As part of Green Goal 2010, FLOW together with the City of Cape Town is bringing free, clean, drinking water to football fans along the Fan Walk and in the FIFA Fan Fest at the Grand Parade.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ offers the Host City Cape Town a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the world its commitment to responsible environmental management, whilst improving the living environment and livelihoods of its people. It is also an opportunity to sensitise the local and international football community and fans to environmental issues.
Branded as ‘Green Goal 2010’ Host City Cape Town committed to building the partnerships and coordinating the networks of action necessary to ensure that Team Cape Town and the Western Cape Scores green in 2010. One of Host City Cape Town’s 2010 greening programme measures was to install water-saving devices at the stadiums and fan areas. They approached to FLOW in order to achieve this.
“The FLOW water stations were created with a minimalistic style and approach drawing inspiration from the FLOW corporate identity.” Said Warren Turner the industrial designer for FLOW. “Their function as water dispensers required a completely hygienic and user friendly design form and aesthetic.”
FLOW Lollypop Water Station
FLOW Tower Unit Water Station
In total 33 FLOW water stations (10 Tower Units and 23 Lollypop stands) have been installed along the Fan Walk and within the FIFA Fan Fest for the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.
“During the opening game in Cape Town around 1800 liters of water were consumed by fans from the nine For Love of Water (FLOW) stations installed along the Fan Walk on Greenpoint main road!” exclaims Graham Reid from City Water Works. “This really shows us the demand and appreciation for access to free clean drinking water”.
“Many fans who made use of the FLOW stations were highly complimentary on the initiative.” Said Justin Friedman, FLOW co-founder and MD of Greenhouse. “They were surprised and impressed that they were being provided with free drinking water – something which has become a rarity and yet is such a necessity. It is ironic that we have become accustomed to paying for bottled water when access to municipal water is quite simple and safe.
We all hope that this model of providing drinking water in an attractive, visible, hygienic way will become repeated throughout the city, schools and other public spaces thereby providing a true legacy of access to our most precious resource long after all the games are finished.”
The South African constitution is one of the most progressive when it comes to ‘Right of Access’ to water, however the capacity to follow through still requires a lot of work from government and the private sector. For Love of Water (FLOW) is a national social benefit campaign which hopes to address this situation by instilling a deep appreciation, understanding and respect for water. It aims to raise awareness of water quality and quantity challenges on a national level while providing practical solutions to ensure that all are provided with clean safe drinking water.
Considering that both the planet and people are made up of over 70% water yet only 1% of the Earth’s water is potable isn’t it time we all became For Love of Water?
