Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
17 December 2018 | Story Andre Grobler | Photo Supplied
Drought read more
Water-saving initiatives have been implemented throughout the university’s campuses to withstand the drought.

An attentive visitor to the University of the Free State (UFS) would have noticed that in the past year, certain parts of the Bloemfontein Campus’ gardens have undergone a change. This is part of the UFS’s water-wise and grey-water initiatives that are a response to the ongoing local drought conditions and water restrictions.

Waterless gardens

Senior Director: University Estates, Nico Janse van Rensburg, says the environmental conditions have had a severe impact on the appearance of the gardens. “The era where we had big lawns, has passed.”

Janse van Rensburg says the UFS decided to start the initiative at two highly visible areas, two traffic circles, one at the George du Toit Building and the other the Francois Retief Building.

More landscape changes can be seen in the gardens around the Biotechnology Building, Geography building and Muller Potgieter Building, as well as near the Institute for Groundwater Studies, Engineering Science and the Thakaneng Bridge.

Towards an energy-efficient environment

Paving in these areas is designed to allow for water to soak into the ground. Acting Grounds Services Manager, De Wet Dimo, says more than 100 indigenous trees, which are more adaptive to local environmental conditions, have also been planted. He says a new wood chipper which was recently purchased, will turn dead trees in gardens into wood chips to be used as mulch for new plants.

Dimo says the new look and feel of the gardens was created by using hard elements, paving and indigenous succulents.

New student residences, including those in Qwaqwa and South Campus will use a grey-water system using water which will be collected from showers and basins. The piping at two older residences on the Bloemfontein Campus has also been renovated to a two-way system.

“Rainwater harvesting systems have been fitted at all residences and academic buildings,” said Dimo. The 19 tanks that have been installed have a storage capacity of 265 kilolitres.  Janse van Rensburg says other water-wise initiatives that have been put into action include installing waterless urinals in administrative and academic buildings, water restrainers, pressure control systems (reducing the volume of water) and push-button systems instead of taps.

News Archive

Well-known academic dedicates book to the UFS
2008-10-15

Prof. Wilhelm Neuser, world-renowned Calvanist, dedicated his latest book about Calvyn to the University of the Free State (UFS). Prof. Neuser (from Germany), who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the UFS in 2005, has undertaken to also dedicate his next book to the UFS. The book, "Johannes Calvin - Leben und Werk in seiner Frühzeit 1509-1541", was handed to the Acting Rector, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, during the gala dinner of the Eight South African Calvyn Research Congress. The event was also used to launch an important new addition to the series UFS Theological Studies: The Afrikaans translation of Calvyn’s comment on the letter to the Romans. The comment was translated by Prof. S Postma. The Calvyn Research Congress was presented by the Institute for Classical Reformation Studies at the UFS, in cooperation with the Faculty of Theology at the UFS. Here are, from the left: Prof. Dolf Britz, Department of Church History and Polity at the UFS, Prof. Neuser, and Prof. Verschoor.
Foto: Stephen Collett

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept