Siemens flies water to Cape Town

CAPE TOWN - Siemens AirDrop Initiative will allow travellers to swop their unused luggage allowance kilograms for litres of water to be delivered on their behalf to Cape Town on Friday, said Siemens. 

The cellphones' company said travellers are allocated between 23-32 kilograms of luggage allowance - depending on the airline, and most of them don't use their full allowance.

"Travellers can participate by having their luggage weighed at the Siemens AirDrop stand, located in the check-in hall opposite the self-service check-in counters at OR Tambo International Airport," Siemens said in a statement.

Siemens further said that any travellers whose luggage is five or more kilograms under the weight limit will be able to ‘exchange’ their unused kilograms for litres of water that will be delivered to Cape Town International Airport.

Upon arrival in Cape Town, passengers can either collect their guilt-free water to use during their stay, or they can opt to leave it at the collection point at Cape Town International Airport.

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Head of Communications for Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa, Kenshin Govender told Business Report that Siemens AirDrop is a one-day social experiment to create awareness and see how quickly we can get 5 000 litres of water from Jozi to Cape Town using flights that are already scheduled. This is not a long-term project, but intended to create awareness, highlight possibilities and inspire creative solutions during a crisis. 

"AirDrop is a case study for potential future projects," Govender added.

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This initiative will help raise awareness about water scarcity crisis faced not only by the Western Cape, but entire South Africa.

Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille revealed on Tuesday, "the City of Cape Town’s dam levels stand at 34,2%, down from 35,1% last week. 

De Lille noted that the water consumption has once again increased to dangerous levels, from an average of 611 million litres per day last week to an average of 628 million litres per day this week.

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- BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE