Building water resilience in the health sector

Mediclinic Southern Africa (MCSA) has implemented a water reduction strategy focusing on laundry wastewater recycling to ensure operational continuity amidst water scarcity. By installing recycling plants in six South African hospitals in 2024, MCSA reduced water use by 23-70% and achieved combined annual savings of approximately R1.5 million. The most significant impact was seen at Cape Gate Hospital, which reduced consumption by 70% with a payback period of about 3 years. Beyond laundry recycling, MCSA utilizes smart metering, SCADA monitoring systems, autoclave water recycling, and boreholes, with future plans to recycle sewage water for toilet flushing.

• Mediclinic Southern Africa (MCSA) reduced water use by 23-70% across six hospitals by installing laundry wastewater recycling plants, resulting in estimated combined annual savings of approximately R1.5 million.
• Cape Gate Hospital achieved the highest water consumption reduction of 70%, with average monthly savings of approximately R35,000 and a payback period of about 3 years; the cost of a single recycling plant is approximately R1.2 million.
• The laundry recycling project began in 2022 with a pilot at Panorama Hospital, where 75% of water was recycled back to laundries and 25% was used as greywater for toilets.
• MCSA employs several additional water management measures, including smart meters, a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for monitoring, recycling water from theatre autoclaves, and using boreholes to supplement municipal supplies.
• Building water resilience is described as a systematic process moving from low-cost initiatives like awareness and monitoring toward more expensive, complex technological solutions, emphasizing that proactive investment is more effective than responding to a shock.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). Building water resilience in the health sector. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEER_Mediclinic-–-Case-Study-1.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Building water resilience in the health sector. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEER_Mediclinic-–-Case-Study-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Building water resilience in the health sector |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEER_Mediclinic-–-Case-Study-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendbuilding, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Building water resilience in the health sector}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEER_Mediclinic-–-Case-Study-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }