town’s fire department and civil works division, and a non-profit organisation distributing water to areas that had run out of water.

In August 2018 Isipani Construction worked on a project to supply 78 schools in Cape Town with water tanks in anticipation of “Day Zero”.

Schools fell into three categories: reticulation schools, connection schools, and tanks-only schools. At reticulation schools the target was to achieve a 50% independence from municipal water sources by installing pressure pumps, boreholes and pumps, tanks, and reticulation lines to toilets. Connection schools were supplied with new water tanks and lines so that the tanks could be supplied from boreholes. Tanks-only schools were supplied with water tanks for non-potable water that could be filled by water trucks. Fencing was also erected to secure all the new water infrastructure. The project had a total estimated value of close to R16m.