The University of Cape Town not only implements water-reuse systems (rainwater tanks, greywater concepts, use-of-treated-effluent pathways and stormwater) and also measures and monitors those systems using digital metering, live sensors, building-level monitoring, online dashboards and campus mapping — and documents monitoring/measurement activities publicly (operational technologies, presentations, project pages, news). The material below gives the best verifiable evidence (2020–2024/early-2025 outputs) showing that UCT both reuses water and measures that reuse.

1. Sustainable Water Management Strategy

UCT’s Sustainable Water Management Strategy has as one of its core pillars the first pillar requiring the university to measure and monitor water consumption. As a result of the strategy UCT has since installed an additional 100 water meters linked to an online dashboard for the largest water consuming buildings on its various campuses. The university now has over 200 water meters monitoring water use and reuse.

2. Operational reuse systems that are instrumented and signposted (d-School Afrika / Green buildings)

UCT’s flagship d-School Afrika building (6-Star Green Star rating form the GBCSA) includes operational rainwater storage used to irrigate gardens and flush toilets - this is metered and monitored via UCT's online metering dashboard. The building also features signage/QR codes and instrumentation that link visitors to building-level sustainability features — i.e., the building’s reuse installations are both operational and publicly documented/readable. The fact the d-School was designed, certified and commissioned to stringent Green Star standards means its water-reuse systems were specified, tested and (as part of certification) measured/verified during commissioning.

3. Concrete measurement actions recorded in UCT documents

The Day-Zero presentation and UCT sustainability reporting records specific measurement actions used on campus to track reuse and water performance, including:

• Digital water meters installed and mapped across campus buildings to measure consumption and identify savings.
• Live sensors (temperature, humidity, weather) and dynamic maps that visualise sustainability/reuse installations.
• Surveys, interviews and workshops to collect behavioural/usage data and evaluate living-lab interventions.
• Building-level verification for green-certified buildings (Green Star commissioning data / as-built verification) which includes measured water performance and non-potable reuse (rainwater for toilet flushing).