Diamonds are forever‚ but not fresh water which is in short supply at this year's mining indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Delegates arriving on Monday at the country's biggest mining talk-shop had to wash up with hand sanitisers and are being offered biodegradable crockery to reduce their water 'footprint'.

CTICC chief executive Julie-May Ellingson on Monday confirmed several new measures aimed at water saving at all CTICC events. Even bottled water is being imported from suppliers outside the Western Cape‚ Ellingson said.

“In addition‚ our water account shows the CTICC has already recorded a 42% saving in water consumption for the first quarter of its current financial year compared to the same period last year. Indeed‚ our rain water and grey water re-use system has been very effective in reducing our use of municipal water over the past year‚” she said.

All hand-wash basins only offer hand sanitisers and linen napkins have been replaced with high-quality disposable napkins to “reduce laundry loads”.

Ellingson said CTICC’s water supply would not be affected in the unlikely event of 'Day Zero' – when the City plans to cut supply to a large proportion of urban households – because the central business district is one of the areas excluded from Day Zero cutoffs.

“As such‚ our doors will remain open and we will continue to host all our events. The only area that might be affected is air-conditioning‚ which requires relatively large amounts of potable water. As a purpose-built convention centre we can‚ however‚ assure fresh air is circulated throughout all venues‚” she said.