By: Georgie Hextall – Great Plains Foundation – Impact Programs Manager & Sustainability
Across all landscapes, water is more than a resource; it’s the very heartbeat of the ecosystem.
It connects the elephant herds across the plains and the underground thread that enables vegetation to grow and form the foundations of life. In the remote wild areas where Great Plains properties are located (far from any city grids or government pipes), we exist in a delicate partnership.
As stewards of these landscapes, it is our responsibility to ensure that every drop we use is considered and managed with the same importance we hold for the lions and leopards nearby. When it comes to water, Great Plains are constantly innovating our sustainability to ensure our presence in the wild leaves only positive impacts behind.
On-Site Water Production using Solar Energy: Zero Single-Use Plastic
For many safari camps, providing clean drinking water in remote areas involved trucking thousands of single-use plastic bottles into these landscapes. This not only created a carbon emission issue across fragile ecosystems but also left behind plastic waste that has no place in this industry of conservation.
At Great Plains, we knew we had to pioneer a better way. We set out to create a system that provided world-class hydration without the environmental cost. The result was our On-Site Water Bottling Plants, a feat of engineering powered entirely by solar systems.
When you take a sip of water at a Great Plains camp, you are drinking water that has been purified within a few metres of you. Using a sophisticated array of technologies, including ozone generators, granular-activated carbon filters, and ion-exchange, we transform local water into a safe, crisp, delicious drink.
And because we believe that sustainability should never mean a compromise on luxury, our bottling plants offer an exciting evolution: the choice of both still and sparkling water. Whether you are gliding along the Selinda spillway’s winding waterways at Selinda Camp or having a refreshment on your safari vehicle, watching a herd of elephants at Duba Plains Camp, your glass is filled with water that is as pure as the air around you, served in elegant, reusable glass bottles that will never see a landfill.
We upcycle everything
Our commitment to the ‘protect and expand natural habitats’ mission extends to the water you don’t see. In the remote reaches of the Okavango Delta or the private conservancies of Kenya, there are no municipal drainage systems. This isolation demands a higher standard of integrity.
Our ‘No Pollution’ mandate means that every drop of water that enters a Great Plains camp must be returned to the earth in a state of purity. We achieve this through a series of on-site processing plants that replicate nature’s own filtration systems.
Using a combination of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria, alongside UV light sterilisation, we process all camp grey and black water until it is transformed into a clean, quality-tested resource. This is not ‘waste’ water; it is upcycled water, ready to begin its journey back into the ecosystem.
From Tap to Tree: Watering the Future
In the wild, nothing is wasted. Our upcycled water doesn’t just disappear; it becomes a catalyst for restoration.
In our Kenya camps, this water is directed to the saplings of our Conservation Roots project. To date, this initiative has planted over 60,000 indigenous trees, working to rewild landscapes and create carbon sinks for the future. As you enjoy a refreshing shower after a morning safari drive, that same water is being repurposed to nourish a young Acacia or the endangered Warburgia Ugandensis, ensuring that the shade of tomorrow is being grown today.
Throughout our properties in Kenya and Zimbabwe, Great Plains has dedicated on-site gardens that supply our kitchens with fresh, seasonal vegetables and herbs. To conserve our most precious resource, we use our upcycled wastewater to nourish these gardens, ensuring that resource circularity is considered in all aspects of the camp sustainability.
In our Botswana camps, looking out over the floodplains of the Okavango Delta, this cycle of return feels especially poignant. By ensuring our outflow is pristine and adheres to rigorous environmental policies, we protect the delicate ecosystems around us, including the aquatic life of the Delta, from the tiniest reed frog to the vast herds of red lechwe.
A Toast to Protecting The Wild
Next time you raise a glass of still or sparkling water to the setting sun, take a moment to consider the journey of your drink. It hasn’t travelled large distances in the back of a truck. It was born of the local rains, purified using innovative technologies, powered by solar energy, and will eventually return to the ecosystem.
This is the Great Plains way. It is a philosophy that recognises that we are not separate from the environment, but a part of it. By managing our water with innovation and heart, we ensure that the wild remains a place of abundance, for the elephants, for the land, and for the generations yet to come.
