The official ISMAR12 programme includes a field excursion with the delegate registration fee.

The field excursions will depart from the Protea Hotel Technopark, our symposium hotel, at approximately 8 a.m. on Friday, May 2, 2024. We will return to the hotel around 5 p.m. in Stellenbosch.

Please note that Stellenbosch is about 50 km from Cape Town International Airport. Allow at least one hour for travel to the airport, as this coincides with peak traffic times in and out of Stellenbosch.

The field excursions include:

• Transport in air-conditioned coach
• Tour guide
• Lunch and refreshments
• Access to the places included in each itinerary.

 Delegates can select from three options when registering online:

Field Excursion 1: The Atlantis Water Resource Management Scheme

An internationally renowned scheme comprising infiltration of treated effluent and stormwater, which has been in operation for almost 50 years and has a published field trip guidebook which takes participants to various locations in the scheme to witness the infiltration and re-abstraction components. The City of Cape Town is currently upgrading the scheme to ensure high water quality for the infiltration. The tour will show some of the relevant components of the scheme such as infiltration basins, stormwater retention, constructed wetland for water quality improvement, abstraction wellfield and treatment plant for domestic water use.

Field Excursion 2: The Cape Flats Aquifer Management Scheme

A recently developed MAR injection scheme which is one of the major developments in using groundwater to safeguard the City of Cape Town from future Day Zero events. The scheme was developed during the recent Cape Town drought and comprises injection of advanced treated effluent using specially designed injection boreholes, abstraction of groundwater and subsequent treatment to potable standard. The design of the scheme caters for sufficient Soil Aquifer Treatment as part of the treatment train, injection lines for pollution and seawater intrusion barriers and current water quality in the aquifer. Participants will be taken to the advanced waste water treatment works, major injection boreholes and one of the abstraction wellfields and treatment works. A short version of this field trip was successfully tested in 2019, with an international MAR workshop in Stellenbosch, while a full day field trip was held at the IAH Congress 2024.

Field Excursion 3: The Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine and Langebaan Road Aquifer MAR schemes

Two neighbouring MAR schemes have been developed on the West Coast of South Africa, both using injection methodologies. The Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine is an open pit mine, requiring dewatering to mine below the water table. The Elandsfontein Mine MAR Scheme was developed to sustainably protect the groundwater fed Langebaan Lagoon from dewatering impacts by reinjecting all dewatering volumes back into the aquifer, and is one of the few African examples of a MAR scheme developed for environmental objectives, rather than water supply or security. The Langebaan Road Aquifer MAR Scheme is designed and constructed to help rapidly refill the Saldanha Bay Municipality’s main groundwater supply wellfield after intensive use, by injecting water back into the wellfield production bores, and is located upgradient from the Elandsfontein Mine.