With Day Zero now firmly in the back of our minds, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that we’ve returned to “business as usual” in Cape Town, but the reality is very different. Behind the scenes, many companies have invested heavily in alternative water technologies, some have moved completely off the municipal water grid and others are planning to do the same in the near future.

Residents have been praised widely for helping to avoid Day Zero, and rightly so, as water use in residential homes accounts for the bulk of the water usage in the City. The fact that Cape Town became the first City in the world to halve its water usage in the space of three years is something the world praised us for. Our relationship with water has changed fundamentally, and this is reflected in the collective consumption figures hovering around the 550 million litres per day mark, down from a high of over 1 billion litres.

The private sector has proven itself to be a major force in the drive to become water resilient, and while the authorities plan various water augmentation schemes, big business has come to the party, pro-actively changing the way they manage water.

Recently, 14 ‘Water Stars’ were recognised for best practices in water management, conservation and pollution control – not only in the business sector, but also in government departments, education and health institutions, and residential estates. It forms part of the City’s Water Star Rating Certification. It’s an acknowledgement that strong partnerships have been forged between the City and the private sector, which helped Cape Town get through the drought and ensures wise use of water over the long term.

Astroenergy, Virgin Active Constantia, SAB Newlands, Old Mutual, Vector Logistics Solutions, BG Servers, Finlar Foods, First Rand Group, Portside Body Corporate, Vital Health Foods, TraX Interconnect, Aerosol and Cosmetics and Juno Corporation South Africa were all honoured.

The certification is also a motivator for all organisations to implement sustainable water management, because who wants to support a water-guzzling company?

Cape Town’s flagship conferencing and event centre, the CTICC, has really set an excellent example. Their water saving initiatives have resulted in a 30% saving of water over the past financial year alone. Building on this success, the CTICC has now commissioned its own reverse osmosis plant.

The plant will draw underground seawater using ultra filtration and reverse osmosis technology that removes the salt and contaminants from the water, turning it into potable drinking water. 200 000 litres can be produced by the CTICC plant in any 24-hour cycle, and additional storage tanks with a capacity of 400 000 litres will allow the centre to cater for “potential maximum demand” scenarios. And we know they get busy. Eventually, the CTICC will be able to offer 100% water-neutral events.

There are so many businesses that have realised that being water-savvy also makes business sense in the long run. Well done to all our Water Stars. May your actions inspire many more to do the same.

The power of radio lies in its ability to affect how the listener feels.

Smile 90.4FM was created with the deliberate intention of putting smiles on the faces of the people of the Mother City.

The notion of highlighting news that is overtly positive and delivering it with empathy, remains alien in mainstream radio circles. And tampering with the definition of what is news, is tantamount to letting your freak flag fly high.

We are supposed to believe that keeping up with the news is important and of value, yet there is no evidence to support the rationale that placing the worst of humanity as item number one in a news bulletin, has changed the world for the better.

On the contrary, it is becoming widely accepted these days that the news contributes significantly to increased levels of anxiety and depression. Presenting information that generates fear and worry without balancing context, or suggesting solutions, cannot be morally justified. Yet, focusing on news that comes from the more admirable side of humanity is considered soft news or not news at all.

Convincing news people that they might be clinging to a relic of a dead era is not an easy job, but it is a necessary one. A decision to do just that was taken at Smile 90.4FM and the news product was changed. The positioning line ‘Amplifying the good news in the Mother City’ was introduced to clearly convey the core message of the Smile news philosophy.

The decision to innovate was not taken lightly. A great deal of thought went into understanding the psychology of audio messaging and the effects excessive negative information has on evolving multi-cultural communities in transforming markets.

Headlines that create anxiety diminish capacity for transformation. Stories that inspire and create a feeling of awe, gratitude and optimism make people open to sharing, caring and connecting.

Listeners come to Smile 90.4FM specifically for the way it makes them feel. There is no justification for our news not adhering to the same feelgood and inspirational goals as the rest of our programming content – as long as it is factually accurate, topical and relevant.

Today, 12 March The Smile Good News Network comes into being. It will carry the station’s best positive news stories and the latest trending news.

Smile 90.4FM is still a baby in the Cape Town radio market. We turn just five years old on 25 March. We’ve been blessed with steady growth over the years. Our listenership currently stands at 169,000 upper LSM, sandwich generation influencers. Over the last twelve months our listener number has grown by a healthy 36%. (BRC Ram February 2018).

While it cannot be stated with certainty that amplifying the good news in the Mother City has driven our growth, the differentiation of our news product certainly offers our listeners a more optimistic, solutions driven and humane perspective on life.

Please join us on 90.4FM if you are in Cape Town or stream us live on www.smile904.fm. There’s always a reason to SMILE!