Sustainable Water Resource Handbook V6

The Sustainable Water Resource Handbook

ISBN ISBN0620-45067-6 0620-4506

9

780620 450676

06

R150.00 incl. VAT

South Africa Volume 6 The essential guide to resource efficiency in South Africa

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UIS Analytical Services (PTY) Ltd is an independent testing laboratory that offers a wide range of analytical services, ranging from analysis for the exploration, mining and manufacturing industries to environmental, soil, waste and water samples.

Our unique offerings: - Expertise in water analysis: drinking water, groundwater, waste water, effluent - Drinking water analysis per SANS 241 specification - Routine analysis of water samples - Customised analysis for specific client needs - Qualitative or quantitative analysis - Priority and customised turn-around-times - Provide sample containers - Sample collection - Partnerships to offer organic parameter analysis

Analysis scope include: Physical parameters: pH, conductivity, alkalinity/acidity, dissolved solids suspended solids, turbidity, oil& grease Chemical analysis: Major, minor and trace elements (cations) anions, ammonia, cyanide, phenols, etc Microbiology: E.Coli, total coliforms, plate counts, faecal coliforms Your water analysis partner: South Africa is seeing a turn-around in the quality of drinking water and wastewater treatment thanks to the Blue and Green Drop certification programmes of the Department of Water Affairs.

These programs rely on accurate and accredited water analysis.

Company information and accreditation: ISO 17025 accredited (SANAS-T0184) BEE level 3 contributor 100% South African owned Footprint in Gauteng and Northern Cape

Contact us: info@uis-as.co.za or quote@uis-as.co.za Centurion 012 665 4291

WW23821/E

MAKE EVERY

DROP COUNT 1

WE’RE CULTIVATING WATER SAVINGS As part of our Farming for the Future programme, our produce, wine and flower farmers are saving water by only irrigating when necessary. We’re also committed to using less water in our own business.

IN MOST OF OUR STORES, WE’RE MONITORING WATER USE, HARVESTING RAINWATER AND INCREASING EFFICIENCY. SINCE 2011, WE HAVE ALREADY REDUCED RELATIVE WATER USE BY 41%.

2

KEEPING OUR WATER CLEAN AND CLEAR Farming for the Future means reducing the amount of chemical fertilisers and other chemicals that go back into our water sources. We also partner with fabric and clothing suppliers who are committed to putting clean water back into the environment.

SOME OF OUR STONE FRUIT FARMERS IN THE CERES CATCHMENT AREA ARE NOW IMPLEMENTING INTERNATIONAL WATER STEWARDSHIP STANDARDS.

4 5

CLEAN WATER AND CLEAN CLOTHES We’ve introduced phosphate-free laundry detergents that help preserve water quality without compromising on cleaning efficiency.

3

FISH FLOURISH IN THE RIVERS FED BY THE CLEANED WASTE WATER FROM ONE OF OUR LARGEST CLOTHING SUPPLIERS.

PLAY

A PARTNERSHIP FOR PRESERVATION Water stewardship is all about Government, NGOs and the community working together to save and protect the precious water resources we all share. Together with the WWF, the Alliance for Water Stewardship and Marks & Spencer, we’re helping our Ceres fruit farmers to manage the water on their farms better.

TEACHING TOMORROW’S GENERATION With the future in mind, our Making the Difference programme educates learners about the importance of using water wisely.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES HELP YOUNG LEARNERS UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING WATER.

JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY: WOOLWORTHS.CO.ZA/WATER

You can make a difference (and stand to win great prizes) by choosing food and fashion with a difference and earning EARTHCRED. GO TO: WOOLWORTHS.CO.ZA/ EARTHCRED AND START PLAYING TODAY.

Sustainable

Water Resource Handbook

South Africa Volume 6

The Essential Guide EDITOR Garth Barnes CONTRIBUTORS Gerhard Cronje, Jeremy Gibberd, Helen Gordon, Grant Neser, Dr Kevin Harding, Sean Shomang, Kevin Paxton, Luan Schoeman, Grant Trebble, Yolanda Oosthuizen PEER REVIEWERS Dr Chris Herold, Martin Ginster, Nick Tandi, Kerneels Esterhuyse, Marc de Fontaine, Jon Dennison, Garth Barnes LAYOUT & DESIGN Charlie Kershaw ONLINE MARKETING GSA Campbell MARKETING MANAGER Nabilah Hassen-Bardien DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Edward Macdonald CLIENT LIASON OFFICERS Lizel Olivier Natasha Keyster

PROJECT MANAGERS Louna Rae Annie Pieters ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES Charity Musiyanga, Munyaradzi Jani, Tendai Jani, Tanya Duthie, Howard Joshua, Stacey Sands, Paul Martincich, Zaida Yon, Siobhan Pheiffer PROOFREADER Simon Lewis CHIEF EXECUTIVE Gordon Brown DIRECTORS Gordon Brown Andrew Fehrsen Lloyd Macfarlane EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES garth_barnes@hotmail.com PUBLISHER

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The

The Sustainability Series Of Handbooks PHYSICAL ADDRESS: Alive2green Cape Media House 28 Main Road Rondebosch Cape Town South Africa 7700 TEL: 021 447 4733 SALES: 021 987 7616/3722 FAX: 086 6947443 Company Registration Number: 2006/206388/23 Vat Number: 4130252432

Sustainability and Integrated REPORTING HANDBOOK South Africa 2014

ISBN No: 978 0 620 45240 3. Volume 5 first Published February 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any way or in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Publisher or the Editor. All editorial contributions are accepted on the understanding that the contributor either owns or has obtained all necessary copyrights and permissions.

IMAGES AND DIAGRAMS: Space limitations and source format have a affected the size of certain published images and/or diagrams in this publication. For larger PDF versions of these images please contact the Publisher.

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THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

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PEER REVIEW

ALIVE2GREEN PEER REVIEW PROCESS

The

Sustainability and Integrated REPORTING HANDBOOK South Africa 2014

EDITOR’S NOTE

“In 2012, South Africa remains faced with the triple developmental challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality. In addition, the country’s current economic growth model is heavily resource and energy-intensive, aggravating pressures on the environment and the threat of climate change. The transition to a green economy, stemming from the concept of sustainable development, has been internationally recognised as a ground-breaking way forward, combining economic development, social welfare and environmental protection.

"The Brundtland Report defined in 1987 sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (UNWCED, 1987). Building on this definition, a green economy is “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities” (UNEP, 2011).

Practically speaking, in a green economy, growth in income and employment are driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.”

This previous excerpt is taken from the TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies) report entitled, Green Economy Policy Framework and Employment Opportunity: A South African Case Study. While the report attempts to understand the current situation with regards to green jobs in South Africa, it misses a large growth opportunity in terms of income and employment: the water sector.

As many as 400,000 new green jobs could be created by addressing current water security challenges, and by providing water infrastructure to the millions of South Africans who have no access to piped water (One Million Climate Jobs, 2013).

Yet, GreenCape’s 2015 Market Intelligence Report on Water positions the water sector as a fantastic opportunity for growth and development, despite the economic and climatic constraints.

In fact, the Green Economy and the potential water resource constraints to development provide the space for research, development and innovation to expand the water sector opportunities.

The articles in this Handbook explore some of these innovations and opportunities for growth.

Garth Barnes Editor

Regards Garth Barnes Editor

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CONTRIBUTORS

GARTH BARNES

Coupled with 18 years’ experience in the advertising, marketing and environmental sector, Garth also holds a graduate diploma in marketing management, an undergraduate degree in environmental management, and has just recently completed his Master’s degree, which explored the relationship between water stewardship, values and social learning. He has recently resigned as National Conservation Director of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa and is currently exploring future opportunities within the private sector.

GERHARD CRONJE

Gerhard has 21 years’ experience in the water industry. He was faced with a new challenge in 2009 when a customer of his irrigation business requested assistance with Decentralised Waste Water Treatment for their farm. What started out as an enquiry from a customer; soon grew to become a new venture and extensive research on decentralised wastewater treatment. The research included technology, legislation and best practice beyond the borders of South Africa. In 2010 the first Clarus Fusions were imported, since Gerhard believed that this was the best practice internationally. In 2011 Maskam Water became the sole importer to Sub-Saharan Africa for these plants – and today there are more than 90 sold in eight African countries.

GRANT NESER

Grant is the managing director of JoJo Tanks, the country’s leading manufacturer of polyethylene plastic storage tanks. A Civil Engineer, Grant joined JoJo Tanks in May 2015 after spending most of his career in the construction materials industry. Grant is proud of the JoJo Tanks product range and its overall value proposition. Not only does JoJo help preserve and manage an increasingly scarce resource (freshwater), it also makes a wide range of products with applications in the agricultural, domestic and chemical industries for the storage of most liquids and many bulk materials. Grant sees education in water conservation as the most powerful tool we have to change water consumption patterns in South Africa.

GRANT TREBBLE

Grant is currently involved with the Department of Environmental Affairs' Eco-Furniture Programme, implemented by the South African National Parks, where innovative solutions related to Value Added Industries with regard to invasive plant control are being developed and rolled out. It is here that he has been able to engage with various parties in the sector which have informed his article in this edition. In particular, Dr William Stafford’s S.M.A.R.T. Goals have been drawn on, and these emphasise long-term, integrated planning methodologies – and these are essential to water security.

HELEN GORDON

Helen is the WWF-SA's Water Balance Programme Manager, a programme focusing on enabling private sector investment into the country’s water security through improved catchment health. Working at WWF for the last seven years, Helen has merged her background in economics with her MSc in Conservation Biology, while exploring publicprivate partnerships investing in ecological infrastructure.

JEREMY GIBBERD Jeremy is an architect with expertise in sustainability, inclusion, sustainable built environ­ments, community and education buildings. He has developed a range of tools, guides and training on urban sustainability, sustainable buildings, sustainable facilities management and sustainable materials for government, the private sector as well as the UN. Dr Gibberd has worked in a range of roles within the built environment in Africa, the USA and the UK and can be contacted at itshose@gmail.com.

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KEVIN PAXTON Kevin studied civil engineering at Stellenbosch University and later attained a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa. The first 10 years after he graduated were spent as a consulting engineer specialising in structural engineering.

Property development was the following occupation and, lastly, manufacturing. Six years ago Kevin started the company Noble Water Solutions (Pty) Ltd with the aim of developing an integrated solution to the shortage of safe drinking water in Africa. The net result of this project is the patented Noble Water Station, which is the first high-volume, low-maintenance, portable, solar-powered water treatment plant of its kind in the world.

This year Kevin was awarded a “Leadership Award For Water Efficiency” by the Africa Water Leadership Awards and is NSBC 2015 National Entrepreneur Champion.

CONTRIBUTORS

DR KEVIN HARDING Dr Harding holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town. He previously worked at Environmental Resources Management on industrial risk assessment projects in South Africa, China, Kenya and Nigeria. He is currently employed at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) as an LCA and water footprinting researcher and senior lecturer in Chemical Engineering.

LUAN SCHOEMAN Luan obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch in 2008. He completed training in Hydrometallurgical Extraction at Mintek, Randburg, 2010. Luan has experience in Hydrometallurgical extraction processes (two years), food and pharmaceutical processing and quality (two years) and water- and wastewater related design, construction, commissioning and operation serving the domestic market through to the heavy industry sectors. Luan has found his passion in purifying wastewater using DAF and MBR-RAS technologies.

SEAN SHOMANG Sean holds a Higher Diploma in Business Management. He previously worked in a corporate environment overseeing different business units (from a strategic and management perspectives) and was a CEO in the plastics manufacturing sector (specifically injection moulding) and CEO of a logistics company in the ready mix cement sector. Sean is currently CEO of a clothing design and manufacturing business.

YOLANDA OOSTHUIZEN Yolanda obtained a BSc degree in Natural and Environmental Sciences from UJ, a postgraduate education certificate from UNISA, and a certificate for Business Risk Management from UCT. She started her career in Nelspruit at a Secondary School teaching Science and Mathematics. Her analytical nature and self-motivation lead her to proceed to the Water and Waste Water industry, joining Sembcorp Silulumanzi in the laboratory. Her active participation and dedication to the success of the Blue Drop and Green Drop implementation resulted in the nominated for the DWA Blue Drop 2010 Water Service Provider Woman Award. Her leadership ability and drive toward success soon resulted in her being appointed the Senior Manager Scientific Services of Sembcorp Silulumanzi since July 2010, overseeing the Laboratory, Quality Management System (ISO 9001), Environmental Management (ISO 14001), H&S Management (OHSAS 18001), Business Risk management and Blue/Green Drop coordination activities. Recent achievements were the publication of The Adventures of Water Buddy – Waste Water Purification Coloring Book for pre-school Kids in August 2015. Yolanda is also a registered Carbon Footprint Analyst with LG Seta.

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CONTENTS Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Plants: An integral part of solving South Africa’s water crisis Gerhard Cronje

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Rainwater harvesting: Playing a valuable role in increasing the resilience and sustainability of water supply Jeremy Gibberd

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Collectively investing in our ecological infrastructure to ensure sustainable development Helen Gordon

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Rainwater harvesting: Positively impacting on the green economy Grant Neser

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CONTENTS Reducing Municipal Leaks Dr Kevin Harding

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An African Solution to an African Problem Sean Shomang and Kevin Paxton

76

Off-Grid Wastewater Purification Luan Schoeman

82

Invasive Plant Control: Natural Resource Management Programmes Grant Trebble

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Water Re-use Yolanda Oosthuizen

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ADVERTORIAL

ONLY TECHNOLOGY CAN ENSURE WATER SECURITY AT A MUNICIPAL LEVEL Dylan Strydom, MD, Sebata Municipal Solutions

A

s the country experiences its worst drought in more than 30 years, the South African government is sensibly working with specialists from other countries on macro-level issues such as water treatment technologies and management, water and resource efficiency, groundwater protection, and water governance. Once water reaches a municipality, however, it needs to be used and distributed appropriately, in a way that ensures its protection as a paid-for resource, and while insisting that people “radically” alter the way they use water, the reality is that behavioural change is extremely difficult to enforce, which is why technology will ensure that water is properly micro-managed and monitored at a municipal level.

Sebata Municipal Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE-listed MICROmega Holdings Ltd, and is the leading provider of integrated technology, financial management, and enterprise management solutions, as well as multi-disciplinary professional services to municipalities, and other public and private entities, and has been for more than 40 years.

Ensuring basic management controls, such as accurate billing, monitoring of infrastructure, addressing leaks, illegal connections and tampering, will see an immediate improvement in water revenue. Furthermore, water leaks and faulty meters are often not reported, which leads to high accounts and water losses.

In April, a study by the University of Denver Law Water Review estimated that the total

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THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

amount of non-revenue water worldwide is 48.6 billion cubic metres, which could “meet the needs of almost 200-million people in the developed world” – but without effective and smart metering, meter erf audits and detailed reporting of water usage, inaccurate billing quickly becomes one of the biggest problems related to non-generation of appropriate revenue.

Almost 40% of the total municipal water supplied in South Africa is lost before it reaches municipal customers, resulting in non-revenue water – a quarter of which is related to physical leakage.

Far from being a technological backwater, South Africa is at the forefront of smart water metering. Sebata already assists about 150 municipalities, ensuring basic management controls around water usage, utilising highly specialised and technologically advanced products and services, which are locally made but enjoy global deployment.

With Sebata’s recent acquisitions of South African companies, Utility Systems and Amanzi Meters and their highly specialised and technologically advanced products and services – Sebata can help local authorities significantly increase their revenue collection, clamp down on losses, and improve the current infrastructure. Our technology-based solutions include: Sebata Water Metering Solutions These are Proudly South African water management solutions with credit control/

ADVERTORIAL

pre-payment functionality, leak detection and real-time control, comprising a water management device (WMD) and the user interface unit (UIU) in pre-payment mode. Our Amanzi Meters volumetric water meters, fitted with a non-return valve, and locally produced above- or below-ground meter boxes, are also Proudly South African products.

Sebata Automated Meter Reading (AMR) This offers automated 30-minute reading intervals with the ability to display daily, weekly and monthly water consumption online, with a user-friendly web monitoring function to determine faulty meters and water losses. Its pulse technology ensures regular, accurate readings, resulting in significantly increased municipal billing.

Sebata Meterman™ (iRead) This is an integrated web-enabled system allowing real-time management of meter readings and submission of meter reading files for billing purposes.

Our iRead software creates seamless job cards with a full track record of all meters, including photographic evidence of old and new meters, as well as the GPS co-ordinates of assets, as per the Auditor-General requirements.

Sebata iAudit This is an integrated web-enabled system allowing physical stand/erf audits with realtime reporting on meter numbers and readings per erf, as well as their status (such as being damaged, having leaks, etc).

Nelson Mandela famously said “Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all”; without ensuring that all water is distributed, accounted and paid for equally, water will remain the privilege of the few. Long-term forecasts suggest we are still in the early stages of a drought that may be the worst South Africa has yet seen. However, given all the cutting-edge technology and attendant systems Sebata has to help manage water, while none of us can control the weather, municipalities will at least be able to control the way water is utilised within the area they govern.

THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

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PROFILE

The name that really holds water ABECO Tanks is no stranger to the water storage tank industry and a name that has stood its ground for over 30 years. Established in 1983 by then founder and now CEO, Mannie Ramos identified a need for water supply to communities with limited resources and set about to satisfy this need without compromising hygiene, safety or quality. 30 years on and ABECO Tanks continues to deliver on this promise, having successfully installed over 20 00 tanks across 32 countries. They are also the only manufacturer of pressed steel tanks that is SABS approved and ISO registered.

“We do not rest on our laurels and staying ahead of the pack has certainly not been easy” says Mannie.

“

Embracing modern technology, ongoing product evaluation and continued research and development has ensured that we have remained the

“

ABECO Tanks has recently modernised its factory and invested in the latest equipment

Contact: For any enquiries or quotes rhys@abecotanks.co.za 011 616 7999

allowing them to adapt to the demand in the industry. ”We also only source our steel locally and buy direct from the mills. The quality of our steel is still one of the best in the world” added Mannie. ABECO offers a full design manufacture and installation services for ground level, elevated and circular galvanised water tanks and have a division that focuses purely on special custom tanks. They have also paid particular attention to the design of all its types of tanks to ensure they are easy to install and transport especially to remote locations where resources are limited. All components are also lightweight and easy to handle.

In keeping with its commitment to deliver uncompromised storage solutions, ABECO has been awarded the exclusive rights to represent Tank Connections and provide precision RTP (Rolled, tapered panel) tanks to the African market.

For further information on these tanks please contact manniejnr@abecotanks.co.za 011 616 7999

The name that really holds water

Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Plants: An integral part of solving South Africa’s water crisis

Gerhard Cronje

DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

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I

nfrastructure News published an article on 1 June 2015 about the country’s water resources. The following is an excerpt taken from that article: “Our country needs a water and sanitation revolution. This was the conclusion of the debate on the Department of Water and Sanitation’s budget in Parliament last week, where Minister Nomvula Mokanyane called for urgent changes in the way South Africans use the precious resource. The Department currently has a budget of R16.4 billion, however an estimated R67 billion is needed each year over the next decade to fund and maintain water and sanitation infrastructure”.1 This problem has been proven by recent water crises that South Africans experienced in some regions and that continue to date.

These include, but are not limited to: • Ladismith (Cape) ran out of water when the level in the municipal reservoir dropped to a mere 1.5% in February this year2, 3, 4.

• Neighbouring Gaborone has water shedding to the extent that sometimes residents are without water supply for up to three days per week5, 6, 7.

• The Western Cape Dams are too small and cannot accommodate future growth of the population.

• Many of our rivers are heavily polluted with raw sewage. The Eerste River, Berg River, Apies River8 and Umgeni River9 are but a few examples.

• Hartebeespoort dam is heavily polluted.

At difficult times like this we are forced to look at how we do things, how we have done it in the past and what we need to do to make provision for the future. The challenge is that the future is already here, planning should have started 20 years ago. This leaves us with limited options.

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The same way that Eskom can no longer supply enough electricity to provide for demand, the water authorities find it difficult to supply enough potable8, 9, 10 water, neither can they cope with the amount of waste water that is generated on a daily basis11, 12.

The lack of proper waste water treatment further reduces the available drinking water since our fresh water resources are being polluted by untreated / half-treated waste water.

As is the case with power generation and our road infrastructure the future does not consist of government catching up the backlog because the backlog is just too large and too expensive. Moreover, climate change is increasing the variability of our annual rainfall while our population is constantly growing, adding more pressure on a limited supply.

This is where we need to start thinking out of the box. We need to look at different options and we also need to look at what other countries around the globe are doing.

More importantly, we need a mind shift in rural and urban communities, legislators, local authorities and environmentalists in terms of managing our waste water.

One of the answers lies in Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Plants (DWWTP).

Decentralised can be interpreted in two ways: 1. Where each site / development takes care if its own wastewater treatment.

2.

Within bigger developments several small DWWTPs can reduce the cost of infrastructure while it can add value to the development by re-using the treated water.

DWWTPs can be government owned; municipality owned; public private partner­ ships; or privately owned plants. By treating and re-using wastewater we not only reduce the load on natural resources but we limit the pollution of our rivers and dams. This is

1

also a quick solution for providing service in formal and informal settlements where raw sewage poses health risks.

DWWTPs cost more to build (price per kl of water treated) but there are significant savings in not having to build huge infrastructure like pipelines and pumping stations. The real cost of Centralised Waste Water Treatment Plants (CWWTPs) is often skewed by not including the cost of the supporting infrastructure. The total cost of both interventions should be taken into account when comparing.

Infrastructure and CWWTPs also take up a lot of space – this is space that could be used more wisely, especially in cities. Countries with limited space, like Japan, have been using DWWTPs for decades. In many instances the DWWTPs are installed in the basement of buildings!

This concept is also gaining popularity fast in Australia, Europe and the USA. DWWTP technology available in South Africa In 2009 a customer in Stellenbosch asked Maskam Water to help them source a small Waste Water Treatment Plant (DWWTP) for their farm. Not only did this plant have to blend in with nature, but there had to be

DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

no smell from the plant (to be installed only a few metres from the homestead) and running costs had to be affordable. This led to a regional national and later international search of small, Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Plants.

After nine months of research Maskam Water decided to import a plant from the United States: the Clarus Fusion WWTP. This plant was specifically designed for urban use but it performs equally well in rural and even remote areas. Due to the low power consumption of the plant it can easily run off solar or any other means of alternative power.

The Clarus Fusion WWTP is a very compact, easy-to-install, single-unit, glassfibre tank with a small development foot print. It is an Activated Sludge Treatment system with nitrification and denitrification as standard part of the treatment, designed to treat domestic sewage as well as organictype industrial waste water. It can be in­stall­ed in residential as well as commercial environments.

The technology in this plant is exactly the same as in large municipal activated sludge plants. The bioreactor is factory-built and not assembled on site. There is no concrete works and the whole plant is installed

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DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

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underground, thus having no visual impact.

In most instances the plant can be installed in public open spaces, walkways and even in parking lots. This means that space is not lost and there is no network required or pumping cost to a centralised plant. The treated water can be re-used on site for toilet flushing or irrigation.

There are eight different sized Fusions, ranging from 1.7kl per day up to 15kl per day. For larger volumes, Fusions can be installed in parallel to add capacity. The modular concept is especially beneficial to areas where future growth is expected.

The capacity can be extended at any point by adding more units in parallel. Therefore there is no cost of “re-doing” an existing plant, the customer can add on at any time if needed.

Treating and re-using water on site lowers the fresh water demand. This is perfectly in line with the Water Demand Management program of DWS. It also reduces the load on potable water infrastructure, waste water infrastructure, waste water treatment plants and limits pollution in areas where CWWTPs are not functioning properly or running over capacity.

Due to the internal reseeding line, returning sludge and waterª, this plant can survive long periods of low or no inflow without compromising the biomass or effluent quality. The plant has been tested to keep the biomass alive for up to six months with no inflow. This makes the Fusion ideal for areas where there are seasonal trends, (i.e. schools, holiday houses, lodges, guest houses and function venues).

The diaphragm blower is very quiet and the electrical panel monitors the mechanical working of the plant. The alarm (audible and visible with optional remote signalling / GSM) will notify the user in the event of any malfunction or high level condition.

Vandalism and maintenance is limited by not using metal in the bioreactor. There are no pumps in the system and no electricity in the reactor. The only moving part is the diaphragm blower (external) and the only serviceable part in the diaphragm blower is the diaphragm, and that needs replacing once every four years.

Maintenance of the plant is limited to only one hour every six months, while power consumption is very, very low – starting from 60 watts for a single household up to 340 watts for 100 people (15 kl per day). For bigger communities, multiple units can be installed in parallel. This is a huge advantage since the capacity of the plant can be expanded at any time. The footprint of the ZF4000, 15kl per day plant, is only 4.8m x 2.5m and, if incorporated in the landscaping, no space is lost to the plant at all. This means that more space is available for development like buildings or parking area.

Power consumption of this plant compares very well with the international standard of 1- 5 mega litres per day plants and it uses much less power than most package plants.

After testing the plant under local conditions for six months, Maskam Water started rolling out this technology to the rest of South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Today Maskam is the sole distributor of the Clarus Fusion to Sub-Saharan Africa.

ª That is an internal function of the plant, whereby water and sludge is internally recycled. During this process the first chamber is reseeded with active bacteria and the sludge generated in the third stage of treatment is taken back to the first chamber, where it becomes a carbon source for the bacteria.

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THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

1

More than 80 plants have been sold and installed in eight different countries and across a variety of industries, from household use to commercial and industrial applications.

Some small modifications were made to the plants to adapt to local conditions.

The changes include changing the blowers form the American 110V version to 220V. The electrical panels are being built in Cape Town to ensure compliance with SABS and all other add-ons (i.e. screens, grease traps, etc.) are 100% South African manufactured.

Opportunity DWWTPs not only offer solutions to our water demand and pollution problems but it also bring about new opportunities. These opportunities include: • Providing dignified sanitation to rural communities and informal settlements.

In many circumstances Ventilated Improved Pit Latrines (VIPs) and other forms of dry toilets are rejected by the communities. They want flush toilets like people in the cities.

• With the Fusion this problem can easily be overcome. Where there is a community, there will be some form of water available. By using the Fusion (which can run off alternative energy) the waste (grey and black) water can be treated and used for toilet flushing, treated again and then discharged or used for irrigation purposes. This means that no potable water will be used for toilet flushing.

• Remote schools and clinics can receive dignified sanitation within a matter of weeks, if not days.

• The subject of waste water purification can become a learning subject in schools where the school purifies its own

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

waste water for re-use in crop growing, gardening and irrigating sports fields.

Jobs are being created in a number of ways. This includes the installation and maintenance of the units, marketing, sales, manufacturing, and add-on services, for example.

Local wealth will be created in communities since members of the communities can be trained to do installations and maintenance.

More jobs will be created when Maskam Water starts manufacturing the first Fusions in South Africa early in 2016 for South Africa and other African countries (the UAE may be an option too). This will be part of a joint venture (JV) with the American manufacturer, Zoeller Corporation.

Maskam Water is growing the Maskam Water Dealer network throughout South Africa and Africa. This creates opportunity for businessmen in every region of the country to become involved and create local wealth by selling, installing and maintaining the Clarus Fusions and supplementary products in the range.

Indirect jobs will be created with local manufacturing since more local content will be used thus growing suppliers’ turnover.

At the time of going to print projects are underway where this technology will provide dignified sanitation for smaller communities while the effluent will be used for irrigation, thus improving the lives of the families in the community.

With this technology every single school, sports field and park can benefit from using treated waste water. If there is a municipal waste water network close to the school or field, screened waste water can be extracted from the main line, treated on site and used for irrigation purposes. This does not only benefit the school or sport club, but once again

THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

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1

lowers the demand on potable water resources and reduces pollution.

• Septic tanks pollute the underground water because very limited treatment is done before discharging the water underground. That water still contains e-coli, faecal coliforms, high counts of ammonia and phosphates. DWWTPs can be retrofitted and the old septic tank, once cleaned out and sanitised, can be used as a storage tank for the treated effluent.

Retrofit and save This solution is not only available for new installations. Due to the simplicity of the Clarus Fusion and the ease of installation it can easily be retrofitted to existing piped networks. This can immediately lower the pressure on aging waste water networks and CWWTPs. Not only is there a benefit to the user / plant owner but also to the municipality and environment. If volume through overloaded plants or non-functioning plants can be reduced, it will improve the overall quality of effluent from the CWWTPs. By doing this, the pollution of our natural water resources can be addressed without spending millions on rebuilding municipal plants.

Municipal revenue may be a concern alongside that of quality control. Municipali­ ties should charge the plant owner a small monitoring fee and that money can be used to monitor the plants. Regular monitoring also creates job opportunities.

It is important for local authorities to distinguish between “in-urban” and “general” DWWTPs since not all DWWTPs are designed for in-urban usage. The technology that is allowable in the urban edge can be clearly defined in the waste water bylaws.

Conservancy tanks are not “green” by any means. The “honey sucker” has a huge carbon footprint, adds to traffic problems,

DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

heavy trucks damage our roads and the waste water from the conservancy tanks just add to the overloading of CWWTPs. Besides this the cost to the owner is huge. In many case studies to date we found that the saving on pumping cost pays for the cost of the Fusion within 10 months to two years.

This is an excellent ROI even though the calculations exclude the saving on buying less potable water for irrigation purposes.

Everyone can make a difference The water problem in South Africa is no longer “the government’s problem”.

Although the supply of drinking water and treatment of waste water has historically been a function of government, especially local government, it is clear that some local authorities are struggling to keep in step with the requirements of service delivery.

Everyone, from a single house owner to farms, commercial buildings, local government and national government will have to get involved as a matter of urgency.

How can every person make a difference?

• Creating awareness amongst all residents of our country.

• Stop the use of septic tanks since septic tanks pollute our groundwater.

• Involve communities.

• Corporate companies can make a huge difference by investing in the water sector my means of corporate responsibility programs.

Case studies Below are some case studies where the Clarus Fusion was used to either address an existing problem or simply to assist a customer in going green.

Barloworld Maputo: Potable water is used in the building. The waste water is treated by means of the Clarus Fusion WWTP. After using water on the wash bay, the wash bay water is collected in a sump (grit traps

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and oil separators are in place), mixed with the Fusion effluent and used for irrigation.

Lodges in Botswana: Due to the flexibility in size and ease of installation, Fusions could be strategically placed in tented camps and lodges to prevent pollution while making the water available for irrigation. Low power consumption makes the Fusion very attractive since most of these lodges do not have access to grid power.

Single residential: In the Stellenbosch Municipal area, septic tanks may no longer be built. Home users thus install conservancy tanks. Pumping these tanks is expensive while the additional volume only adds to the problem of a municipal plant that is already 50% overloaded. By installing the Clarus Fusion WWTP customers repaid the capital cost in as little as 10 months by means of savings on the “honey sucker” cost. Maskam Water Dealers have installed several of these plants in the area, ranging from single household to farms.

In other towns (i.e. Kuruman, Vanrhyns­ dorp, Citrusdal, Kleinmond, Betty's Bay and many others), the municipalities simply do not have the capacity to pump the tanks often enough. That results in raw sewage overflowing from conservancy tanks, which not only creates a pollution problem but poses huge health risks. Once again the Fusion WWTP was used in many instances to take care of the pollution problem while reducing the demand on potable water through reusing of the treated water.

Hotels and guest houses: There are several hotels and guest houses in Southern Africa where all the water from the building is treated by means of the Clarus Fusion WWTP and used for irrigation purposes.

Schools and clinics: The Clarus Fusion WWTP has been used at schools in Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa, with Oyster Bay and Wellington being the most recent

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installations. Installation is quick and can give the children access to dignified sanitation in less than a week.

Informal settlements: By using the Clarus Fusion WWTP in conjunction with containerised ablution facilities like the Kayaloo from Absolute Ablutions, every single informal settlement in this country can have dignified sanitation. While the treated water can be re-used to the benefit of the community, the municipality will cover the cost of installation within three years by means of saving in hiring cost of chemical toilets.

Commercial buildings: The first commercial building in Africa that used the Clarus Fusion WWTP to treat their own waste water was in Accra, Ghana, where 2 x ZF4000s were installed in the basement parking area.

New developments: Developers can stretch their cash flow and save millions on infrastructure by using the Clarus Fusion WWTP. This first installation of this kind was done at Lakowe Lakes, Lekki Island, Nigeria.

The low energy consumption and small footprint was crucial in the decision making process. Since the developer can install the units as needed, there is no need for a huge concrete structure to be built before the first person can take occupation. There is also no need for a centralised waste water network and pumping stations. Many other projects like this are in planning phase at the time of going to print.

Industrial effluent: The Clarus Fusion WWTP can be used to treat organic type industrial effluent. Daily volumes will be calculated according to the organic load.

Foodcorp in Centurion uses Fusion as pretreatment, to reduce Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).

Petrol stations: Fusion has been successfully used in treated waste water from petrol stations. See photo below of a

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plant installed at Shell Ultra City, Lobatse, Botswana. The effluent sample is after one year of operation.

Mining: In Namibia and Botswana mines are using the effluent from Fusion to plant fresh crop for the staff, since the mines are too remote to receive regular fresh supply.

Shopping centres: The Clarus Fusion works equally well in treating shopping centre waste water. Effluent can be used for toilet flushing or irrigation.

Mobile Ablution Facilities: Recently Maskam Water and Absolute Ablutions developed the AACU – A mobile ablution facility with built-in WWTP. This is ideal for construction sites, mining, exploration, adventure tours, etc. The unit is built in an ISO registered container frame, thus the unit can be shipped anywhere in the world by means of road- or sea-freight. Setting up takes less than two minutes.

Summary: We have technology available in South Africa that can immediately address our shortage of potable water (by means of not having to use potable water for irrigation, toilet flushing, etc.) while at the same time we can address the pollution of our water resources. In order to make this happen, action is needed from several spheres, including: • Municipalities – municipalities need to amend their bylaws to allow the use of DWWTPs while they should discourage the use of septic tanks and conservancy tanks. All new developments should have a dual water supply (potable and nonpotable) to cater for re-use of treated waste water.

• Government – DWWTP should form part of infrastructure development.

• DWS – the Water Act is in place but few people understand how to apply, what to apply for and where to go for assistance.

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DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

DWS can play a major role in education and setting up a dedicated help desk to assist people that want to use DWWTPs. Professionals and specifiers – The Fusion technology alone is in use overseas for more than five decades, the factory builds over 40,000 plants per year and still have 28 people on R&D. There are many other DWWTPs with similar track records.

Designing big plants might look like good profit, but that is short term while alternative technology like this opens up many more doors of opportunity.

Corporates need to invest in this kind of technology, not only for own use but to improve the lives of people by means of corporate responsibility programs.

Developers will benefit most since the plants can be installed in public open space, thus no land is wasted and the full area is available for development.

Commercial banks need to step up to the challenge and make financing available for this kind of technology.

Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane recently said that 27 district municipalities in the country are in a dire state in terms of water capacity.15 The time to act is NOW.

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CONSERVATION

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References 1. http://www.infrastructurene.ws/2015/06/01/ sa-working-towards-water-and-sanitation-revolution/?inf_contact_ key=c5ec2758d3ff2e5ce31726a6f7356a0c6a54fb27592a0a4e8a06c54a86d765bd 2. http://ewn.co.za/2015/02/01/Ladysmith-may-experience-water-crisis 3. http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=7686 4. http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/electronic_journals/agriprob/agriprob_ v12_n2_a22.pdf 5. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-04/ botswana-capital-faces-water-crisis-as-key-dam-reaches-mud-level 6. http://www.infrastructurene.ws/2015/02/06/gaborone-dam-runs-dry/ 7. http://www.water.gov.bw/images/Reports/hydrodata.pdf 8. http://www.infrastructurene.ws/2015/07/09/ fears-of-water-contamination-crisis-in-hammanskraal/ 9. http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/environment/umgeni-river-one-of-dirtiestin-sa-1.1529000#.Vdyp62eKCM9 10. http://nepadwatercoe.org/wp-content/uploads/Strategic-Overview-of-the-WaterSector-in-South-Africa-2013.pdf 11. https://www.dwa.gov.za/io/Docs/CMA/CMA%20GB%20Training%20Manuals/ gbtrainingmanualchapter1.pdf 12. http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-06-25-water-shedding-feel-it-it-is-almosthere/#.Ve8ZRGeKCM8 13. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ South-Africas-looming-water-disaster-20141103 14. http://www.enca.com/south-africa/water-woes-next-crisis-sa 15. http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/govt-wages-war-water-leaks 16. http://www.sajs.co.za/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/38-141-1-PB.pdf 17. http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2015/05/05/ water-shortages-about-to-put-load-shedding-in-the-dark

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WATER SUPPLY

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Rainwater harvesting: Playing a valuable role in increasing the resilience and sustainability of water supply

Jeremy Gibberd

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outh African is a water scarce country and studies indicate that 98% of available water supplies are already exploited. In addition, a number of South African cities, such as Johannesburg, are vulnerable to water shortages if a severe drought occurs (Department of Environmental Affairs, 2011).

Therefore, it is important to understand how water can be used as efficiently as possible and to explore alternatives to municipal piped water supplies. Rainwater harvesting provides a simple way of capturing and storing water which can be used to supplement, or replace, municipal water supplies. It can be used to reduce the pressure on municipal systems and provides a valuable buffer for households and businesses against drought and local water shortages.

This chapter describes how rainwater harvesting can play a valuable role in increasing the resilience and sustainability of water supply. The different types of rainwater harvesting systems are described and advantages and disadvantages of the technology listed. Some of the key design and operational principles are presented to enable the practicality and applicability of systems to be understood. Finally, conclusions are drawn and policy, and other, recommendations are made to support the increased adoption of rainwater harvesting systems in South Africa.

The water context The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) estimates that 450 million people in 29 countries suffer from water shortages (UNEP, 2008). Within Africa, UNEP indicates that many countries

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experience physical or economic water scarcity. Economic water scarcity is experienced in countries where access to water may be limited by human, institutional or financial capital, even though water is available locally. This is shown in green on figure 1. Countries with light orange, such as South Africa, are nearing physical water scarcity, and countries with deep orange (also South Africa) economic between water and scarcity (UNEP, 2014).

Figure 1: Areas of Physical and Economic Water Scarcity in Africa (UNEP 2014) Climate change will exacerbate water scarcity in some regions and UNEP suggests that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population and 25 countries in Africa will be experience water-stress (UNEP 2008).

Projected warming of between 0.2°C and 0.5°C per decade will result in 10% less rainfall in interior regions of Africa, resulting in agricultural yields being reduced by up to 50%, as shown in figure 2 (UNEP, 2014).

This will be experienced most acutely in

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semi-arid margins of the Sahara along the Sahel and in the southern African interior.

These changes will affect small farmers and poor people worst as their capacity to adapt, by accessing stored water, irrigated agriculture and alternative livelihoods, is limited.

with water services and that households indicating that they had received good water service dropped from 76% in 2005, to 63% in 2013.

The quality of water services is related directly to water infrastructure and a range of challenges have been identified by the Department of Water and Sanitation.

These are listed briefly below (Wensley & Mackintosh, 2015).

Poor water services planning • Aging water infrastructure with a rapidly increasing need for additional investment. Limited technical and engineering skills to plan and manage infrastructure. • Reduced adequacy of existing water resources. • Changing patterns in water demand.

Increased energy consumption, and therefore, pumping costs.

Figure 2: Cereal productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 under an IPCC climate change scenario (UNEP 2014) The South African context The availability of water in South Africa is affected by the uneven spatial distribution of rainfall, low stream flow in many rivers and the location of many towns and cities away from larger water courses. This has meant that water may have to be pumped long distances in order to provide supplies in cities (Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation, 2012).

The South African General Household Survey indicates that 12.8 million households currently have access to piped water (StatsSA, 2014). This represents 84% of the population, indicating that a significant proportion of the households still do not have piped water. The survey also indicates that households are becoming less satisfied

These challenges affect the extensive water infrastructure network that is required for piped municipal water supply, including water resources and bulk infrastructure, and distribution infrastructure (as shown in figure 3).

While initiatives have been put in place to address this situation, a number of challenges are likely to persist. There include water outages when water infrastructure fails, water tariff increases to meet rising infrastructure and energy costs and water shortages resulting from changing and increasing water demands. In addition, it is likely that there will be reduced capacity within existing water resources, such as dams, to meet demand as a result of droughts associated with climate change. Finally, limited resources mean that water supply backlogs will take time to address and some households will continue not to have piped municipal water in the near future.

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Figure 3: Infrastructure required for piped municipal water supply (Wensley & Mackintosh, 2015) Given this situation, it is important that individuals, organisations as well as government work together in order to ensure that water supplies are inclusive, accessible, affordable, clean and reliable.

A technology that can be used to support this goal is rainwater harvesting.

Rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of rainwater for agricultural, domestic or industrial use. Rainwater systems usually consist of the following components.

• Collection: This is the area where rainwater is collected. This usually consists of roof surfaces but can also include other external hard surfaces such as sports and play areas and sloped land.

• Filters: In order to remove debris and dust, simple filters are often included between the collection surface and storage tanks.

• Circulation: Water is transported through pipes or channels, such as gutters and downpipes, to the storage tank • Storage: Tanks are used to store water and can vary widely in shapes and size.

They are usually located near collection surfaces.

• Filtration: Where water will be used for human consumption, filtration systems may be included.

• Usage: When stored water is required, this is drawn from water tanks and circulated to the point where it used. Rainwater can be used for irrigation, flushing toilets, cleaning and drinking and a range of other uses.

Advantages and disadvantages of rain­water harvesting While there are many advantages of rainwater harvesting systems, there are also some disadvantages. This section

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briefly outlines both the advantages and disadvantages of rainwater harvesting (UNEP, 2009).

Advantages • Reduced flooding, storm water runoff and erosion as rainwater flows are captured and runoff is managed.

• Reduced requirement for imported water from other regions or countries where supply can be affected by other parties.

• Less energy is required for pumping water.

• The technology is simple and can easily be installed by unskilled labour in domestic situations.

• Increasingly cost effective to install as payback periods reduce as water tariffs of municipal piped water increase.

• Provides water where it is needed, such as within a building or to a landscape, reducing the requirement for piped networks.

• Can make use of existing structures such as rooftops, parking areas, playgrounds, parks and ponds.

• Has fewer negative environmental impacts compared to other water resource developments, such as dams.

• Water captured is clean and can be used for many purposes with little treatment.

• Physical and chemical properties of rain­­water are superior to groundwater or munici­pally treated water that may be subjected to contamination or chemical dosing.

• Rainwater systems can be designed to co-exist with existing municipal supplies and reduce pressure on these.

• Storage of rainwater can provide a valuable buffer during planned and unplanned repairs and maintenance of municipal water supplies.

• Reduced water losses dues to leaks, as these are more readily identified in the simple storage and piped networks that exist within a site.

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• Improved water conservation as users are more aware of water stored on site and the limited capacity of this.

• Physical properties of water can be used as part of the built environment’s environmental control strategy. For instance, evaporation off water surfaces can be used for evaporative cooling.

Similarly, the high thermal mass of water can be used in passive environmental control strategies.

Disadvantages • Rainwater harvesting tanks can take up considerable space.

• The costs of a rainwater harvesting system can be substantial. However, these costs may be justified by reduced, or avoided, payment for piped water from municipalities or other sources.

• Rainwater tanks, if not designed and maintained properly, can be a location where mosquitoes breed.

• The supply of water is reliant on rainfall and, therefore, may not always be reliable.

• Large rainwater tanks, if not protected properly, can present a drowning risk for children or adult non-swimmers.

• Rainwater tanks may need cleaning if debris and dust are washed into tanks.

This can be addressed through effective filtration.

• If rainwater harvesting is widely applied there is a danger that this will affect existing drainage systems which may have less water and experience reduced flows.

Types of rainwater harvesting systems Many different types of rainwater harvesting system exist. These are designed to respond to the local climate, site parameters and local requirements for rainwater. Some examples of the main types are outlined below (UNEP 2009).

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• Simple roof catchment system: This system consists of rainwater tanks which are linked to gutters and downpipes of smaller, domestic-scale buildings.

Usually, water in these situations is used for garden irrigation, but can also be used for human consumption in remote areas where is no municipal supply.

• Institutional catchment systems: This system consists of one or more large rainwater tanks fed by a range of catchment surfaces. For instance, tanks may be fed by classroom roofs and hard playground surfaces, in the case of a school. Here water is usually used for landscape irrigation, but may also be used for cleaning and to flush toilets. It may also be filtered and used for human consumption in areas where potable water is not readily available.

• Neighbourhood catchment systems: These systems capture rainwater that falls within a selected area of human settlement and catchment surfaces may include roads, roofs, pavements and hard and soft surfaces. Rainwater is usually directed to the lowest point of the neighbourhood where it is stored in substantial ponds or subsurface tanks. Water in these systems can be used for irrigating parks, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens as well as for domestic use such as flushing toilets.

These systems can be integrated effectively into urban areas by being located beneath urban squares where they can also be used to reduce local temperatures and the urban heat island effect.

• Land surface catchment systems: These consist of subsurface tanks or ponds that are fed from land surface catchment areas. Catchment areas here can be small (100-200m2) or large (over 2ha). These systems usually have a filtration device

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to reduce the extent to which debris or silt from the land surface is washed into tanks. A version of this system, called a hafir, is used in dry arid areas, such as the Sudan to capture rainwater for irrigation, livestock and settlements and can be considerable in size (tanks can be over 250,000m3).

• Agricultural catchment systems: There are a range of systems in agriculture for capturing and retaining runoff so that this can be used by plants and livestock.

Very simple systems, which may not be strictly speaking rainwater harvesting systems, include swales and terracing which retain runoff on site and direct this to plant roots. Very small dams in cultivated or wild landscapes are also used trap runoff and store this as drinking water for free range livestock and wildlife.

Design and operational considerations The design and planning of rainwater systems requires a detailed understanding of the local conditions, climate and water use requirements in order to ensure that system is designed correctly and works efficiently. This section provides design and operational considerations in relation to rainwater harvesting systems (UNEP 2009).

Catchment surfaces The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to catchment surfaces.

• Smooth, hard roof surfaces make the best catchment surfaces, and this includes roofs made of metal or concrete.

• Catchment surfaces must be non-toxic, and asbestos roofs (and surfaces with coatings which include lead, chromium, and zinc-based paints/coatings) should be avoided.

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• Gravel and other forms of ballast are sometimes placed on flat roofs. In dusty locations, this is difficult to keep clean and as runoff may have high levels of silt these surfaces may not be suitable for rainwater collection.

• Catchment surfaces should be cleaned regularly and dust and other debris should not be allowed to collect. Access to catchment areas and a cleaning programme is, therefore, important • As far as possible, roofs should be clear of overhanging trees to avoid leaves gathering on the collection surface. In addition, animals such as birds should be discouraged from settling on catchment surfaces as their droppings contaminate water.

• If parking areas are used for collection, care should be taken to avoid any oil that may have leaked from cars from contaminating water. This can be addressed through oil traps and ensuring that water collected in these areas is separated from cleaner water collected from elsewhere (such as roofs).

Circulation The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to circulation from catchment surfaces to rainwater tanks.

• Gutters and downpipes should be adequately sized to ensure that they cater for heavy downpours (when these occur).

• Leaf screens or other basic filters can be fitted to rainwater goods to reduce debris from entering the system.

• Where collection areas include planting, such as roof gardens, outlets should be located to ensure that some water is retained for plants. This can be done by locating outlets above the lowest point of the collection surface to ensure that a portion of the subsurface water is retained.

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Filters The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to filters from catchment surfaces to rainwater tanks.

• ‘First-flush’ filters direct initial flows of water from rainfall on a collection surface to waste to ensure that any debris or dust that is picked up does not contaminate stored water.

• An alternative system used is baffle tank, which has screens to filter debris and small settlement tank where silt can be captured and removed.

• These filters are an effective way of avoiding the need to clean rainwater harvesting tanks regularly.

Storage tanks The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to rainwater tanks.

• Storage tanks are the most expensive component of a rainwater harvesting system so is worth investigating the best option. In simple rooftop systems, plastic or steel tanks located on a concrete base near a building are often used. In larger systems, water tanks can be underground and may be made of concrete.

• Water has a high thermal mass and, therefore, can be used as part of the thermal design of a building. For instance, passive environmental control strategies including evaporative cooling and night time cooling of thermal mass can use a body of stored water to keep buildings cool in hot climates.

• Sunlight stimulates the growth of algae, so storage tanks should be opaque, or located where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight.

• Water tanks should include mechanisms for overflow which directs water elsewhere when tanks are full. Without

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Figure 4: The potential for rainwater harvesting in Gaborone, Botswana (ICRAF & UNEP, 2005)

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• •

•

•

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this mechanism, there is a danger of tanks ‘burst’ as a result of water pressure.

The interiors of water tanks should be accessible so that these can be cleaned and any silt and debris removed.

PVC tanks can be damaged and may be moved easily when they are empty as they made of lightweight materials.

Therefore they should be located where they will not be damaged, or they should be protected, by, for instance, fencing. Stay cables and locating outlets well above the floor of these tanks (to retain some water in the bottom of the tank) can also be used to avoid the tank being physically moved by people, livestock or high winds.

In large rainwater harvesting systems, where water is sourced from both roof and ground level hard surfaces it may be advisable to have a number of tanks rather than a single tank. This can be used reduce the size of tanks, allowing these to be accommodated more easily on a site.

It also enables water of different qualities to be stored and allows maintenance and repairs to be carried out more easily.

Access to the tank should be screened, to avoid insects from entering the tank and breeding.

Filtration The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to rainwater filtration.

• Where rainwater is used for irrigation or to flush toilets, it is not usually necessary to filter this. However, where water is used for human consumption, simple filtration systems can be used to ensure that water is clean.

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THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

Usage The following design and operation considerations should be made in relation to rainwater usage.

• Rainwater is usually used for irrigation but can be used for washing and human consumption.

• As debris and silt settle on to the floor of the rainwater tanks, outlets should be located to avoid taking water from the very bottom of the tank and should instead source water a little above this, where water is cleaner.

• Water from storage tanks may require pumping in order for this to be used. A simple and environmentally friendly way of doing this is to pump water to header tank using an electric pump powered by photovoltaic panels. Water is then gravity fed from the header tank.

Conclusions and recommendations A review of South Africa’s water situation indicates that it is important to explore alternative technologies and approaches that help ensure that there is an affordable, reliable and clean water supply. The relatively low cost and simplicity of rainwater harvesting systems make this an ideal option to investigate in many situations. Despite this, rainwater harvesting has not been widely adopted in South Africa. The following recommendations are made to support increased adoption of this technology: • Research: Further research on the potential, and implications, of rainwater harvesting systems should be implemen­ ted. This should include GIS-based studies on rainwater harvesting potential, such as those carried out for Gaborone, Botswana (figure 4).

• Guide: A simple, illustrated guide should be developed which explains what a rainwater harvesting system is,

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why it is important and how it can be implemented.

• Calculators: Simple calculators should be developed to support the design of rainwater harvesting systems. These should be made readily available and provide guidance on aspects such as the sizing of rainwater tanks.

• Cost: The cost of rainwater tanks should be made as low as possible. This could be supported by subsidies from the government for rainwater tanks or through tax incentives, similar to those used to promote energy efficiency.

• Demonstration: Rainwater harvesting demonstration sites should be devel­ oped so that these can be visited and inspected by the general public as well

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as building designers and building owners. Centrally located government offices (as well as schools and clinics) would be suitable as demonstration sites.

• Municipal by-laws: Simple municipal bylaws which support the adoption of rainwater harvesting systems should be developed. These should be made available to municipalities wishing to promulgate rainwater harvesting bylaws.

• Building regulations: Building regulations should be drafted to cover water efficiency and rainwater harvesting.

These could be used to make rainwater harvesting systems a legislated require­ ment in buildings.

References

• Department of Environmental Affairs. (2011). World Cup Legacy Report.

Accessed from https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/water.pdf • Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation. (2012). Overview of the SA Water Sector.

Accessed from https://www.dwa.gov.za/Documents/ • ICRAF & UNEP. (2005). Potential for Rainwater Harvesting in Ten African Cities: A GIS Overview.

Accessed from www.unep.org/pdf/RWH-AFRICAN-CITIES.pdf • Statssa. (2014). Households experience increased access to piped water but are less satisfied with the service. Accessed from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=2788 • Wensley, A., & Mackintosh, G. (2015). Water Risks in South Africa, with a particular focus on the “Business Health” of Municipal Water Services. DHI-SA 2015 Annual Conference.

Accessed from https://www.dwa.gov.za/ • UNEP. (2009).The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A Handbook on Rainwater Harvesting in the Caribbean. Prepared by The Caribbean Environmental Health Institute.

• UNEP. (2014). Keeping Track of Adaptation Actions in Africa, Nairobi.

• Figure 1: Areas of physical and economic water scarcity in Africa (UNEP 2014) • Figure 2: Cereal productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 under an IPCC climate change scenario (UNEP 2014) • Figure 3: Infrastructure required for piped municipal water supply (Wensley & Mackintosh, 2015) • Figure 4: The potential for rainwater harvesting in Gaborone, Botswana (ICRAF & UNEP, 2005)

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Collectively investing in our ecological infrastructure to ensure sustainable development

Helen Gordon

IWR WATER RESOURCES (PTY) LTD

IWR Water Resources (Pty) Ltd consists of a small team of experienced and highly qualified hydrologists and water resources engineers. The main focus of the company lies in water resources planning and management, which includes water resources modelling and model development. The Company has extensive experience in the water resources models used within Southern Africa, including WRSM2000 and the Water Resources Yield Model, but have also developed their own water resources modelling tools so as to enable them to remain at the forefront of technology and respond rapidly to specific requirements from clients. Several new techniques have been developed to address specialized aspects in response to the needs of clients. These new techniques include:  Development of operating rules for reservoirs including releases for ecological water requirements.  Streamflow reduction due to forestry and invasive alien plants.  Real-time operation of bulk water supply systems.

The core expertise of the company is as follows:  Yield analysis of dams and large integrated systems  Water resources modeling in support of the determination of ecological water requirements of both rivers and estuaries  Hydrological analysis  Development of operating rules of dams  Flood-line determination IWR Water Resources has offices in Nelspruit and Pietermaritzburg and can be contacted at: Website: www.waterresources.co.za Tel: (013) 752 6857 e-mail: info@waterresources.co.za

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s the age old saying goes, “prevention is better than cure” and our approach to managing South Africa’s fresh water supply should be no different. Rather than spending billions on energy-intensive, technology-dependent solutions to treat or purify our drinking water, the focus should be on preventing the country’s scarce water resources from being polluted in the first place.

“Pollution” most commonly conjures images of litter scattered across a landscape or floating in a vlei or industrial effluents pouring unmonitored into a river. Yet, fertilisers and pesticides, and even top soil washed downstream because of unstable riverbanks all add to the deterioration of the quality of our natural water systems. Certain high impact activities such as mining – especially in sensitive areas such as mountain catchments – can create a huge threat to the country’s tenuous water security. All of these threats, although not individually as severe as mining, have a serious cumulative impact on the health of our water catchment areas and therefore on the quality and quantity of the water supplied.

South Africa historically invested heavily in built water infrastructure – mostly dams and canals – and this is, in part, why the country has enjoyed a false sense of water security over the years. However, we are fast approaching full utilisation of available surface water yields in South Africa and we are also running out of suitable sites for new dams. Time and again investments into the water sector focus on built infrastructure and the maintenance or operations thereof, but water supply issues cannot be solved by simply building more dams or creating more infrastructure. Water does not come from dams or taps – it comes from nature – and we need to secure and protect these natural systems before it’s too late.

It is accepted that our natural systems provide us with numerous benefits – from

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freshwater to food, power generation to recreation. These are commonly referred to as ecological goods and services and are foundational to our social and economic systems1. However, the role that healthy catchments – our natural infrastructure – play in the country’s water security is often neglected. In a similar manner to building one’s financial wealth, a fundamental principal is to not diminish one’s capital. This philosophy holds true when considering sustainable economic development too – first we have to secure the integrity of our ecological systems that provide us with the ecological goods and services upon which we depend – especially our clean drinking water in a country as water scarce as South Africa is. With only 8% of South Africa’s land providing more than half of the country’s surface water resources, it is even more imperative that these water source areas are prioritised and protected to ensure we do not jeopardise our water ‘capital’.

Additionally, it is important to optimise the way in which ecological systems (our ‘capital’) deliver goods and services, ensuring that the conversion of these services to social and economic benefits minimises the impact on the systems themselves.

A healthier catchment delivers greater

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benefits for longer. Thus, the country’s water security relies heavily on rehabilitating, maintaining and conserving our natural infrastructure. Without investing in the natural ecosystem, dams and other built infrastructure will be rendered useless.

Investing in healthy catchments When investing in our ecological infrastructure, it is not only important to consider the cost of the investment to be made, but also the costs that may be incurred through inaction. It is accepted that healthy, more intact catchments are more resilient to climate change. This is an important point when considering that the direct damage costs associated with climate-related extreme events between 2003 to 2008 amounted to more than R3 billion in the Western Cape alone2. Disaster risk reduction and prevention through the investment in ecological infrastructure is often less costly than disaster relief and response, while also going further in building resilient landscapes and societies. Additionally, investment in ecological infrastructure supports built infrastructure, lengthening the ‘life span’

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of the latter and reducing the need for additional built infrastructure, thereby having further cost savings3.

A long-standing and ever-increasing threat to both the health of South Africa’s fresh water ecosystems and the sustainability of the country’s water resources is the rapid spread of invasive alien plants (IAP). These plants from foreign lands are fast growing and water thirsty, unlike our indigenous climate-adapted vegetation. IAPs can drastically lower available water resources, with their greatest impact being on stream flows, also causing increasing siltation and degrading water quality. IAPs often use more water than the surrounding indigenous vegetation and currently 1.44 billion m3 of water is lost annually across the country to these plants4, with this impact due to increase dramatically if IAPs are left to spread uncontrolled.

These IAPs out-compete the indigenous vegetation resulting in a loss of hydrological functioning of our freshwater ecosystems, especially when this invasion takes place in the riparian zone. Other impacts of IAPs are increased erosion and siltation (decreasing

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dam capacity); loss of productive land (decreasing food security); increased fire and flood risk; loss of biodiversity and an overall decrease in the resilience of the landscape, increasing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Thus, in the early 2000s, IAP clearing was identified as one of the most important water supply side interventions South Africa could make at a national scale (National Water Resource Strategy 2004).

The threat of IAPs on South Africa’s water security and its sustainable development is well recognised and Government already spends millions of Rands annually on IAP management through the Working for Water programme. However, the significant challenge ahead is complex and requires holistic approaches to finding solutions. It also requires that all sectors of business and society take ownership of, and responsibility for the wise use and protection of the country’s scarce water resources. Government alone cannot achieve the extent of change required regarding water provisioning and use to ensure “some for all forever”. A greater collective action is required in order to counter IAP proliferation and impact on our water resources.

WWF saw this threat as an opportunity to challenge and empower corporate South Africa (significant water users) to become active water stewards, recognising their dependency on water and their responsibility to ensure its future supply.

Water, or the lack thereof, can directly affect companies’ profitability and, in turn, investor confidence. In the worst cases poor water management can force closure or relocation of business operations. It is widely acknowledged that water scarcity poses a serious risk to corporates in various ways, including supply chain failures, operational crises, increasing costs, brand management

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as well as broader corporate social responsibility issues. The potential economic impact of water issues was highlighted by global leaders in January 2015 when they listed this as the world’s greatest risk5. The Western Cape Government recognised water as being “the Achilles' heel of the Western Cape economy”.2 Working with the private sector Private sector investment in the water sector is not uncommon. Then, however, WWF aims to link the water user back to the importance of the health our natural infrastructure for the country’s future water security. Traditionally corporates’ investments in the water sector have been to address production or operational issues, with water being valued as a resource input (i.e. dependent on the price of water for withdrawing or consuming it), or as a liability (i.e. the cost to treat pollution or mitigate regulatory fines)6.

Focus has been on mitigating the internal, company-related risks that businesses face with less emphasis on addressing the catchment-related risks. The latter requires going beyond the company’s “fence” to address the water quantity and quality issues within the catchment and the impacts this may have on society and the environment6. Investments into this space should not be viewed as only a benevolent act, but rather a sound decision continuing to address risk mitigation. Focusing only on internal operations will have a limited impact as it does not address the very real risks companies face due to the ‘external’, catchment-related factors.

Despite the risks water issues pose for the sustainability and profitability of the economy, many companies do not know where to begin to mitigate these risks. This uncertainty is the result of many factors, one being the need for collaborative stakeholder engagement and the collective

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action required in order to achieve the desired outcomes in the landscape. In this regard, WWF has established itself as a leader in engaging with corporates on the broader issues deemed vital to achieving water security in South Africa. WWF South Africa does extensive work in the water stewardship space and one of the initiatives it created is the Water Balance Programme, which focuses on improved catchment health through alien vegetation clearing and river restoration.

The Water Balance Programme was deemed innovative as it enables corporates to take a quantified approach when investing into water security. Additionally, it links the water user to the importance of investing in ecological infrastructure in some of the country’s most important catchments.

The programme takes cognisance of the size of the corporate’s operational water use, which they balance through clearing a sufficient number of hectares of waterthirsty IAPs, while improving catchment health and delivering additional social and economic benefits. Thus the participating corporates take a step beyond their internal efforts to proactively invest back into the country’s water security. Such investments into ecological infrastructure also present numerous opportunities for companies to contribute to other targets – including national development goals such as job creation and poverty alleviation, as well as social and economic development targets – thus investing in a more stable society3. The private sector can also add great value to this space through increased innovation which may result in unlocking new markets, such as solutions for using biomass for energy.

The Water Balance approach The Water Balance Programme encourages businesses to voluntarily commit to a threestep process of Review, Reduce, Replenish.

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The Review step requires the participant to accurately measure and understand its direct or operational water use. By the participant developing and implementing a water reduction and efficiency strategy (the Reduce step), the programme then incorporates demand-side management of the country’s water supply.

It is the Replenish step – implemented simultaneously with the reduction strategy – that achieves a supply-side intervention.

Here the participant invests in projects that will make “new” water available into fresh water ecosystems, approximately in proportion to their operational water use.

This is currently achieved in prioritised catchments through IAP clearing and restoration work, thus achieving tangible change in the landscapes where it counts most for the country.

WWF believes that there may be numerous ways in which to determine the required size of the investment a water user should make back into the rehabilitation and stewardship of water provisioning ecosystems. However, as mentioned earlier, WWF has concentrated its efforts on the quantification of water made available through the removal of invasive alien plants as a start.

The large amount of data available on the topic through the current and historic experiences of the Working for Water Programme (enabling a quantitative approach); the growing threat and extensive impacts of IAPs as listed earlier; the collaborative approach required and the labour intensive nature of IAP clearing, made this an obvious first choice for WWF. Thus, WWF collaborated with scientists to estimate the average water use of a hectare of various IAP species, as well as the national norms for the costs to clear such species in order to determine the proportionate investment to be made by the water user.

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Over the last several years, Water Balance has worked with SAB Ltd (during the two year Water Balance pilot phase), Nedbank, Woolworths, Sonae Novobord and Sanlam, unlocking a total of over R22 million of private sector investment to prevent approximately over two million kilolitres of water being lost to IAPs, while creating over 35,000 person days of work (or 155 full-time equivalents).

To ensure that Water Balance is investing in some of the country’s most important catchment areas, the programme prioritised catchments based on several factors.

Included in these is WWF’s Water Source Areas7; areas of high biodiversity value, WWF presence on the ground, willing

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landowners and opportunity for other social benefits to be achieved. This resulted in four main nodes of implementation, namely the Grasslands (Mpumalanga), the upper reaches of the Berg and Breede catchments (Western Cape); the Garden Route from George to Plettenberg Bay (Western Cape); and the Umgeni (KwaZulu-Natal). These water source areas also supply water to some of the country’s most important economic hubs, including Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

On the implementation side, the programme adopted an adaptive management approach in order to test several implementation models. The programme aimed to channel these

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investments to responsible landowners (mostly farmers) who have either shown or are willing to show further commitment to environmental sustainability through entering into land stewardship agreements.

Thus, the financial assistance serves as either an incentive or reward, subsidising the typically overwhelming and costly challenge of IAP clearing.

These stewardship agreements help to ensure the longevity of the investment since it further reinforces landowners’ long-term commitment to maintaining their land free of IAPs. Unfortunately, not all properties to be cleared qualified for stewardship agreements and stewardship capacity within the Government conservation bodies is overstretched. Water Balance therefore included properties with no stewardship

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agreements in place, but where landowner agreements commit the landowners to the long-term maintenance of the cleared areas.

To date, an estimated 60% of the hectares cleared of IAPs by Water Balance (just under 2 000 hectares) fall under either biodiversity stewardship agreements or areas with protected environment status.

Restoring riparian zones It is said that climate change will bring an increase in extreme weather events (e.g. increased variability and intensity of rainfall events). Healthy riparian zones are vital for resilience in our fresh water systems to cope with these impacts. Removal of IAPs is the first step towards restoring these systems.

However, the emphasis to date has been on IAP clearing, rather than restoration of

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riparian vegetation or function. Some of the IAP clearing methods can be detrimental to recovery instead of optimising restoration, which results in further degradation and loss of riparian ecosystem structure and function.

The management of IAPs is an integral part of restoration and the Water Balance Programme plans and executes the two processes in a holistic manner. By managing the clearing process carefully, many rivers can self-restore without any additional intervention. Where this is not possible, however, additional interventions in the form of active restoration (planting and/or seeding) are required to return river function and prevent further degradation. The establishment of vegetation cover also suppresses IAP regrowth and is a pre-requisite for the long-term management and control thereof, without which rivers again enter a downward spiral of re-invasion and degradation.

Another, often cost-effective, “arrow in the quiver” that Water Balance advocates when managing IAPs is the use of biological controls, also known as biocontrol. This refers to the use of living natural enemies or agents (insects, mites or fungi) of an IAP to reduce the economic and environmental damage that IAP causes. Most of these agents are sourced from the country of origin of that agent’s respective enemy IAP and can only be released in South Africa following extensive safety testing. It is often a little more difficult to guarantee the success rate with each use of the biocontrol and results generally take longer than other forms of mechanical clearing-based control options. However, it is critical to integrate the use biocontrol with mechanical and/or chemical control options to maximise the effectiveness and reduce the costs of any IAP control programme.

Opportunities for biomass industry Investing in ecological infrastructure does not come without challenges and with

ECOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

IAP clearing, a significant one is the large amounts of debris caused by the clearing.

This debris is classified as usable or unusable biomass and, in most cases, it is simply burnt or left to rot as these are the only two approaches landowners can afford.

While there are times when these approaches are the most suitable options, there are often more desirable approaches to dealing with the biomass, which can create secondary industries/micro-enter­ prises. These options include firewood, charcoal, timber extraction, woodchips for various purposes, as well as pulp and mulch to create compost. However, a number of factors influence the viability thereof, such as the accessibility of the biomass, quantity of biomass created, proximity of a market and the availability of funds.

It is important for the biomass to be dealt with, because if left in the river’s floodplain it poses a potential fire hazard risk, as well as the potential to damage both the banks of a river during a heavy rainfall, as well as downstream infrastructure such as bridges, pumps and pump houses. Government has been grappling with biomass issues since the inception of the Working for Water Programme, but has yet to unlock any solution that could be applied at scale. WWF believes that the innovation of the private sector could really add value in this space and is investing in exploring this potential new market.

Bringing stakeholders together Other challenges the Water Balance Prog­ ramme has experienced over the years include matching the funder’s timelines for deliverables with infield realities, the high cost of clearing and the high level of stakeholder engagement required to implement at scale. Water Balance’s early approach was to operate entirely on corporate funds and to implement directly

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with the landowners as implementers, capacitating them to do the clearing themselves. While this is ideal for the sustainability of the clearing as landowners are well capacitated to maintain the cleared areas once the programme withdraws, the landowners were not able to deliver the clearing at a pace which could fulfil the corporate requirements. Although investing in ecological infrastructure is often more cost effective and sustainable than alternative solutions, this does not negate that fact that IAP clearing, restoration and dealing with biomass are costly interventions. This is especially true when implementing in mountainous terrain, which is common in the country’s highest water yield catchments. Additionally, implementing in a strategic manner at catchment scale requires extensive stakeholder engagement, collaboration and finances.

The level of required stakeholder engagement is also increased when focus is placed on clearing and restoring riparian zones, which maximises the benefits of the intervention. This approach means that implementation often involves more landowners and can be on both private and state-owned land. A further challenge is,

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due to the public good characteristics of the relevant ecological infrastructure, the private sector is often not incentivised to invest in this more costly but beneficial approach.

These, and other challenges, led WWF to believe that a fresh approach was needed for the Water Balance Programme. Instead of operating entirely on funds invested by the private sector, the programme realised that multiple funding streams (including state funding) together with stakeholder collaboration would be required to address the challenges faced and to implement interventions at a more meaningful scale.

Fortuitously, Government’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) Programme1 came to a similar realisation in 2013 – Government alone has insufficient resources to tackle the immense challenge posed by IAP and related issues, which requires collaborative efforts and resources.

Consequently, Government developed the Land User Incentive (LUI) Programme. In order to qualify, one of the requirements for a funding applicant is to demonstrate additional private investment, be it landowner contribution in-kind or private finances, thereby assisting Government resources to go further. If successful, these funds come

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with certain objectives, primarily poverty alleviation, that one has to deliver on in order to continue to receive the funds agreed to.

While greatly beneficial, bringing together Government and private sector funds and requirements and attempting to match these with infield deliverables is tremendously challenging. It is important to recognise that funder-driven timelines and in-situ requirements may not always enable a project to deliver the necessary outcomes in time and thus one needs to be very careful about what one ‘sells’ to the investors.

Another challenge is the extensive amount of stakeholder engagements necessary to make any intervention at catchment scale successful and sustainable. Again, the time required for this step alone often does not align with the timelines for the project deliverables.

The NRM LUI programme is one of the first operating examples in South Africa of a platform created to bring together state

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and private sector funding into ecological infrastructure at scale and should be commended for this. However, more focus needs to be placed on understanding the requirements necessary to create an enabling space, where Government, civil society and the private sector can collaborate in such a way that plays to each party’s strengths.

Achieving this could enable greater innovation and efficiency, while unlocking increased investments into the country’s most important ecological infrastructure.

South Africa’s sustainable economic development is inextricably linked to the country’s scarce water resources, the continued provision of which is conditional on the sustained health of our catchments.

Collaboration, collective action and increased investment, both private and state, into our ecological infrastructure are prerequisites for a prosperous future for South Africa.

1 The Natural Resources Management Programmes form part of the Expanded Public Works Programmes and protect and benefit the natural resources of the country by acting as Implementing Agents of natural resource management projects, operational support, planning and capacity building programmes in partnership with the Environmental Programmes Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs.

References 1. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (2008). People, Planet, Prosperity: A National Framework for Sustainable Development in South Africa.

2. Western Cape Government. (2012). The Western Cape as South Africa’s Green Economic Hub – Strategy Framework Discussion document.

3. South African National Biodiversity Institute (2014). A Framework for Investing in Ecological Infrastructure in South Africa. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.

4. WWF-SA (2015). Water Facts and Futures Report (in preparation).

5. World Economic Forum (2015) Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

6. Morgan, A.J, Orr, S. (2015). The Value of Water: A framework for understanding water valuation, risk and stewardship. WWF Discussion Document.

7. WWF-SA (2013). Defining South Africa’s Water Source Areas.

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Rainwater harvesting: Positively impacting on the green economy

Grant Neser

THE MIWATEK ADVANTAGE Miwatek is an innovative advanced-technology company, employing leading water treatment experts who are committed to delivering highly effective, “best-in-class” solutions for the rehabilitation of mine impacted water. Our range of cost-effective solutions are tailored to our client’s requirements – from simple sulphate reduction to zero liquid discharge, you can rely on Miwatek to develop an appropriate solution.

Mine Impacted water (MIW) and other Industrially Impacted Water (IIW) have a serious effect on the environment. Escalating environmental awareness and government activity is forcing mining houses to comply with increasingly higher clean water discharge standards. The industry and environment are in dire need of solutions that are reliable, economical and flexible enough to deal with the variable qualities that have plagues traditional solutions. Miwatek heeded this call and developed unique cost-effective solutions for the treatment of MIW and IIW.

+27 11 656 3936

www.miwatek.co.za

NEXT-GENERATION WATER TREATMENT

With proprietary technology developed in-house by industry-leading engineers, Miwatek has become the technology leader in Mine Water treatment. This has allowed us to develop a range of solutions to address various mine water problems.

Our treatment technologies include: • The Multi- Stage Reverse Osmosis (RO), is an effective, sustainable multi-stage RO system capable of achieving a clean water recovery rate of up to 98 percent.

• The Miwatek Brine Treatment (MBT) Process offers overall water recoveries that approach and include zero brine discharge for a variety of mine impacted waters.

• The Miwatek Ettringite treatment (MET) Process exploits the ettringite precipitation reaction to achieve high sulphate removal targets without the use of reverse osmosis or nanofiltration units.

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T

he looming water crisis is a global issue, not just a South African issue.

Water is an extremely fragile resource that is increasingly under threat due to climate change, increasing populations and rapid urbanization. It is also important to realise that the water cycle on earth is essentially a closed system.

The water we have on earth is all we will ever have. There are no new sources of water; it does not rain down from outer space, nor can water spring anew from any natural process on earth. Moreover, precious little of the planet’s water is fresh and, therefore, potable. Of all the water on earth, more than 97% is salty. It is, therefore, important that all of us, no matter which part of the world we live in, take water very seriously, particularly as the population is growing rapidly whilst the amount of water available remains constant.

In South Africa the situation is exacerbated by the fact that we live in a relatively dry country, with an average annual rainfall of about 464mm (compared to a world average of about 860mm). Additionally, it tends to be concentrated in certain areas and does not fall consistently throughout the year.

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Moreover, water is stored in expensive dams that are, in most cases, remote from where the concentration of users live and work. This leads to expensive pipelines and pumping costs.

Due to the under-recovery of the true cost of water supply in South Africa, the cost of piped water is not that high and, as a result, South Africans tend to be wasteful water users. The reality is that, over time, water will become more and more expensive due to the costs of funding water infrastructures and alternative means of water supply such as desalination. There may come a time that we, and the world, will simply not have enough water to meet future needs so the need to save water will be forced upon all of us.

Many areas of South Africa are currently at a finely balanced point between supply and demand and we need to be reminded that even as demand increases, there will be no additional supply available. Some areas in South Africa have already tipped over this point.

Around 98% of SA’s water is currently allocated1. There is very little opportunity to capture any additional water to cater for population, industrial and commercial

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expansion. Future water supplies will come from water conservation and re-use.

Around 23% of water is currently used for municipal/domestic consumption.

According to the National Water Resources Strategy (NWRS) 2013, “despite being a water-scarce country, South Africa faces high levels of water wastage and inefficient use. In municipalities, non-revenue water is at more than 37% on average, and in many irrigation and municipal supply schemes it is worse, with estimated losses of up to 60%"2.

The importance of rainwater harvesting in South Africa’s transition to a Green Economy cannot be overestimated. It is a sustainable, affordable and proven practice that needs to be at the top of the water agenda. Unfortunately planning committees, architects and builders often overlook it as they plan for a more sustainable future due to a lack of sufficient information. The adoption of rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems as a integral part of our Green economy will have a massive impact on South Africa’s water conservation strategies in the future.

RWH at its basic level can assist munici­ palities and households to reduce water consumption. It can provide a secure water supply, free from the sky, for every

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day purposes as well as during water interruptions. Water saved in urban and rural settings can be used directly for toilet flushing, washing machine and dishwasher use as well as other non-potable or in extreme emergencies, even for potable water uses with correct treatment.

Rainwater can also be used to grow vegetable gardens to help with on site food security. At a much broader level it could be the solution to the water challenges the planet faces.

What is rainwater harvesting (RWH) It’s a beautifully inexpensive and easy-to-do concept aimed at conserving water: Simply collect rainwater that falls on a roof, store it on site, filter and re-use it instead of costly and increasingly pressurised potable municipal water.

The origin of RWH Rainwater harvesting has a long history as both a philosophy and technology, dating back to prehistoric times. It has been used by almost all societies in all parts of the world at some time. Archaeological evidence attests to the capture of rainwater as far back as 4,000 years ago, and the concept of rainwater harvesting in China may date back

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6,000 years. Ruins of cisterns built as early as 2000 B.C. for storing runoff from hillsides for agricultural and domestic purposes are still standing in Israel3.

After an extended period in which it was largely ignored in favour of more centralised ‘engineering’ approaches, rainwater harvesting is once again back on the agenda where it is becoming a key intervention in an effort to adapt to alternative water resources.

Rainwater offers a sustainable, environ­ mentally friendly and free alternative water source as is proved by various studies: An EU study suggests that rainwater harvesting could meet up to 80% of the household needs of a typical family house in southern France.4 In the Ganzu province in China where one of the world’s the most extensive rainwater harvesting programmes to date has been implemented with small-scale water tank storage at household level, 15 million people now have an improved water supply5.

Benefits of rainwater harvesting (RWH) 86% of household water needs can be met through rainwater harvesting.6 Collected FREE rainwater can be used for all household purposes such as garden irrigation, flushing of toilets, washing cars and pets, doing the laundry and topping up the pool.

Its positive impacts on the broader eco­ system services are two-fold: • RWH provides additional water supply, reduces pressures of demand on surrounding surface and groundwater resources, saves consumer spending on municipal water and reduces vulnerability in the event of disrupted supplies.

• RWH reduces storm flow, decreasing incidence of flooding and short peak flows. In addition, rainwater harvesting has saved consumer spending on water,

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helped create green oases and reduced vulnerability in the event of disrupted supplies.

RWH • Provides supplemental water for the city’s requirements.

• Increases soil moisture levels for urban greenery.

• Increases the ground water table through recharge.

• Improves the quality of groundwater.

• Mitigates urban flooding.

Research by Australia’s biggest property website – www.realestate.com.au – has re­veal­ed more vendors are seeing green credentials as selling points, and buyers are responding with one-in-10 people prepared to pay up to 20 per cent more for a ‘green’ home. As water supplies and sustainability move up the agenda, properties that are environmentally friendly are becoming more popular; water tanks rank as the feature most likely to add value to a property. In France, rainwater harvesting is the second highest feature regarded by the public as a positive feature of green building, after renewable energy and before renewable materials.7 Increasing municipal water rates According to the Earth Policy Institute, municipal water tariffs around the world have increased dramatically over the past five years: 27% in the United States, 32% in the United Kingdom, 45% in Australia, 58% in Canada and 50% in South Africa.

Yet consumers rarely pay the actual cost of water. In fact, many governments practically (and sometimes literally) give water away.8 These statistics enhance the value of good quality RWH tanks, such as JoJo Tanks, which collect rain so efficiently, that the smallest roof and the lightest rainfall can lead to a huge amount of water being

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captured in a tank. As an example, a 50m2 roof collects 23,000 L of water a year!

Encouraging South Africans to install RWH tanks in their gardens will provide a national buffer against water prices that are inevitably going to rise to meet the financial investment required to upgrade and maintain South Africa’s antiquated water supply system.

Why rainwater harvesting is the better option While it is an absolute necessity for South Africa’s water infrastructure to be upgraded, it is equally important to educate consumers on how they can save water and to provide them with the means to help them take responsibility for at least part of their own water supply.

This is the view of the JoJo Tanks manag­ ing director, Grant Neser. “It is common knowledge that cities all over the world are facing significant water shortages and ageing infrastructures result in up to two thirds of the water in the system being lost before it reaches its destination. It

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is time to think differently about water.

It is time for innovation in our approach to water conservation and that should include increased consumer environmental education.”

Neser suggests that before installing new infrastructure we should be teaching consumers how to change the way they use water and encourage a water-friendly approach towards urban development.

Cities traditionally have extensive storm water systems, all designed to get rid of water as quickly as possible. “We suggest that it would be better to capture and store some of this water at source, move to permeable paving and water wise gardens and generally ensure that consumers are informed of ways in which urban landscapes can be designed to absorb water better. We need to educate South Africans on how to achieve balance in the natural water cycle.”

Widespread water conservation efforts through education could cost a fraction of the cost of installing new infrastructures or building desalination plants both options that are currently on the public agenda.

The power crisis has made South Africans more aware of what they can do to conserve electricity and worldwide there is a greater focus on ‘green’ initiatives.

“But the fact is that we could soon be facing a water crisis similar (if not greater) than the electricity crisis,” says Neser. “We believe that giving people more control over their own water supply with education around water conservation and then incentivising them for their efforts would be the more effective route.”

This could include offering assistance on the replacement of antiquated home appliances that use excessive amounts of water and subsidising rainwater harvesting systems. It makes sense when it’s proven that harvested rain can supplement up to

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86% of a household’s domestic water use.

If this system is coupled with a greywater harvesting system, the savings could even be greater.”

“Rainwater harvesting systems could be as simple as a water drum under a downpipe or as complex as a huge-multi-tank, under­ ground installation,” explains Neser. He believes that even engineers, architects and landscapers should be educated on the value of working together early to ensure that new buildings are designed to incorporate rainwater and greywater harvesting systems.

Including these systems from the design stage are far more cost effective than retrofitting the system at a later stage.

“The great bonus of rainwater harvesting,” says Neser, “is that consumers can choose the system which suits their requirements and their budgets.”

The correct installation of a RWH tank The most important aspect of the installation is the base on which the tank is placed.

Ideally it needs to be: 1. Robust (concrete is a great choice), spirit level, at least 2cm larger than the base of the tank – and the tank MUST NEVER “hang” over its base.

2. Smooth: no sharp or hard stones or objects should push through the concrete mixture onto the surface as the tank base can be punctured when full.

3. At least 100 -150 mm thick (a 5,000 L tank holds five tons of water!)

Maintain water quality in a RWH tank 1. Roofs used for rainwater harvesting must be kept clean of dust, leaves and debris to avoid contamination, even if a first-flush diverter has been installed.

2. Prune back trees overhanging the roof to prevent them entering into the tank.

RAINWATER HARVESTING

3. Add a first flush diverter: It prevents the initial portion of run-off water (containing most contaminants because the rain washes debris from the roof surface) flowing from the roof into the tank.

4. Add a Leaf Beater: It directs the flow of water from the gutters onto an adjustable self-cleaning screen that prevents debris, leaves and mosquitoes from entering the tank.

5. Install a mesh screen over the opening from the gutter into the downpipe and under the lid of the tank to prevent debris from flowing into the tank.

6. Add a mosquito block to outlets to prevent mosquitoes from entering the tank.

7. Water can be stored indefinitely under certain conditions. However, it is not advisable to drink rainwater collected off the roof. If there is no other water source, boil the water before drinking it. (This means keeping the water at a rolling boil for at least one minute).

WHY GOING GREY IS GOING GREEN The average family of four uses around 940 L of water per day (315,840 L pa) and almost 90% of that water simply leaves the home as wastewater.9 Added to this, approximately 60% of that household water which leaves the home as wastewater is re-usable as grey water as it is perfect to water gardens, wash cars and driveways and flush toilets.

Greywater is generated in homes every day. The basic sources are showers, baths, hand basins and washing machines. This greywater can be harvested using a JoJo Tanks greywater harvesting system and re-used for non-potable water purposes.

Re-using greywater results in money savings in the long-term, reduces the need to use expensive potable municipal water for non-potable uses, is good news in the face of potentially increasing water prices, it also reduces our carbon footprint.

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RAINWATER HARVESTING

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A basic greywater harvesting system The simplest greywater system consists of gravity feeding water to an underground sump (a 50L JoJo drum placed in an enclosure with an inspection cover) where it passes through a macro filter to remove hair fluff and lint. The water is then immediately pumped or drip-irrigated into the garden.

With this system the greywater must be utilised within 24 hours. If stored for longer, it changes into blackwater, develops an offensive odour and becomes foul. These simple systems are cheap, cost effective and relatively maintenance free.

An advanced greywater harvesting system A more sophisticated system can be designed and installed which allows grey­ water to be stored. This system requires the greywater to be treated and the treatment is normally a combination of anaerobic, aerobic and disinfection stages. A specialist installer is required for this option.

JoJo Tanks has a nationwide list of preferred installers (listed on the company’s

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website) so ask them if they install greywater systems. You will quickly be on your way to utilizing this water resource in your garden.

What is greywater and blackwater?

Greywater is defined as water from showers, baths, hand basins in the bathrooms and washing machines.

Blackwater is generated from toilets, kitchen scullery sinks or the dishwasher. It is more difficult and complex to recycle or re-use.

Be water smart, not water short Supplementing water supply by installing a rainwater harvesting tank to harvest FREE rainwater from roofs (as well as recycling and re-using grey water for irrigation or toilet flushing) significantly reduces dependence on municipal water supply.

A water tank is also an important ally when municipal water outages occur.

Installing a 750 L JoJo Slimline™ buffer tank (in line with the municipal water supply into the home), ensures water security and an emergency water supply during water interruptions. This system requires

4

professional installation as it needs to be supplemented with a pressure sensing device and a downstream pressure pump.

One 750L tank should provide enough water to keep the average family supplied with water for essential usage for 48 hours.

A series of tanks can be daisy-chained together to increase water supply.

As the Green Economy transitions from theory to practice RWH offers a sustainable paradigm. However, In the end, education remains the most powerful tool.

South Africans need to be educated about sustainable water practices, they need to understand that the conservation of water begins and ends with them and that RWH offers a sustainable, affordable and environmentally friendly alternative.

It could also be that people may be more interested in water conservation and becoming part of this transition, if they are directly responsible for some of their own water supply, stored and used on site.

About JoJo Tanks JoJo Tanks is South Africa’s industry leader in the manufacture of rotomoulded products.

RAINWATER HARVESTING

It offers polyethylene tank liquid storage solutions for industrial, mining, commercial and domestic usage and a wide range of above and underground tanks suited to waste-, grey- and rainwater harvesting and recycling, as well as fertilizer, chemical, sanitation and fuel applications up to 20,000L. Its specialist manufacturing processes guarantee quality and durability whilst its industry expertise results in innovation and customised roto­moulded solutions.

It’s a household name throughout South Africa with a strong customer focus and an innovative culture.

JoJoTanks is passionate about the role it can play in the conservation of our planet’s future and resources. Whether it works with communities directly or with NGOs, its main aim is to educate South Africans about the urgent need to conserve water and the per­ sonal and community benefits of rainwater harvesting. As a company it is committed to helping keep the world green as well as playing an active role in the protection of natural resources and, particularly, the most threatened of all – water.

References • http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/News/Blog/ eskom-is-burning-south-africas-water-to-produ/blog/42632/ • National Water Resource Strategy, June 2013, 2nd edition SA Dept of Water Affairs • John Gould, Erik Nissen-Petersen: Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply: Design. Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999.

• http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/publications/urban/urbanenv-2/9.asp • http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/ commission-table-directive-water-efficiency-buildings-news-399420 • http://www.lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/rainwater-harvesting/ • http://www.waterinfo.org/resources/water-facts • Alternative Ways of Providing Water: An Advance Copy for the 5th World Water Forum compiled by the OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) 2009.

• www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20150108130952723)

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Retail – Sales of all industrial and agricultural products; mining; and other supplies.

Civil – Installation of all types of borehole pumps, electrical works and pump houses.

Trenching and installation of pipelines and water reticulation.

Water resourcing, testing of borehole yields, drilling for water.

Pump layout design.

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WATER LEAKS

Reducing Municipal Leaks Dr Kevin Harding

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s populations increase (together with growing urban areas), the demand for water increases – yet the total amount of water remains fixed. As such, the pressure on future water supply will only get worse. It is, therefore, important to maintain the water demand management to ensure potable water for all. However, the stress on aging infrastructure sometimes means that leaks are inevitable in public water systems.

South Africa’s average water consumption (just under 300 litres/capita/day) is higher than the world average (just under 200 litres/capita/day) (Figure 1). Municipal leaks can be one of the largest areas where water – and potable water – is lost. This loss

wastes energy, materials, money and time due to treatment of water that is never used. Depending where the leak is located, water could end up increasing bacterial contamination which leads to public health issues and avoidable pollution problems (GrowingBlue, 2012).

The publication Buried No Longer: Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge (AWWA, 2012) reported on the need for infrastructure replacement to avoid leaks in the United States. It was noted that one million miles of piping would need to be replaced within the next 25 years, and that is excluding new infrastructure. The total value of the replacement (grouped

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contamination which leads to public health issues and avoidable pollution problems WATER LEAKS 5 (GrowingBlue, 2012).

Figure 1: Comparison of water consumption around the world (Mckenzie et al., 2012) in Table 1 as large, medium/small and small water systems for four regions of the US) was estimated at USD 2.1 trillion (2010 value). This cost would need to be absorbed in the water pricing itself, and would have to be implemented in a planned manner in order to avoid the need for many replacement projects all at once. Without the replacements, there may be an increase in leaks and service disruption.

Water leaks in a South African context Various Water Research Commission (WRC) projects have been assessed for non-revenue water since the early 2000s. These include: 2002 – D evelopment of a simple and pragmatic approach to benchmark real losses in potable water distribution systems in South Africa.

WRC Report TT 159/01 (Mckenzie and Lambert, 2002).

2005 – Benchmarking of Leakage from Water Reticulation Systems in

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South Africa. WRC Report TT 244/05 (Mckenzie and Seago, 2005).

2007 – N on-Revenue Water in South Africa.

WRC Report TT 300/07 (Seago and Mckenzie, 2007).

2012 – The State of Non-Revenue Water in South Africa. WRC Report TT 522/22 (Mckenzie, Siqalaba and Wegelin).

2002 WRC Report The 2002 report (Mckenzie and Lambert, 2002), called the BENCHLEAK User Guide” was the first time that the IWA Water Balance Methodology had been officially presented to South African Municipalities.

Software provided through the WRC in an MS-EXCEL format included a detailed manual explaining the concepts of the method. This report also introduced the terms “Non-revenue Water” and “Water Losses”. The report also noted that using percentages as a means for water leaks was a potential problem (even though they are still often used), and recommended that the

5

WATER LEAKS

‘North America and Canada’ and Australia were 2.58, 4.90 and 2.99 respectively. The results from this report indicated that SA was generally behind international practices when it came to leak management in potable distribution systems, and also that both bulk and consumer metering was generally poor.

Calculating the indicators for the report was not always possible since data was not always available. Despite the date being simple to 2005 WRC Report obtain, water utilities were unwilling or The 2005 WRC report (Mckenzie and Seago, unable to assist.

2005) obtained data from approximately 60 As a way forward from this report, the sites, of which, 30 suppliers were evaluated authors suggested emphasizing the impor­ Figure 1: Comparison of water consumption around the world (Mckenzie et al., further.

In this report, the Infrastructure tance of exposure to the reporting methods 2012) Leakage Index (ILI) was the preferred method and benchmarking of leak management to create America’s an environment cooperation. to report losses. In “Buried South Africa averageConfronting The publication No the Longer: Waterof Infrastructure A broader database of South African ILI was given as 6.0 (n = 27) – the same Challenge” (AWWA, 2012) reported on the need for infrastructure replacement to water avoid andmiles a continuous of an value in reported in the 2002 Itreport (Figurethatsuppliers leaks the United States. was noted one million of piping collation would need to 2). Internationally, value 6.0years is seen as annual was recommended. be replaced withinathe nextof25 (excluding newdatabase infrastructure).

The total value of “neither very poor (grouped nor very good.

It is a 1typical the replacement in Table as large, medium/small and small water systems Report(2010 value). This cost value that would be expected in a for four regions of the US) wasdeveloped estimated at2007 USDWRC 2.1 trillion countryneed and significantly lower inthan key objective in this report to would to be absorbed theone waterA pricing itself, and would needwas to be would expectin in a developing expand work of previous assessments implemented a planned mannercountry” to avoid the need the for many replacement projects all (Mckenzie et al., 2012).

As a comparison, and be include as much the and country as at once. Without the replacements, there may an increase in of leaks service the average values for ‘England and Wales’ , possible (Seago and Mckenzie, 2007).

While disruption.

Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) be used wherever possible.

Results from the study estimated that non-revenue water was 23%, however, only municipalities that were measuring their water balance at the time (34) were included in this study. It was also recommended a more rigorous study should be undertaken for the whole country.

Table 1:1: Aggregate replacement value ofvalue water pipes by pipe material size 2010 Table Aggregate replacement of water pipes by and pipeutility material and(millions utility USD) (AWWA, 2012) size 2010 (millions USD) (AWWA, 2012)

Water leaks in a South African context

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WATER LEAKS

5

Figure 2: ILI results for 27 systems in South Africa in 2005 (Mckenzie et al., 2012) Figure 2: ILI results for 27 systems in South Africa in 2005 (Mckenzie et al., 2012)

previous assessments hadreport concentrated it wasbehind recommended that The results from this indicatedonthatFrom SA this wasstudy generally international apractices small number reliable balances, the indicators of litres/connection/day (for when of it came to water leak management in potable distribution systems, and also this intended to look metering at the whole densitiespoor. of connections greater than 20 per that report both bulk and consumer was generally Calculating the indicators for country.

The study ablepossible to obtain datadatakm mains) or m3/km mains/dayDespite (for densities the report was not was always since was not always available. being from of the largestwater water reticulation of connections less than 20 per km mains) simple62data to obtain, utilities were unwilling or unable to assist. be used in conjunction with the ILI. It was systems.

As The a way forward fromwas this seen report, authors emphasizing the importance ILI in this study to the be 7.6 alsosuggested shown that water pressure should be of exposure to the and benchmarking of leak management to create (1.0 being good andreporting 10 beingmethods poor – Table included in reporting. anwith environment cooperation.2.0Atobroader 2), a range ofof approximately more database of South African water suppliers and a20 continuous collation of anwas annual database recommended.

2012was WRC Report than (very poor).

This value higher than previous reports, mainly due to the From the 2012 report it was shown that, South factwas thatseen a larger data set wasgood included thanpoorin– Table ILI in this study to be 7.6 (1.0 being and 10 being 2), Africa, over 30% of water is ‘lost’ a range of before. approximately to morewere than 20 poor).middle This valueand was an higher The 2results still(very in the additional 5% is not billed (2009/10 2007 mainly Report n previous reports, to the fact that a larger data set was included than of theWRC worlddue data set, but better than most values). Real and physical losses account ore. The results were still in the middle of the world data set, but better than most developing countries. for 25.4%, commercial losses for 6.4% and eloping countries.

A key objective in this report was to expand the work of previous assessments and unbilled (authorized) account for 5% of include as much of the country as possible (Seago and Mckenzie, 2007). While the total (Figure 3). This non-revenue water previous assessments had concentrated on a small number of reliable water balances, (36.8%) is similar to the world average this report intended to look at the whole country. The study was able to obtain data (36.6%), but considered high compared from 62 of the largest water reticulation systems. to developed countries (Mckenzie et al.

2012). In absolute figures (using estimates and extrapolated data), this is equal to 1 580 million m3/annum, which is equal to the total water supplied by Rand Water.

Table 2: ILI Bands for developing countries This equates to over R7 billion per year (at a le 2: ILI Bands for developing countries (Mckenzie et al., 2012) (Mckenzie et al., 2012) nominal production cost of R4.50/m3). The

m this study it was recommended that the indicators of litres/connection/day (for sities of connections greater than 20 per km mains) or m3/km mains/day (for sities of connections less than 20 per km mains) be used in conjunction with the ILI. as also shown that water pressure should be included in reporting.

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2 WRC Report

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Figure 3: National Water balance (2009/10) (Mckenzie et al, 2012) report used data from 132 of a possible 237 municipalities, representing over 75% of the total municipal water supply.

The ILI in this report was given as 6.8, an improvement from 7.0 in the previous report. However, only 45 municipalities (19%) had good records, and 36 (15%) had no records at all (Figure 4).

“War on Leaks” – 2015 Seeing a need to address the problem regarding water leaks in general, President Jacob Zuma launched the “War on Leaks” campaign in Port Elizabeth on Friday 28 August 2015. Hosted by the Department of Water and Sanitation Minister Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, the campaign will deal “with water that is unaccounted for which is caused by leaking taps and pipes, illegal connections etc” (SA Government, 2015).

The program, implemented by Rand Water, aims to train 15,000 unemployed youth as artisans and/or plumbers to fix leaks in their community – a step to curb the R7 billion lost annually. The campaign has an initial training schedule of three years, starting with 3,000 learners in 2015/2016, and increasing to a total of 7, 000 learners in 2017/2018.

No Drop Report (Water Efficiency) In 2013, the then Department of Water and Environmental Affairs announced a new

WATER LEAKS

incentive-based “No Drop” report to give South African municipalities an idea of how much water is being used, as well as how much is being wasted. The aim of the report would be to increase efficiency and push for a reduction in leaks – adding to the already established Blue and Green Drop reports. The report forms part of the Blue Drop scorecard and counts for 3% of the final Blue Drop Score (DWA, 2014a). The No Drop is listed as Section 6 of the existing Blue Drop requirements and is broken into three sections: • (6.1) Water Balance (30%).

• ( 6.2) Water Demand Management (WDM) Strategy and Business Plan and Implementation (30%).

• (6.3) Compliance and Performance (40%).

Each of these sections of the No Drop is presented below (DWA, 2014b).

Water Balance This sub-section requires that the monthly and annual composite water balance diagrams and supporting documentation for the complete system are provided as per Regulation 5090 of 2001 Clause 10 of the Water Supply Regulations. The water balance diagram should also include: a) System input volumes. b) Billed metered and unmetered usage. c) Unbilled Authorised Consumption. d) Water losses broken down into Real and Apparent Losses. e) Free Basic Water. f ) Non-Revenue Water.

WDM Strategy and Business Plan and Implementation Evidence must be given to show a Councilapproved WDM Strategy and Business Plan that includes: • Background and Context.

• Situation Assessment including a Needs Statement.

• Key Issues and Challenges.

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WATER LEAKS

Figure 4: Summary of municipal record-keeping (number of municipalities, %) (Mckenzie et al. 2012) • Focus Areas of Intervention.

• List of Proposed Interventions.

• Set targets for demand, NRW, commercial and real losses.

• Budget and Multi-year Implementation Timeline.

There is also a requirement to provide evidence of implementation against the above Plan in terms of: • List of Interventions (Projects).

• Movement against targets for demand, NRW, commercial and real losses.

• Budget and Multi-year Implementation Timeline.

Compliance and Performance In this sub-section it is required that historic data is provided in such a way that it is possible to calculate: • Physical (real) water loss trend.

• Commercial water loss trend.

• Water-use efficiency trend There is also a need to provide the following, with supporting documentation:

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Population number served.

SIV (System Input Volume) (kl/annum).

Average system pressure (m).

Households served.

Authorised, Billed and Metered (kl/annum).

Total connections.

Authorised, Billed and Unmetered (kl/annum).

Metered connections.

Authorised and Unbilled (kl/annum).

Households with deemed of flat rate billing.

Number of metered connections billed.

Proven Industrial use (kl/annum).

Length of mains installed.

Assumed commercial losses.

Leak Detection Before leaks can be minimized it is important to be able to determine if a leak exists. It may not always be the largest leaks that are the biggest problems. Large leaks may be found quickly (simply when a person notices unexplained water), and fixed timeously, while smaller leaks may never be found.

Methods to determine leaks can be broken into two: Internal and external systems or methods.

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Internal Leak Detection Systems Internal leak detection systems might look at things such as flow or pressure and determine differences across different points in order to determine if any losses have occurred. There are several types of devices combined with mathematical models that could be employed to determine the existence and size of leaks. These include pressure/flow monitoring, mass balancing, acoustic pressure waves and transient model methods.

Using a pressure or flow device to determine if there are leaks would typically be employed using a single unit at a single location. If a leak were to occur, the flow patterns in the pipe would change. This would be seen as a change in the pressure or flowrate recorded by the device. Some challenges with this are that if there was a leak in the system before the devices are installed, then existing leaks will not be picked up.

A possible solution to finding existing leaks is to have multiple devices at strategic points along the system. Using the law of conservation of mass (together with various data about the system), it is possible to detect changes across a system and to determine the extent of leaks.

Acoustic methods can determine changes in the pressure waves as a wall ruptures. Sound travelling through the pipe is picked up and can be interpreted as leaks.

As with single flow/pressure devices, if the original changes are missed (or existing leaks exist), then acoustic methods may not be useful.

Potential problems with some of these approaches is that it is often assumed that the system is at steady state – and no natural flow/pressure changes would occur during the day-to-day operation. To overcome this Real Time transient models exist, taking into account additional information such

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as energy and momentum balances to give more information about the system and to determine leaks.

External Leak Detection Systems It is also possible to determine leaks without intruding into the pipe. These methods are typically more sophisticated and sensitive – and more expensive – but it can mean that existing infrastructure is more easily retrofitted for leak detection. These methods can also be portable, such that one device can be used at many locations.

When considering external leak detection systems, the fluid in the pipe needs to be considered, as not all systems are suitable for water, e.g. vapour-sensing tubes which can be used in natural gas pipelines. Methods that may work in the water setting include systems that incorporate digital sensing, infrared testing and acoustic methods. These take into account changes in temperature, conductivity, pressures and/or acoustics.

Reducing Water Leaks Leak reduction should not just be through detection and repair. Maintenance of existing infrastructure, testing and replac­ ing old equipment, corrosion control and rehabilitation projects can all form part of a plan to avoid leaks before they happen.

Public awareness can also help to reduce water loss by reporting leaks.

Relatively simple issues such as leaking taps or toilets that leak can be easier and quicker to fix than water leaks in an underground pipe. It is also possible to identify individual household leaks by turning off all taps and checking if the water meter is still turning.

Recycling or water minimization programs could all add up to a greater additional water savings. The size of water loss through leaks can be related to the pressure in the pipeline – larger pressures,

5

larger leaks through holes. If less water is needed, there could be pressure reductions.

Conclusions It was shown that only through continuous monitoring, analysis and feedback, is it possible to reduce water leaks (Mckenzie et al. 2012). The report of Mckenzie et al.

(2012) also showed that through careful scrutinisation of results, and the inclusion of key performance indicators (KPIs), it may be possible to track water use and to use this as a way of comparing results with other municipalities – further motivating for participation and support of annual water balance assessments. Receiving feedback from the Department was also a potential driver to improve participation in monitoring initiatives.

WATER LEAKS

The government has taken note of the problem with leaks and has initiated the “War on Leaks” program to tackle leaking taps/pipes and illegal connections. This program will train 15,000 unemployed youth over 3 years.

Another water-efficiency program introduced is the incentive-based ‘No Drop’, as part of the Blue Drop Programme. This aims to encourage the minimization of leaks and to save potable water.

Abbreviations ILI I nfrastructure Leak Index – a score ranging from 1.0 (good) through to 10 (poor) and up to 100 (very poor).

WDM W ater Demand Management.

References • AWWA, 2012. Buried no Longer: Confronting America’s Water infrastructure Challenge, American Water Works Association Available from: http://www.awwa.org/Portals/0/files/legreg/documents/BuriedNoLonger.pdf.

• DWA, 2014a. The Blue Drop and No Drop Handbook, Available from: https://www.dwa.gov.za/dir_ws/dwqr/subscr/ViewComDoc.asp?Docid=604.

• DWA, 2014b. 2014 BLUE WATER Services Audit Requirements, Available from: https://www.dwa.gov.za/dir_ws/dwqr/subscr/ViewComDoc.asp?Docid=587.

• GrowingBlue, 2012. Leaks in Water Distribution Systems, Online: http://growingblue.com/case-studies/leakages-in-water-distribution-systems/ • Mckenzie, R. & Lambert, A., 2002. Development of a simple and pragmatic approach to benchmark real losses in potable water distribution systems in South Africa, Water Research Commission Report No. TT 159/01, January 2002.

• Mckenzie, R. & Seago, C.J., 2005. Benchmarking of Leakage from Water Reticulation Systems in South Africa, Water Research Commission Report No. TT 244/05, March 2005.

• Mckenzie, R., Siqalaba, Z.N. & Wegelin, W.A., 2012. The State of Non-Revenue Water in South Africa (2012), Water Research Commission Report No. TT 522/22, August 2012.

• SA Government, 2015. President Jacob Zuma launches war on leaks campaign, 28 Aug, Press release – 14 August 2015. Available from: http://www.gov.za/speeches/ president-jacob-zuma-launches-war-leaks-campaign-28-aug-14-aug-2015-0000.

• Seago, C.J. & Mckenzie, R., 2007. Non-Revenue Water in South Africa, Water Research Commission Report No. TT 300/07, September 2010.

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An African Solution to an African Problem

Sean Shomang and Kevin Paxton

AFRICAN WATER SOLUTIONS

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t the beginning of the new millennium, world leaders gathered at the United Nations to shape a broad vision to fight poverty in its many dimensions. That vision, which was translated into eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), has remained the overarching development framework for the world for the past 15 years.

Now as the period of the MDGs comes to a close, work that began at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, which was to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will build upon the Millennium Development Goals, has converged with the United Nation’s summit for the adoption of the post 2015 development agenda in New York in September of this year.

South Africa will be keenly interested in the New York meeting was keenly because the transition to the Green Economy is not only viewed as a pathway to sustainable development but also as a key driver to overcoming the country’s development challenges. These development challenges are associated with natural resource constraints, unemployment, poverty and inequality.

Despite these challenges, South Africa has made significant progress with regards to MDG 7 of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. In terms of basic water supply, South Africa has already halved the backlog in 2005, thus achieving the MDGs ten years ahead of the 2015 target date. In terms of sanitation services, there has been a 40% improvement since 1994, which is also well within the timeframe of the MDGs. However, to catalyse and leverage addi­ tion­al resources to support South Africa’s Green Economy transition and further achieve­ment of the SDGs, dedicated fiscal support will be required in the short to medium term to undertake more targeted investments and attract private sector interest.

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Some private sector interest comes in the form of African Connection Technology (ACT) (Pty) Ltd which was borne out of a passion for an involvement in solutionbuilding to many of the challenges around the world, specifically the issue of water.

Therefore, ACT believes in the simple ideology of “clean water for everyone”. On the surface it seems a simple enough but there is a great deal of complexity in delivering potable standard water. Our quest to deliver this life-saving commodity brought us to an organisation called Noble Water Solutions (NWS) who are a manufacturing company based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The name Noble was carried over from a trademark that was registered for another company, which was historically owned by Kevin Paxton, the owner of NWS. Whilst running the historic company, Kevin commenced work on the Water Solution, which is described below. Due to the nature of the Water Solution, it seemed appropriate to carry over the “Noble” element and thus Noble Water Solutions was born.

Over the past five years, NWS have developed an integrated solution to tackle the domestic treatment and re-use of surface and groundwater resources. The project is referred to as “an African solution to an African problem”. The phrase “an African solution to an African problem” was coined by Kevin: The entire design was developed by an African (Kevin), who was constantly aware of the challenges faced by the continent.

One of the challenges faced by Africa is that three hundred million Africans do not have access to safe drinking water (www.bbc.co.uk/news/scienceenvironment-17775211, BBC News Science and Environment, 20 April 2012). The problem is that both the surface water and the groundwater, which runs near villages, are predominantly contaminated with

6

disease-causing pathogens. This issue does little to ease sanitation challenges in these rural villages. “Microbial contamination of human origin can move incredibly far through the soil, especially if there are underground cracks in the soil which leads to the well or borehole. I have seen figures of more than two kilometres and it can still increase,� says Dr Jo Barnes, South African epidemiologist.

In order to provide a workable solution to these problems, NWS had to overcome the issue of contaminants in addition to the other challenges people face living in Africa. Thus, as a result of overcoming these challenges, NWS developed innovative products that could deliver potablestandard water to rural communities.

NWS developed three products which are shipped to a designated port of choice by the Buyer which is either the government or corporates as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility or Investment programmes: The flagship product is the Noble Water Station which is patented and is the only high volume (10 000 litres per day), low-maintenance (annually), portable (fits into a freight container), solar-powered water treatment plant of its kind in the world. The patent is registered in South Africa and Design Registration in South Africa and Namibia.

Renewals are payable annually from the third year following the filing date (6 July 2015). Patents are often ignored, especially in the developing world, so NWS have endeavoured to make their product as difficult as possible to copy. The sterilization unit, for example, makes use of sacrificial metals which were individual rods of varying sizes in the first version.

In the current unit NWS have moulded the metals into one alloy which would mean the party attempting to copy the NWS design would have to make use of a

AFRICAN WATER SOLUTIONS

metallurgist to determine the ratio of the individual metals.

Each water station provides 500 people with 20 litres of safe drinking water every day for life. With the exception of the solar water pump, which is manufactured in Denmark and is regarded as the best available technology (BAT), all of the other components are manufactured in South Africa. The Linear Low Density Poly Ethylene (LLDPE) water tank, which uses a purposebuilt metal mould, contains additional ultra violet resistant pigments to enable the tank to withstand the harsh African climate.

The water tanks are manufactured using a Roto-Moulding process in Cape Town.

The sterilization plant and the solar panels are manufactured in Cape Town. All of the manufacturing is carried out by skilled South Africans, thus contributing to the South African economy.

The Noble Water Station can be placed alongside either vertical (borehole) or horizontal (rivers and lakes) water sources.

Using solar energy to drive the water pump the contaminated water is pumped into the holding tank where it is decontaminated.

The sterilization unit which is housed in the tank consists of a probe which identifies the level of contamination. The contaminated water is then pumped, using solar energy, through an ionizer and, thereafter, an oxidizer where after the water is converted into the de-contaminant which is sprayed over the remaining contaminated water housed in the tank.

The net result after passing through an activated charcoal filter to improve the taste, safe drinking water (by this is meant that the water complies with the applicable World Health Organization published standards) is available through three self-closing taps that are positioned 0,5 meters above ground and attached to the tank. The sterilization plant has been

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longer periods. NWS supply an Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) meter to those who maintain the water stations (these are local personnel who, having been trained

by South African technicians, carry out the work in each individual country) which is used to determine when the sterilization plant is to be replaced.

The photograph shows the Noble Water Station in a village alongside Lake Edward in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Residents used to have to walk up to 20 kilometres to find drinking water prior to the installation of the Noble Water Station. When clean water becomes available, time previously spent carrying water can be used to grow more food, raise more animals, or even start income producing businesses. sized such that under the most extreme contamination conditions it will last 12 months. Replacement sterilization units are available from Noble Water Solutions (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town. The sterilization unit has been designed to be taken out and a new one installed in as simple a way as possible in other words a plug-in plug-out situation.

Under lesser contamination conditions the sterilization plant will continue to work for

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Another issue facing Africans is unemployment The Noble Water Solution has been designed to maximize job creation in the recipient country. NWS send qualified technicians from South Africa (the technicians are trained in Cape Town on the premises of Noble Water Solutions (Pty) Ltd) to the recipient country to train a local technical company to assemble, commission and maintain NWS equipment thus enabling local inhabitants to carry out all the on-site work related to the project.

Two additional products have been developed by NWS to compliment the Noble Water Station, namely the Noble Crane Truck and the Noble Drilling Rig System. The Noble Water Stations are designed to be used in remote villages throughout Africa. The Noble Crane Truck is an all-wheel-drive 8 ton vehicle with the ability to carry 10 dismantled Noble Water Stations to the remotest parts of Africa.

The Noble Drilling Rig System (comprising of 4 vehicles) consists of 2 x 12 ton all-wheel drive trucks which carry the drilling rig, a 4,5 ton air-compressor, a 5,000 litre water tank and a 5,000 litre diesel tank. A Noble Crane Truck (the third vehicle) is also included as well as a 1,5 ton all-wheel drive utility vehicle (the fourth vehicle). The Noble Drilling Rig System is designed to access the remotest parts of Africa where there are no roads but where people are in desperate need of safe drinking water.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines the Green Economy as one that results in, “improved

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human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” NWS is of the opinion that the Noble Water Solution contributes to the Green Economy in terms of both income, environmental protection and job creation.

It is an old African proverb that states “if one is not part of the solution then you are part of the problem”. It is up to us as Africans to go some way towards creating social equity by affording some of those three hundred million Africans that do not have access to safe drinking water the opportunity and means to overcome the problem. In conclusion African Connection Technologies (Pty) Ltd envisions a NWS water station in every remote village in South Africa as NWS holds dear the ideal of charity beginning at home. In time NWS wants to expand across the African continent bringing to its people the simple but crucial idea of water for everyone.

To date, NWS’ first client, SOCO oil & explor­­ ation (a London stock exchange listed company) installed 20 Noble Water Stations in 20 villages located around Lake Edward, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

SOCO acquired the rights to explore for oil in the north eastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular in and around Lake Edward. Lake Edward covers an area of 2,325 km² and is the 15th largest lake in Africa.

Approximately 20 villages surround the lake.

Prior to the installation of the Noble Water Stations the people living in these villages had to walk up to 20 kilometres from their village to access drinking water as the water in the lake, which they live alongside, is as are most lakes in Africa – contaminated (microbial/ pathogen contamination of human and animal origin). SOCO saw the need and so flew one of their Project Managers to visit the NWS showroom in Cape Town. SOCO realised the positive effect the water stations

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would have on the people living around Lake Edward from a water, health, sanitation and employment point of view. Therefore, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme, and to give back to the people living in the area (which was a condition on which they were awarded the concession), SOCO placed an order for 20 water stations.

The 20 water stations were manufactured

by South Africans in Cape Town and shipped to Mombassa (the nearest port to Lake Edward). The water stations were transported by road to the SOCO base camp on the shores of Lake Edward. There the water stations were unpacked from the freight container and NWS transported by boat to the villages. Once there, the water stations were assembled and commissioned by SOCO personnel.

Currently people are selected from the village to oversee the running of the water station which provides further job creation.

SOCO, the company which paid for the water stations and their personnel were trained by Noble Water Solutions (Pty) Ltd technicians to maintain the water stations, has subsequently moved their operations elsewhere in Africa and here’s hoping that the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo will take over the job of annually servicing and maintenance of the water stations which includes purchasing the replacement sterilization units.

It is, after all, governments’ responsibility to provide its citizens with safe drinking water. The fact that the villagers no longer have to walk 20 kilometres to carry drinking water means time saved can be used to become a more productive community by growing more food and raising more cattle. Moreover, improved water quality will enable a healthier community.

We have recently been awarded the very prestigious Leadership Award For Water Efficiency at the Africa Water Leadership Awards in Mauritius.

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Off-Grid Wastewater Purification

Luan Schoeman

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ncreasing pressure on limited water resources demands more efficient ways of water use. An evaluation of the current broadly accepted water distribution and consumption practices in industry and domestic spheres – specifically related to the low position this occupies on the hierarchy of waste management – reveals that the strategy from a government perspective is perhaps falling short of the ideal.

This situation is a country specific issue which is exacerbated by South Africa’s relatively high water demand, limited supply, polluted rivers and vast open spaces. In our endeavour to become more efficient in the way water is used, the most sustainable strategy needs to be supported by government before it can become main stream, and ultimately improve our water situation.

The question that this paper explores is: What is ‘sustainable water management’ as far as domestic/industrial sewerage is concerned and how does this impact on the greater water-energy nexus? Can we declare our situation sustainable if we purify wastewater in a collective scheme (such as municipal wastewater works) to be as clean as possible before reintroducing it into a natural watercourse? It is tempting to hastily jump to the conclusion that it is sustainable simply because farmers downstream might be able to re-use the water for irrigation, or that collective municipal schemes might be the only option due to the way the country has developed, and therefore we are limited by available infrastructure unless we are prepared to spend billions to intervene. And we don’t have billions to spend…

However, the situation is much more complex than one can get their head around in two small paragraphs. Factors that cannot be ignored when considering the sustainability of our water resources is not merely limited to how much water we use;

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how well we clean it and how we dispose of it. There is a need therefore to be holistic in order to be sustainable.

Small-scale off-grid wastewater purification plants – specifically return activated sludge plants – have a significant role to play in shifting the lowly position that our wastewater strategy occupies on the hierarchy of waste management. This will be expanded upon later in this article. The concept of rolling out small-scale off-grid wastewater purification plants in South Africa faces significant but not insurmountable challenges.

Some of these challenges include: (i) implementing a streamlined government policy to address the current slow and difficult registration of off-grid wastewater works [specifically addressing some municipalities’ downright refusal to allow construction of off grid wastewater works within developed areas – regardless of the merits of the situation]; (ii) the increased capital cost to construct functionally acceptable wastewater plants on a small scale; (iii) increased overhead costs of responsibly operating wastewater plants on a smaller scale; (iv) practical regulation; and (v) responsible monitoring.

However, all these challenges can prac­ ti­ cally and economically be overcome.

There­fore, if small-scale off-grid wastewater purification can indeed shift this lowly position within our current water management hierarchy, it is something that government should prioritise in spite of the challenges for the sake of sustainably managing water as our most valuable natural resource.

The Problem Explained According to the Hierarchy of Waste Management (The Hierarchy), ‘Treat’ and ‘Dispose’ occupy the lowest ranks of sustainability and this is where existing wastewater management systems in South Africa largely fall. Structures are set up in such a way so as to treat wastewater to a

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standard that is not fit for introduction into drinking water dams or reservoirs before the treated water stream is disposed of into a river. This is often justified by claiming that upgrading treated sewerage water to drinking quality is mostly economically unviable, which is true in most cases, but not necessarily a completely rational response (this will be expanded on later in the article).

Secondly, it is mostly not economically viable to effectively redistribute treated sewerage water from large municipal sewerage works (i.e. for irrigation needs), since it requires a separate form of quality control, dedicated reticulation networks, metering, pump stations and electrical infrastructure on a municipal scale, all of which would significantly increase current budgets required to install, operate and maintain these networks by municipalities.

However, we might use the hierarchy to classify our efforts to sustainably use the water we have. The very view that we have of water that allows us to classify it as one collective entity (as in the above paragraph), blurs and diminishes the issue unless it has been expanded upon from one level below.

Our focal point will completely change if we explore the issue from the start by asking: What is water? Contrary to the way we treat it, water is not just water. Within the category of water, we can identify four main types for the purpose of this discussion. These include: • Pristine surface water stored in reservoirs, dams and rivers; • Drinking water, sourced mostly from pristine surface water; • Effluent water, commonly referred to as black water; and • Contaminated surface water.

From Figure 1 it is evident that the most prevalent pathway in the South African context is 1-2-3-4-1. Many

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The four sub-categories of water are related as follows:

Figure 1: The integrated water relationship other sub-pathways do exist and are sometimes more prevalent than 1-2-3-4-1 for specific industries or areas. However, even though the diagram is not nearly exhaustive in terms of the possible pathways, the complexity of the situation is clear. The diagram also allows us to describe four separate hierarchies of the water situation in South Africa, and with the optimal solution in each case can be identified by varying the pathways available to each specific water type – an exercise that is too lengthy for this article.

Where a pathway is possible but largely non-existent or nonsensical, that pathway has been omitted. Below, each pathway is explored in limited detail before this is applied to an example of how off-grid wastewater purification can shift the level that the above strategy sits within the hierarchy of waste management.

1-2: Pristine surface water from rivers and dams is upgraded in conventional cost, effective drinking water plants to meet SANS 241 Class 1 standards for the purpose of supplying drinking water for domestic and commercial use.

2-1: Drinking water used for irrigation ends up contributing to groundwater (a form of pristine surface water for our purposes) or transpires or evaporates before it rains back to Earth to contribute to pristine surface water.

2-3: Drinking water used in water closet activities in domestic households, offices and factories – often mixed with greywater streams, rendering the greywater streams black as well.

3-4: Overloaded and ineffectively operated wastewater plants allow pollution of rivers.

4-1: Rivers, dams and seawater evaporates and plants transpire groundwater before

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Figure 2: Left – Existing infrastructure and development strategy. Right – Proposed development strategy. the water falls back to Earth in the form of rain.

1-4: Pristine surface water is used for irrigation in commercial agriculture, often carrying nutrients from over-fertilized soils, leading to pollution.

1-3: Pristine surface water is used for general non-drinking and domestic water closet activities.

3-1: Effectively operated wastewater treatment works reintroduce the treated and matured effluent streams into pristine water bodies with little or zero pollution.

2-4: Use of drinking water in areas where there are no treatment options.

4-2: Upgrading contaminated surface water for drinking purposes using expensive processes.

Because of the limitations in the relationship, if we continue to view water as merely water in our management strategy, it is clearly not always possible to use one type of water for every application or for the good of the whole. Therefore, in those cases, the most sustainable strategy is to separate the water distribution system into different sub-systems in a way that would benefit the water situation as a whole.

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According to Figure 2, the existing infrastructure and development strategy in residential developments operates along two pathways, which are: A) 1-2-1 and B) 1-2-3-4-1. Therefore, we exert significant energy and spend resources to upgrade a large stream of pristine surface water to drinking quality in order to use it for drinking, landscaping and water closet activities.

According to Figure 2 (Right), the proposed development strategy in residential developments operates along a single pathway which is: C) 1-2-3-1.

Even though a better strategy might be possible in terms of the hierarchy of waste management, if pristine surface water could be distributed for all non-drinking purposes than the strategy proposed, this is not practical or affordable for the same reasons as redistributing treated sewerage effluent in a separate network. Thus, the immediate and obvious benefits of operating along route C (rather than along routes A and B) is the fact that the volume of water in the 1-2 component of route C is significantly smaller than the 1-2 component of the combined A and B routes. This means less pumping (electricity, operation and maintenance) and less treatment cost (electricity, operation, maintenance) in 1-2 and in 3-1

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and significantly reduced environmental impact along 3-4. This in turn will render pathway 4-2 more affordable in the long run and free up a significant quantity of water in area 1 for distribution to new developments.

Therefore, pathway C is more sustainable as a strategy than pathway A/B, and has a direct positive impact in the following critical areas: • Total water demand from available surface water.

• Total energy requirement for distribution.

• Total governmental infrastructure, operation and maintenance budgets.

• Total treatment cost in area 3 (smaller total volume and easier achievable standards).

• Reduced 3-4 contamination.

• Reduced 4-2 treatment costs.

Developing along pathway C will require a significant shift in expenditure (capital, operation and maintenance) from government to the private sector. Also it will increase the expenditure government currently allocates to monitoring and regulation, but this is offset (partially or totally) against the cost-benefits mentioned above.

Finally, new developments which are currently hampered by limited water resource allocation and/or treatment capacity at municipal treatment plants will be freed up to continue growing which in turn will have a positive effect on the broader economy.

To achieve the above, as a policy proposal, new developments should be required to construct off-grid wastewater purification plants which private service providers operate and monitor and comply with current legislation such as ‘Green Drop’. Compliance of new infrastructure and continual operations must be strictly enforced. Government’s role for new

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developments will therefore amount to auditing as opposed to the current role of operating and managing municipal wastewater purification plants.

Conclusion In many instances wastewater purification plants cause significant pollution to rivers simply because of overloading which renders treated wastewater unfit for large-scale recycling, without it being upgraded first. Significant investment has to be made in the near future in order to cope with increasing wastewater flows, and the long-term sustainability of our overall resource lies in where and how we choose to develop the required infrastructure.

According to the hierarchy of waste management, the most sustainable ranks are ‘Avoid Use’ and ‘Reduce’. This is achievable to a degree using off-grid wastewater purification plants. Off-grid treated wastewater can be used on-site to supplement irrigation demands or treated in Advanced Effluent Treatment Plants for alternative uses, which reduces the use of SANS 241 Class 1 water supplied by municipalities. Secondly, this strategy scores points on the third rank of the Hierarchy: ‘Recycle’.

Off-grid wastewater purification plants, if operated and managed correctly, have the potential to promote the hierarchy status of South Africa’s water use and management from a low-ranking one to a high-ranking one. Furthermore, the cost of implementation will be largely private and user-specific.

Significant challenges face this required shift in policy, but none that are insurmountable and none that compare with the cost that we would have to pay if we run out of water for further development altogether.

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Invasive Plant Control: Natural Resource Management Programmes

Grant Trebble

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Abbreviations: CARA Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act CSIR Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research DAFF Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries DEA Department of Environmental Affairs DWA Department of Water Affairs EPIP Expanded Public Infrastructure Programme EPWP Expanded Public Works Programme GWDMS G roupWise document management system (at CSIR) IAP Invasive Alien Plants IAS Invasive Alien Species KPI Key Performance Indicator MAREP Managers and Regional Environmental Planners Meeting NFEPA National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas NIAPS National Invasive Alien Plants Survey NRM Natural Resource Management PES Payment for Ecosystem Services SANBI South Africa’s National Biodiversity Institute SANPARKS South Africa National Parks SAPIA South Africa Plant Invaders Atlas SA South Africa SMME Small-, Medium- and Micro-enterprises SUSPECT Species Under Surveillance for Potential Eradication or Containment Targeting VAI Value Added Industry

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Introduction The Department of Environmental Affairs’ Natural Resources Management Programmes (NRMP) aim to address the threats to the productive use of land and water, and the functioning of natural systems by invasive species, wild fires and land degradation. Further, the programme aims to identify opportunities for value added industries (including fibre and material production), whilst ensuring meaningful livelihood opportunities are supported for those employed in doing this work. The primary projects through which this is being achieved are: “Working for Water”, “Working on Fire”, “Working for Forests”, “Working for Energy”, “Working for Eco-Furniture”, “Working for Ecosystems” (previously “ Work ing on Land”), “Working for Wetlands” and “Working for Bio-security”.

The CSIR, principally Dr William Stafford, has been tasked with developing SM.A.R.T. Goals for the NRMP with the intention to enhance the focus and efficiency of these programmes and ensure that they contribute to creating “a prosperous and equitable society living in harmony with the natural resources” (Stafford, pers.comm).

These S.M.A.R.T. goals are summarised below for the various Natural Resources Management Programmes.

Invasive Plant Control Programmes 1. The Working for Bio-security prog­ ramme aims to protect the environment from high-risk invasive alien species through the pre-, at- and post-border management of non-indigenous species. This will be carried out through a process of risk assessment to produce a unified SUSPECT list, with the species management programmes and other strategic interventions that aim to prevent and eradicate invasions.

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Using an integrated approach of risk assessment, surveillance, early detection and eradication, there will be annual risk assessments of 75 species undertaken.

The development species management programmes and other strategic interventions aim to prevent and eradicate invasions of high-risk species. The pre- and at-border controls will be strengthened through advocacy and awareness to increase compliance; enhanced inspection and controls at ports and border posts with the targeting of high-risk pathways.

Improved international co-operation will be undertaken to prevent the unregulated trans-boundary movement of species. In addition, the post-border surveillance to identify the presence of SUSPECT species will be carried out for 60 species by monitoring and mapping their distribution and occurrence. A total of 60 sites will be surveyed and over 800 records reported per annum into the SAPIA database by programme staff and spotter networks.

The development of 10 new species management programmes per annum for species requiring compulsory control will be used to direct prevention and eradication activities for high-risk invasive alien species.

It is estimated that this will contribute to 35,000 person day work equivalents per annum.

Even with no new introductions, the number of biological invasions in South Africa will increase as introduced species naturalise and become invasive. As of 2010 South Africa had approximately 8,750 introduced plant taxa – 660 recorded as naturalised, 198 included in invasive species as defined by legislation, but only 64 being subject to regular control (i.e. only widespread invaders are managed post-border and 238 are listed under draft regulations). This amounts to about 140 species already being defined

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as invaders on which more control effort is required. There is only one documented example of a successful eradication programme in continental South Africa – against the Mediterranean snail (Otala punctata) in Cape Town. Therefore, the SUSPECT list of potential invaders (Species Under Surveillance for Potential Eradication or Containment Targeting) will need to be continually updated and reviewed as risk assessments and surveillance knowledge becomes available.

2. The Working for Ecosystems programme aims to regain natural habitat composition, both structure and function in order to enhance and secure the delivery of ecosystem services, improve the productive potential of the land, and invest in ecological infrastructure This will be achieved by focusing on degraded land in priority areas to improve biodiversity, increase carbon sequestration, enhance water regulation and purification, and increase the resilience of landscapes to natural disasters. An integrated approach will build sustainable land management practices through advocacy and awareness, education and demonstration programmes.

Partnerships between State departments and landowners is envisaged. A 20% improvement in biodiversity intactness and soil carbon stocks is targeted in these priority areas, and by the year 2037 markets for ecosystem services with five operational Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes established.

Land degradation is the temporary or permanent lowering of the productive capacity of land. It thus covers the various forms of soil degradation, adverse human impacts on water resources, deforestation, and lowering of the productive capacity of rangelands. Land degradation causes the

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long-term loss of ecosystem function and productivity caused by disturbances from which the land cannot recover unaided.

Land degradation occurs slowly and cumulatively and has long-lasting impacts on rural people who become increasing vulnerable. Over 0.7 million ha of land are degraded and left bare by soil erosion (sheet and gully erosion); 4.61 million ha of natural vegetation are degraded, mainly in indigenous forests, woodlands, and grasslands; a further 0.19 million ha are degraded by mine tailings, waste rock dumps, and surface-based mining.

Enhancing degradation information at a finer scale within catchments is important; and the World overview program, WOCAT, is a useful framework with a decision support system and standardized methods for assessing soil degradation.

Working for Ecosystems aims to reverse environmental degradation through ecological restoration and maintenance programmes. It aims to regain natural habitat composition, structure and function; and thereby enhance ecosystem services. These ecosystem services include: carbon sequestration, water regulation and purification and reducing the risk of natural disasters by improving landscape/ catchment stability and resilience.

The outcomes of Working for Ecosystems are to improve livelihoods security and the productive potential of land, improve natural species diversity, and promote the development of a market for ecosystem services with pro-poor economic develop­ ment and empowerment in rural areas. The need for such a programme is emphasised by the fact that the largest component of degraded land is situated in the former homelands. In these previously underresourced communities, dependence on natural resources, high population densities and unplanned extraction and management

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of natural resources (especially wood and unsustainable grazing and fire regimes) have reduced livelihood options.

3. The Working for Energy and EcoFurniture Programmes are Value Added Industries that aim to create work opportunities and deliver socioeconomic benefits through the optimal use of cleared invasive alien plants.

It is intended that, by 2037, the Working for Energy and Eco-Furniture programmes will beneficially utilise 30% of the total Invasive Alien Plant biomass removed by the Working for Water programme and currently left to waste, to produce energy, furniture and other valuable products. This programme is envisioned to create jobs and skills in valueadded industries, attain carbon and water neut­ral­ity, offset the capital investment costs, and assist Government to meet its objectives – particularly in terms of the needs of the poor.

At present the operations of the factories are overseen by the South African National Parks (SANParks), who act in their capacity as implementing agents on behalf of the DEA. Since the establishment of the Eco-Furniture Programme, production and operational capabilities have experienced incremental improvements although there is room for development into complementary fields.

The Eco-Furniture Programme project aims to capitalise on the latent value of the IAPS by manufacturing products in line with government needs while maximising job creation and skills transfer opportunities.

Existing initiatives have highlighted the feasibility of utilising IAPS to manufacture products in line with government priorities, and in so doing reducing the cost of clearing the invasive plants. Further, the sector has the potential to contribute to the geographic spread of economic activity since products can be produced in rural areas with minimal capital requirements.

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The key outcomes remain job creation, the removal of Invasive Alien Species and Value-Added Products. The expansion of the existing project into areas such as GaRankuwa will enable an estimated total of 3,025 new jobs to be created over the next three years around the country. The jobs created are categorised according to the outcomes given in the table below.

Extensive training is provided in fields that have a good uptake rate into the private and public sectors. However, experience has shown that employees remain with the factories, as there are opportunities for progression within the factories themselves, including into administrative and managerial functions. The primary output, at present, is school desks in support of the Department of Basic Education’s drive to provide all learners with quality facilities.

The Programme continues to grow and, by the end of May 2016, over 220,000 learners have been provided with desks from the EFP; many for the first time.

Currently the Eco-Furniture programme adds value to biomass by predominantly using round-wood of sufficient diameter to create timber.

Harvesting Harvesting crews prepare the site by clearing small shrubbery and obstacles surrounding the harvestable trees and preparing skid trails (i.e. trails that cut logs are dragged along).

Only trees with a breast-height diameter in excess of 40cm are considered usable. Tree felling follows the clearing process and is defined as the process of cutting down the trees. Tree felling is a manual process carried out by the harvesting team members.

Rehabilitation and Clearing processes typically follow the harvesting as the forest floor is covered in branches, leaves and bark (commonly called slash) from the trees that have been removed.

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Wet Mill Harvested logs are delivered from the harvesting sites on a logger truck and offloaded on a landing area just outside the wet mill. Wet mill team members transfer the logs to the Lucas Saw Mill and the SAW KING arbour saw for the milling process to begin. The logs are aligned along the length of the Lucas Saw Mill and the SAW KING arbour saw where cant extraction is the primary objective of this milling process. Before cants are extracted from the log, the bark is sheared off the logs. This makes the log easier to handle, easier to assess, and leads to improved conversion and grade recovery.

Dry Mill Planks are dried and then delivered to the dry mill; here the machining processes begin where planks are cross-cut to the required lengths. A top-and-bottom planer follows the sawing process where the surface of the planks is smoothed and planks are planed to the required thickness.

Once planks have been machined to a similar length and thickness, the planks are then laminated into panels for processing and re-planed to ensure that the surface of the panel is level and at a consistent thickness. The panels are processed into a variety of products which are finished and readied for delivery There is considerable waste left from these operations; with approximately 70% harvested biomass being waste after processing at the sawmills. This represents a missed opportunity to utilise biomass for other biomaterials (such as fibre cement or composite boarding) or bio-energy.

There is a notable immediate opportunity that is being missed to utilise the heat and electricity from the combustion of the sawmill wood waste, in order to carry out the required drying of the timber

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and power for the sawmill, . It is therefore crucial that the Eco-Furniture and Working for Energy programmes work together to integrate their activities in order to: • Deliver the optimal value added products from a given invasive stand.

• Realise the opportunity to use energy from invasive alien plant wastes (residues and residuals) to power the processing of biomass to produce valuable eco-materials • Ensure that there is optimal utilisation of invasive alien plant stands and that the “Working for programmes" contribute to the net clearing of Invasive Alien Plants.

It is estimated that approximately 30 to 40% of the total standing invasive alien plant biomass could be utilised for value added products that can be absorbed by markets. As the future bio-economy develops and bio-refineries offer the ability to produce a range of new products from biomass, this percentage is likely to increase, together with the growing demands for increased materials and energy from biomass resources. This should be factored into the lifetime of the VAI (which also depends also how mobile, or movable it is) so that this matches the (local) resource availability. These VAI would create numerous jobs and could therefore significantly contribute to the economy, but will require strategic timing and reorientation to avoid the inevitable creation of dependent industries on a non-renewable resource.

These programmes can increase water yields by enhancing the clearing of IAPs, while also reducing net carbon emissions (particularly eco-furniture and other products that can sequester terrestrial carbon for long periods of time). Extracting the maximum value and volume from the biomass in the form of timber, fibre-board

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and other ‘carbon capture’ VAI should be the priority with conversion to thermal energy being reserved for ‘unusable’ biomass (‘waste’), wherever practicable.

4. The Working for Forests Programmes aims to improve the management of South Africa’s forests and plantations in order to reduce the risks of invasions, increase biodiversity and deliver socioeconomic benefits.

This will involve a combined and progressive approach so that, by 2037, 50% of the degraded category B and C State forestry plantations are restored; 50% of degraded indigenous forests rehabilitated; and 10% of the dense IAP stands managed as contained woodlots.

As a result of the lack of significant natural forests stocks in South Africa, several tree species were from the beginning of the late 19th century introduced into South Africa in an attempt to establish plantations and woodlots. Plantations of non-indigenous (alien) trees now cover approximately 2,000,000 ha of southern Africa, and the products from plantation forestry contribute significantly to the country’s socio-economic development.

However, these benefits have come at considerable cost. Many of the commercial forestry species (either past or present) have escaped into natural vegetation and approximately 38% of the area invaded in South Africa is by commercial species, causing several impacts beyond the forestry zone. There are regulations concerning the containment of forestry species in designated plantation areas (NEMBA). The certification in the forestry industry (FSC) requires payment of stream flow reduction levies to compensate for adverse ecological impacts in the form of increased water use in terms of the National Water Act (see section 6.1),

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and “all reasonable steps to be taken to curtail the spread of plants outside the demarcated areas” (in terms of CARA and NEMBA regulations). However, there are considerable difficulties in managing and containing invasive alien plants that form the foundation of the forestry industry (NEMBA category 2). The application of FSC certification to plantations (as opposed to natural forests) has been criticised as ineffectual in preventing the escape of plantation species into surrounding natural habitats. There are also legacy invasive species that have escaped from State (or previously Stateowned) plantations. For example, it is estimated that half of the Pine invasions in protected areas may have come from commercial forestry plantations. The conflict between the legacy of escaped IAPs and the current difficulties in ensuring containment in the Forestry, have to be dealt with in a sensitive manner if progress is to be made in reducing the significant negative impacts of invading alien plants.

The Working for Water programme aims to prevent, contain and reduce the density and distribution of established, invasive alien species in order to reduce their negative effects on the environment.

For terrestrial Invasive Alien Plants: This will involve a focus on the priority water catchments, so that 70% of the Working for Water programme activities are located in these areas by 2037. Using an integrated

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approach involving mechanical, chemical and biological control methods, the WFW programme will provide 10,000 full-time equivalent jobs and 25,000 work opportunities per annum, while yielding 14 million m3 of water per annum, enhancing biodiversity and improving land-productivity.

The initial clearing operations of WFW can reduce the current IAP spread by an estimated 1% per annum, provided repeated follow ups are carried out to ensure that a maintenance phase is achieved. In addition, a significant increase in the application of biocontrol, the building of partnerships, and the implementation of value added industries will be needed to reduce the spread by an additional 9% per annum, and achieve the goal of containment and zero-spread by 2037.

For aquatic Invasive Alien Plants: The focus is to prevent, arrest and diminish the density and distribution of aquatic invasive alien plants by 30% by 2037 in order to ensure the safe and secure provision of water and to improve the biodiversity of aquatic systems. This will primarily involve a strategy of containment and asset protection of the existing impoundments and NFEPA priority areas; using an integrated approach with bio-control, mechanical and chemical methods that are labour intensive.

For impacts of IAPs on water, biodiversity and land-productivity see: • Le Maitre et al. (2013) estimated the impacts of invasive alien plants on water flows in South Africa.

Table 1: Jobs are estimated and expressed as work opportunities and full-time equivalents, (2013/14) 18

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• De Lange & Van Wilgen (2010) found that although an estimated R6.5 billion was lost every year due to invading alien plants, this would have amounted to an estimated additional R41.7 billion had no control been carried out.

• Van Wilgen et al. (2008) conducted a biome-scale assessment of the impact of invasive alien plants on ecosystem services.

There are 1.9 million hectares of condensed IAPS nationwide (includes Prosopis that was not mapped in the last NIAPS). If there is 1% clearing per annum, this yields 14.4 million m3 water per annum since National reduction is estimated at 1,444 million m3 per annum. It should be cautioned that this is a gross estimate and the actual yields will depend on the particular area.

N.B.: The national total area mapped has been calculated from the total area of NIAPS homogenous mapping units. The NIAPS mapping excludes the arid biomes and arid parts of the grassland and savannah biomes (and also excludes the Kruger NP and all transformed areas according to the National Land Cover 2000). J. Nel (unpublished, 2014) estimated the reduction for certain SWSA using the condensed hectares (ha) for pines, eucalypts, wattles, mean annual runoff (MAR) for the grid cells invaded, and dryland reduction factors.

The integrity of freshwater ecosystems in South Africa is declining at an alarming

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rate largely as a consequence of a variety of challenges that are practical (managing vast areas of land to maintain connectivity between freshwater eco­ systems), socio-economic competition between stakeholders (for utilisation) and institutional (building appropriate governance and co-management mechanisms).

Consistent with global trends, high levels of threat have been reported for freshwater ecosystems, with over half of the country’s river and wetland ecosystem types considered threatened in the National Biodiversity Assessment 2011. The National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas project (NFEPA) responds to this need, providing strategic spatial priorities for conserving South Africa’s freshwater ecosystems and supporting sustainable use of water resources. The NFEPA maps and supporting information form part of a comprehensive approach to sustainable and equitable development of South Africa’s scarce water resources. For integrated water resources planning, NFEPA provides guidance on how many rivers, wetlands and estuaries, and which ones, should remain in a natural or near-natural condition to support the water resource protection goals of the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998).

5. The Working for Wetlands programme will rehabilitate wetlands with ecological and engineered infrastructure in order

8

to restore hydrological function that underpins water flow and quality regulation.

There will be a focus on wetland priority areas with the aim to increase the number of Hydro-geomorphic units and hectare equivalents rehabilitated or undergoing rehabilitation. This will involve addressing the causes of wetland degradation and carrying out the rehabilitation of wetlands in order to improve the regulation of water flows, improve water quality and increase biodiversity. By 2037 there will be improved wetland functioning and water resources management in the Working for Wetlands programme areas, with a 30 % improvement in the regulation of seasonal flows, reduction of river siltation, and rehabilitation of wetland biodiversity.

The National Biodiversity Assessment identifies 48% of wetland ecosystem types as being critically endangered. Wetlands make up only 2.4% of the country’s surface area and wetlands are crucial for purifying water and regulating flow, and are valuable ecological infrastructure. The main focus of the Working for Wetlands programme is the rehabilitation, protection and sustainable use of South Africa’s wetlands, using approaches that emphasise co-operative governance and partnerships. Wetland rehabilitation efforts are aimed at improving the ecological infrastructure by combining hard infrastructure and re-vegetation.

Typical project activities include: • Building infrastructure such as concrete, earth or gabion structures to arrest erosion, trap sediment and re-saturate drained wetland areas.

• Plugging artificial drainage channels.

• Addressing other causes of degradation, such as poor agricultural practices and invasive alien plants.

• Plant propagation, re-vegetation and bio-engineering.

INVASIVE PLANT CONTROL

• Building boardwalks, bird hides and interpretive signboards to enhance the recreational, tourism and educational value of rehabilitated wetlands.

Since 2004, a total of 639 wetlands have been rehabilitated at a total cost of R513 million, which has created 14,496 job opportuni­ties for people from the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.

The programme is currently managed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute, on behalf of the departments of Environmental Affairs, Water Affairs and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and forms part of government’s Expanded Public Works Programme. This programme forms part of the Expanded Public Works Programme and now resides in the Depart­ ment of Environmental Affairs as part of their Natural Resource Management Directorate.

Summary The national response to Invasive Plant Control is thorough, well supported and ever-evolving through strategies such as S.M.A.R.T. Goals employed by the Department of Environmental Affairs through agencies such as the CSIR. However, there is absolutely no room for complacency with continuous innovation and community support being essential to maintaining momentum and progressing in the fight against these invasives. At the time of writing, the national departments and communities are exploring ways of converting biomass to building materials.

The juncture between developing a product made from invasive that can use multiple species, that has an industrywide uptake and is cost effective remains a departmental priority. Achieving this juncture will provide a significant step forward in tackling the threat posed by invasives.

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Water Re-use

Yolanda Oosthuizen

WATER RE-USE

9

T

he Stockholm Statement (2011) described water as the ‘bloodstream of the green economy’. Yet water resources are limited in many parts of the world and pressures are increasing as the demand for water for people, food, industry and the environment grows.

If the world continues to use water at current rates it is estimated that demand could outstrip supply by as much as 40% by 2030, putting both water and food security at risk, constraining sustainable economic development, and degrading the ‘green infrastructure’ on which everything else depends.

Water and its management is becoming not just a local but a global priority.

The need to establish a green economy

as the means to achieving sustainable development while protecting and improving the world’s natural resources.

Water is increasingly seen as a central plank of the green economy. It is embedded in all aspects of development – food security, health, and poverty reduction – and in sustaining economic growth in agriculture, industry, and energy generation.

Water re-use is a part of integrated water management, and is technically possible to achieve already today, but harmonized South African level business/regulatory drivers are lacking. To ensure public health and environmental safety, government must standardize the quality of re-used water, but not the technology to achieve it. South Africa must facilitate innovation in water re-use, while considering the origin and

Figure 1: Areas of physical and economic water scarcity Source: Molden (2007) showing that South Africa is either experiencing physical water scarcity in some parts or approaching it.

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9

destination of re-used water – in short, the right quality for the right purposes.

Water plays a fundamental role in the green economy and is essential for human life, agriculture and a number of crucial South African industries Promoting water re-use will be a clear step towards achieving a zero-waste, circular economy. Water re-use makes sense economically and environmentally, as it increases resource efficiency – it requires less energy to treat water for non-potable purposes than to drinking water quality.

In South Africa direct water re-use is only an integral part in policy considering re-use of strategy developed in NWRS 2, but the practice is being hampered by the lack of country wide economic and harmonized regulatory drivers. How can the right regulatory environment be created to ensure that water re-use becomes an accepted and commonly used option in agriculture, industry and municipalities?

The significance of water re-use to the economy, environment and society Water is not just part of the economy; it is embedded within the economy. Without it the economy could not function. Thus water will be central to the innovative thinking and effective solutions required to establish the green economy.

Figure 1 reflects that even areas with relatively high rainfall experience water shortages due to overconsumption in economically developed and densely populated regions of various provinces such as the Mpumalanga Lowveld. Where fresh water is plentiful, this water should be used as the first option. We should also remember that a lot of water is indirectly re-used already: like in the case of the Crocodile River where water is withdrawn, treated, used, treated and discharged back to the river many times throughout the catchment area

WATER RE-USE

before it reaches the international borders of Mozambique. Direct potable re-use (i.e. treated wastewater directly re-used for drinking water) is very rare because of the increased potential risk to public health and the negative public perception. Even though the technology is well proven, direct potable re-use is only justifiable when there is no other option for example in the desert or outer space.

Currently the only place where direct potable re-use takes place on a municipal scale is in Windhoek, Namibia where treated wastewater combined with surface runoff is treated to provide potable water. Direct re-use is common practice for non-potable applications in industry and irrigation.

Water re-use is an accepted practice in several EU countries subject to water scarcity issues (e.g. Cyprus, Spain, Italy), where it has become an integral and effective component of long-term water resources management. Water re-use may have a lower environmental impact than other alternative water supplies such as water transfers or desalination, under certain conditions, and may offer a range of environmental, economic and social benefits. At present, however, the uptake of water re-use solutions remains limited in comparison with their potential. This appears to be due to a number of factors, including low economic attractiveness of re-use solutions, low public acceptance of re-use solutions and limited awareness of its benefits, a lack of common EU environmental/health standards for reused water, and poor coordination of the professionals and organizations who design, implement and manage such schemes.

However, where the total cost of water re-use is lower than other options, also taking into account the environmental and societal externalities which are often not taken into account, then it should be pursued. Water

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re-use makes sense economically and environmentally, as it increases resource efficiency – it requires less energy to treat water for non-potable purposes than to acceptable drinking water quality. Water re-use also prevents fresh drinking water being used in applications where lower quality water would be appropriate and reduces the probability of expensive and disruptive water shortages. In addition water re-use can also help to decrease the amount of nutrients and other impurities discharged into the environment.

Financially re-use can be beneficial as it reduces the demand for water treated to potable standards and most likely reduces the cost of pumping and conveying water.

In broad social terms, water re-use can assist the safeguarding of existing water supplies and manage the imbalance between water demand and supply.

There are currently no countrywide or globally accepted quality standards for water re-use, which should exist to define what quality of water can be used in which applications.

To avoid creating a barrier to innovation, any standards developed must focus on the quality of the re-used water delivered, rather than the technology for the re-use.

Particularly since we do not know what kind of technologies we will have in 20–30 years’ time, regulation must not inhibit potential technological development. France and Italy are international examples of countries where limited flexibility on treatment technologies limits the uptake of water re-use. Any ISO or national standard should avoid these mistakes.

Standards and frameworks must also take into account the origin and destination of the re-used water. Depending on the source of the raw water, standards must allow for a selection of technologies and re-use applications. The bottom line is that

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standards are essential to maintain public health and environmental safety. Standards also need to be strict to create confidence amongst the public that re-used water is safe to be used.

Standardize the quality of re-used water – not the technology Water can be treated to different degrees to ensure adequate quality for different purposes – for example for use in flushing toilets or for drinking. In most cases where chemical treatment is used, alone or in combination with other water treatment technologies, it has the lowest carbon footprint of all commercially available water treatment technologies. Therefore, when justified, water re-use applications permitted under law must allow for the use of chemicals particular environmental friendly chemicals.

Chemical water treatment has been used for many years, and is a proven, established technology, where the effects and impact are known in detail. In fact, most “non-chemical” technologies require some amount of chemicals/chemistry to be efficient such as scale inhibitors for membranes, etc.

The role of chemicals in re-use treatment Innovative research must consider materials classified as industrial by-product or recycled material as raw material in production of water treatment chemicals.

What is considered as a “by-product” from various other industries could be effective raw material.

The high cost of implementing the solutions required to treat waste water creates a barrier to water re-use.

Technologies enabling water re-use exist today, but the business, pricing and funding models for water re-use investments are lacking. Capital investment is needed to construct re-use plants and the associated

9

infrastructure, which will run to many billions of Rands.

Water security and green growth are inextricably linked. First, water (unlike any other natural resource) touches every aspect of society and the environment and is essential for our well-being. Water is embedded in all aspects of natural resources management for inclusive and sustainable growth, in energy and other productive activities, and in sustaining ecosystems on which everything depends. Second, good water management depends on adopting an integrated approach.

Sustainable green growth Considering enabling the recycling of water and nutrient, water re-use would directly contribute to the achievements of some key objectives under the 7th EU Environment Action Programme to 2020 i.e. protecting, conserving and enhancing the Union’s natural capital and turning the Union into a resource-efficient economy (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).

What is more, by assessing how to stimulate structural changes in production and transportation of re-used water, related technology and innovation in a fast-growing water market, the initiative can offer opportunities for green growth and job creation, in line with the political priorities set by the European Commission and plans to promote a more circular economy.

Because reusing water consumes notably less energy than alternative supply options (desalination/inter-basin transfers) and because it may allow for less energy consumption in waste water treatment this initiative can contribute to make EU countries less dependent on energy imports, in the framework of an Energy Union.

The promotion of green jobs is central in the transition towards a greener economy.

WATER RE-USE

Green jobs result in the reduction of the environmental impact of industries, companies and economies; promote the efficient use of local resources; and result in the generation of income and progress opportunities for individuals and their communities.

Green jobs can play a key role in socially inclusive development if they provide adequate incomes, social protection, respect the rights of workers, and give workers and employers’ organizations a say in decisions that affect their lives. The shift towards a greener economy means the creation of new jobs, such as skilled jobs in emerging green industries and services.

However, other jobs will be redundant and will disappear, so active labour policies and social reforms will be needed to facilitate the re-allocation of workers from contracting to expanding sectors and firms, such as those that replace polluting activities with cleaner alternatives or those that provide environmental services.

Synergies between water security and green growth Characteristics of green growth include: • More effective use of natural resources in economic growth.

• Valuing eco-systems.

• Inter-generational economic policies.

• Increased use of renewable sources of energy.

• Protection of vital assets from climate related disasters.

Reduce waste of resources – and finance Characteristics of water security: • Ensure enough water for social and economic development.

• Ensure adequate water for maintaining eco-systems.

• Sustainable water availability for future generations.

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• Balance the intrinsic value of water with its uses for human survival and welfare.

• Harness productive power of water.

• Minimise the destructive power of water.

• Maintain water quality and avoid pollution and degradation.

The industrial and agricultural sectors, as new water supplies could become available and long-term clarity and predictability would be provided by safe water re-use while public acceptance is improved.

Who will be affected?

Water industry, as an enabling South African framework would provide market opportunities South African consumers, since the development of safe water re-use should ensure the safety of crops irrigated with re-used water.

South African citizens will benefit from the improved state of environment as the current level of water abstraction and discharge of wastewater will be reduced.

Workers exposed to reclaimed water, whose occupational health risk would be reduced by safe water re-use measures.

The primary goal is to encourage efficient resource use and reduce pressures on the water environment, in particular water scarcity, by fostering the development of safe re-use of treated wastewater. To this end the initiative will look into the possibility of establishing a common approach on water re-use across South Africa providing clarity, coherence and predictability to market operators who wish to invest in waste water re-use in South Africa • What are the policy options (including exemptions/adapted regimes) being considered?

• What legislative or 'soft law' instruments could be considered?

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• How do the options respect the proportionality principle?

What are the options and benefits Preliminary research and investigation indicates policy change and the enforcement thereof is unavoidable. Information, communication and k nowledge enhancement measures including guidance development, knowledge sharing and awareness raising actions targeting the general public and the practitioners.

Non-binding measures aimed at improving: the implementation/enforcement of pricing, controls of abstractions and integrated water management, promotion of upcoming ISO/CEN water re-use standards, promotion of risk-based approaches for regulating water re-use.

Binding standards on water re-use and/ or binding framework for water re-use practices on the basis of a risk-based approach in order to maximise water re-use where and when relevant, and to provide a clear framework for managing health and environmental risks related to water re-use practices. This could encompass elements such as risk management plans, treatment standards, treatment process controls, application controls and water quality benchmarks To reinforce the achievement of the main objectives, the above options could be combined, e.g. information, communication and knowledge enhancements measures could accompany the non-binding or binding measures.

Measures should not go beyond what is proportionate in relation to the objective to be achieved. The process of impact assessment, including the public consultation, will ensure that all options considered and ultimately proposed will be assessed against this criterion.

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WATER RE-USE

Figure 2: Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) provides a lens through which the many interlinked drivers and potential consequences of economic, social, and environmental changes can be identified, and coordinated actions formulated to holistically achieve economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental sustainability (GWP, 2000).

The following categories of costs and benefits can be identified: • Environmental benefits: reduce water abstraction and water scarcity, improve adaptation to climate change, enhance recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus, reduce/avoid risks of surface and groundwater contamination by pollutants from wastewater, reduced impacts on land and biodiversity and more sustainable water management. • Social benefits: enhanced public and health safety. Enhanced public acceptance; job creation/stabilisation allowing to fully reaping social benefits of waste water re-use developments in South Africa. • Economic costs and benefits: water re-use solutions contribute to prevent/

reduce the economic damage and the constraints on economic development due to water shortages (water scarcity, droughts) and to uncertainty about water availability (obstacle to investment decisions). They also have a potential for job creation. Water re-use solutions may impose new requirements and costs on, at least some, national administrations (enforcing the risk management measures) and industry (implementing new requirements), particularly those who will need to improve their operations (e.g. equipment, personnel) to meet new requirements. Conversely, water re-use solutions may stimulate research leading to the development of innovative technologies and processes.

(Tropp, H. 2010).

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Conclusion Access to clean water and adequate sanitation services is critical to the future of each and every household. Water is clearly fundamental to food production and providing ecosystem services and vital for industrial production and energy generation. Research shows that by investing in green sectors, including the water sector, more jobs and greater prosperity can be created. Arguably, these opportunities are strongest in areas where people still do not have access to clean water and adequate sanitation services. Early investment in the provision of these services appears to be a precondition for progress. Once made, the rate of progress will be faster and more sustainable, thus making transition to a green economy possible.

A water-secure world is vital for a better future: a future in which there is enough water for social and economic development and for ecosystems. A water-secure world

integrates a concern for the intrinsic value of water together with its full range of uses for human survival and well-being. A watersecure world harnesses water's productive power and minimises its destructive force. It is a world where every person has enough safe, affordable water to lead a clean, healthy and productive life. It is a world where communities are protected from floods, droughts, landslides, erosion and water-borne diseases. Water security also means addressing environmental protection and the negative effects of poor management, which will become more challenging as climatic variability increases. A water-secure world reduces poverty, advances education and increases living standards.

It is a world where there is an improved quality of life for all, especially for the most vulnerable—usually women and children—who benefit most from good water governance (Global Water Partnership (GWP) Strategy 2009-2013).

References • Global Water Partnership (GWP) Strategy 2009-2013 www.gwp.org • GWP (2000) Integrated Water Resources Management. Technical Committee Background Paper No 4. Global Water Partnership, www.gwp.org • Molden, D. (ed.) 2007. Water for life, water for good: A comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. International Water Management Institute, Columbo and Earthscan, London.

• Tropp, H. 2010. Making water a part of economic development: The economic benefits of improved water management and services.

• WHO/UNICEF. 2010. Progress on sanitation and drinking-water: 2010 Update. www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/9789241563956/en/index.html

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Profile

PURIFICATION PURIFICATION

ADVERTORIAL

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including waterborne waterborne disease-causing disease-causing including refine and optimise current techniques, pathogens (e.g. cholera, cholera, typhoid) and pathogens (e.g. typhoid) and as well and as inorganic provide methods for organic and inorganicnovel solutes.

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State, State, Limpopo, Limpopo, have have been been suffering suffering from from inadequate inadequate supply supply of of drinking drinking water water to to its its communities communities due due to to low low levels levels

of of water water in in the the dams dams such such that that the the government government instituted instituted the the strict strict measures measures for for the the use use of of drink drink water, water, with with some some ADVERTORIAL areas areas only only receiving receiving water water at at night. night.

Photo Photocourtesy courtesyof of Jacques JacquesBotha/Stellenbosch Botha/StellenboschUniversity University

Tea bag water lter gniworg eht elkcat ot Tea syabag wwater wenlter gnidniF Dubbed Dubbed the the ‘tea ‘tea bag’ bag’ filter, this is is aa water water filter filter small small enough enough to to fit fit sah retaw gniknird naelc gnisinto sethe ccneck a foof efilter, lbwhich othis rp may into the neck of aam bottle, which may provide provide aa very very cheap cheap means means to to bottle, purify water water in in remote remote areas areas or or where where there there is is no no regular regular water water supply supply purify dnuora seirtnuoc tsom rof of y t i r o i r p a e m o c e b of aa potable potable standard. standard. It It could could also also potentially potentially be be used used worldwide worldwide by relief organisations where clean supplies clean water supplies are are threatened threatened by by .acirfA htuoS gnby idrelief ulcorganisations nidiseases ,dlrosuch wwhere eas t water waterborne diseases such ashcholera cholera as aa result result of of natural natural disasters disasters such such waterborne as

as earthquakes earthquakes and and floods. floods. The The tea tea bag bag filter filter sachets sachets are are made made from from the the as same material material as as rooibos rooibos tea tea bags, bags, but but contain contain activated activated carbon carbon instead instead of of same tea.

The inside surface of the tea bag material is coated with a thin film tea. The inside surface of the tea bag material is coated with a thin film of of biocides encapsulated encapsulated within within tiny tiny nanofibres. nanofibres. This This makes makes it it unique unique among among biocides oiroN yb repap cfiitneics a ni denfied saw tahtraps t etacthe idnbacteria, i scitsitatwhich s tnece r sthen available water water filters, filters, since since the the filter filter traps the bacteria, which are then available are killed by by the the biocide biocide coating. coating. The The tea tea bag isaplaced placed inrathe the neck of ambottle bottle .ytisrevinU ecneicS oykoT ta ihcuginaT yllbag aunnis gniyd ein elpneck oep eof roa killed and when the water passes through the filter, all disease-causing microbes and when the water passes throughmthe laciteroeht ylegral deniamer ti ,revewoH orf filter, naht all retdisease-causing aw efasnu momicrobes rf are technology, are killed, killed, making making the the water water safe safe for for,ddrinking. drinking.

This low-cost technology, deriuqer eht nehw ,s0891 ylrae eht litnu enibmoc This ecnelow-cost loiv fo sm rof lla developed by by aa team team at at the the University University of of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch in in the the Western Western Cape Cape developed mrof eht ni depoleved saw tnempiuqe a nwell eeb provide reven saah ereheffective t ,raw gnpointidulcni headed by

by Prof.

Prof. Eugene Eugene Cloete, Cloete, could could novel, headed well provide a novel, effective pointepocsorcim gnillennut gninnacs eht fo n a e l c e d i v o r p o t d e e n l a b o l g r e taerg of-use technology with a huge potential impact globally. of-use technology with a huge potential impact globally.

Once epocsorcim ecrof cimota eht dna )MTS( htuoSpreventing nI .retawthe niknird elbissecca Once used, used, the the tea tea bag bag filter filter is is replaced, replaced, preventing thegproblems problems associated with with clogged clogged filters filters leading leading to ineffective use.

Since the associated t n e m p i u q e s i h T .r e t a l s r a e y w e f a ) M F A ( elpoto epineffective noillim 7.use.

5 deSince tamitsthe e na ,acirfA nanofibre is is also also aa solid solid structure structure rather rather than aesnanoparticle, nanoparticle, the filter nanofibre slairetam elacsonan rof elbissop ti edam dna ,sthan ecivra retaw cisab the ot filter ssecca kcal biodegrades, so there is no risk of unintended effects on human health biodegrades, so there is no risk of unintended detalupinam ,desiretcarahc ,nees eb ot elpo ep be notested ileffects lim 8by 1 on othe t human 7South 1 ylehealth tamixorppa or the environment.

The tea bag filter will or the environment. The tea bag filter will be tested by the South .derutcafunam neve dna -si nawhich sA .sthe ecivproject res noitteam atinahopes s cisabto African Bureau Bureau of of Standards Standards soon, soon, after after which the project team hopes tokcal African introduce it it to to various various communities. communities.desilanigram eht ylniam gnitceffa eus introduce esaercni ot ylekil era serugfi eseht ,roop AS NI YGOLONHCETONAN -sir ,noisnapxe lairtsudni ot gniwo lanoitaN eht ,acirfA htuoS nI Microbiologist with chemicals chemicals owing to their large surface area, Microbiologist them elsewhere. new applications are egnahcowing etMany amto ilctheir dnalarge nosurface italupoparea, gni )SNN( ygetartS ygolonhcetonaN with Microbiologist Dr Michéle Michéle de de Dr and can can at be easily recovered with asmagnet. magnet. have formed collaborative partnerships with Dr Michéle de looking light NNS can n arphotocatalysts ahaS-brecovered us tceffthat a with otuse te era to hcbreak ihw ‒ hguoin hformed twhich la ,60nanotechnology 0collaborative 2 ni dehcnpartnerships ual offer sawthe most and be easily a have with Kwaadsteniet, who who isis is Kwaadsteniet, who industry, universities and bodies such as the the Sensingpollutants. and detection: detection: Small, portable sensors Kwaadsteniet, Magnetic nanoparticles significant .yllacitsarsensors d abind cirfA deddebmuniversities ebenefits neeb for sahSouth ygobodies lAfrica. onhcetosuch nan as industry, and •• down Sensing and Small, portable part part of of the the development development Water Research Commission are being developed with enhanced of the development with chemicals to their large surface capaarea, reflected of part eThis ht eis cn is ycilop in dnthe a yghigh etartvolume s (WRC), lanoitaand nto i conduct Water Research Commission (WRC), tonquality conduct are also also being owing developed with enhanced capateam at Stellenbosch Stellenbosch team at cutting-edge research. bilities detecting and and can for be easily research institutions around team at Stellenbosch ecneicS non o rthis ep atopic P etihat W various eMuch ht fo nof oitthis acilbhas up focused cutting-edge research.

Much of this has focused bilities for detecting biological and chemical ?YGrecovered OLObiological NHCwith ETOaNmagnet.

AN Schemical I TAHW University, holds a a used used University, holds on a very the • Scontaminants ensing sand and unused unused tea a the country. date, the of fo ewater no si rpurifi etaTo Wcation, .6991through nand i ygoas lon eDepartment T dna a on water purifi cation, and as ahcresult, result, a range range contaminants at very low concentrations in the ehcadetection: oat rpp a ehlow t foSmall, econcentrations no siportable ygolonhcsensors ein ton aN University, holds and tea bag  lter. of water treatment devices that incorporate environment, including in water. are also-dubeing with bag lter.

Science Technology the SNNwater ehtand ntreatment i d ethgilhgidevices h s(DST), aera that su cof government xis of incorporate environment, lcnincluding i ,seirdeveloped tnuoin c ywater. nam n i deroenhanced lpxe gnieb retaW asasused ukI fo ysetunused ruoc otohP and nanotechnology are already commercially available capabilities has million of eht invested reffo nacR551,9 ygare oloalready nhcetocommercially ninandifferent hcihw naspects iavailable nanotechnology fo efor gnedetecting llahc eht ebiological lkcat ot ,acand irfA chemical htuoS gni ,ytilicaf gninnipteabag s ’seirafilter. llipac enarbmem ehT around the country.

BENEFITS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY contaminants at nanotechnology development .acirfA hthe tuocountry.

S rof research stfieneb tand nacfi ingis tsom (R&D). around ygOF olonNANOTECHNOLOGY hcvery etonalow N .rconcentrations etaw naelc gniin divthe orp reganam y rotcaf ,legovsyE ajnA htBENEFITS iw Nanotechnology off ers awater. number of benenvironment, Two have dna enanotechnology mulov hgih eht ninnovation i detcefler sicentres sihT yrev aincluding no off slaers iretin am fonumber noitalupinof am ebenht si Nanotechnology a efi ts to dnthe the water sector, for instance, USES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN been commissioned and gnisuac-esaesid enrobretaw gnidefi ults cni to suoira v ta NANOTECHNOLOGY cipot siht n o hhave craesformed er fo IN ytilcollaborative auq a cimowater ta eht tsector, a yllaitnesfor se ‒ e lacs ynit instance, USES OF by enabling more eff ective removal of WATER TREATMENT partnerships dna )diohpyt ,arelohc .g.e( snegBENEFITS ohtapenabling ,WATER etad oT TREATMENT .yrtnwith uoc industry, eht dnuouniversities ra snoitutitsand ni bodies ,lOF eveNANOTECHNOLOGY l elmore acsonaneff ehective t tA .slevremoval el raluceloof m by contaminants The investibenefits such as hguto ohtlA .setulos cinagroni dna ciNanotechnology nagro ecneapplications icSthe foWater tneof mResearch tnanotechnology rapeD Commission eht hgubeing orht(WRC), yrtsimat coffers dna sconcentrations caisynumber hp fo seluof r laowing m ron eto ht contaminants atehlower lower concentrations owing to The applications of nanotechnology being investiincreased lters’ gated conduct cutting-edge etsixe syawla evah slairetam elacsto onthe an water tnemnand rev oapplied g eht ,in ) TSthe Dresearch. ( water ygolonsector hMuch ceT include: dnofa this,dhas yspecifi namsector, tlcity userand afor sa‘smart dinstance, na ,yfi pa by totailored nenabling od nefor tfo increased specifi city and ‘smart filp lters’ tailored for gated and applied in the water sector include: specifi cc uses.

••nNanofi These as focused and ah result, tsrfia c eht effective i noilltration lon im water 071membranes: R purification, revo detse vni assaact dna Novel eremoval uqinureactions yof alpcontaminants sid on ot tthe rats nanoscale satlailower retam specifi uses.

Novel reactions on the nanoscale Nanofi ltration membranes: These act as aasaw ygolonhcetonan fo tpecnomore due to increased increasedowing numbers of surface atoms may physical barrier and selectively reject substances increased range that yb nevig klat a ta ,9591 ni detnemconcentrations ucod yphysical golonofhcwater ebarrier tonatreatment n and fo selectively stcdevices epsa reject tn ereffincorporate id .numbers seitrepto orpof gn isirprusatoms sspecificity emitemay mos due to surface substances also enable the removal of contaminants that smaller than their pores, removing harmful polnanotechnology already npolaciremA na ta namnyeF drahciR tsicand isyh‘smart penable .)smaller D&R( than tnemtheir poare levpores, ed dremoving ncommercially a hcraharmful eseravailable slafilters’ irthe etamtailored onan yb for dof erespecific ffo seitruses. eporpNovel eh T also removal contaminants that were previously very diffi cult todue treat.

The number lutants and retaining useful nutrients present intsomlA .gniteem yteicoS lacreactions around 02 in isyhPpreviously nlutants oitavothe nand ni country. ygolonh cetonnutrients an owpresent T gon nitaethe rvery t rnanoscale odiffi f dcult etiusto ltreat. lew toThe meincreased hnumber t ekam were retaining useful also the of treatment steps, the quantity of materials and water.

Nanotechnology enables the membrane ’ygolonhcetonan‘ mret eht ,retal numbers sratreatment ey dwater. na den oissimmoc neebenables evah sthe ertnmembrane ec ooft surface ysteps, tinutrothe patoms poquantity namay edivof ormaterials p enable dna ,reand taw of Nanotechnology removal of contaminants were previously the cost cost and and energy required toespurify purify water could poreOF sizeNANOTECHNOLOGY to be be made made smaller smallerIN and more more uniform, uniform, USES ,seuenergy qinhcetrequired tnerruthat cto im itpowater dna could enfier the pore size to and difficult The number be radically reduced using nanotechnology, makand have have increased reactivity. reactivity. For For example, example, the the noitartlifartlu yrallipac gnvery WATER TREATMENT isU rof reduced sto dotreat. htem levonanotechnology, n edivorof p streatment a llemakw sa be radically using and increased thegquantity the ing implement commupilot study The applications nto inim dnof a lmaterials airtsin udremote ni ,and citserural modcost gnitand aert ing it easier easier to implement in remote rural commupilot study inrlaMadibogo Madibogo Village mentioned previydaein siof retnanotechnology aw lairVillage tsudni dnmentioned a elbbeing atop roinvesti­ fprevimetsys retl dna enarbmem decudorp yllasteps, col Ait energy could gated applied the nities. will water is ously huses csob nreverse elletS ein htosmosis yb dewater tcudmembranes nosector c tcejorinclude: p ehtto fo treat mia ehT .acirfA htuoS ni elbaliava yllaicrem moc It ygoalso lonhtocaff epurify tect onathe nwater ,ylway laitn e ssE be .re apurifi wetsed aw nities.

Itrequired will also aff ect the way water istradically purifi ed ouslyand uses reverse osmosis membranes to treat evisgroundwater n e p x e e c a l p e r o t s m e t s y s e v i t c e ff e t s o c e l b a t i u s e c u d o r p o t s a w C R W e h t d n a y t i s r e v i n U reduced using nanotechnology, making it easier • brackish brackish Nanofiltration membranes: These act as a physical around the country once the initial investment has to produce potable water. rocountry f noitulonce os ethe daminitial -roliatinvestment a reffo has nto ac around the groundwater to produce potable water. ) F U C ( n o i t a r t l  a r t l u y r a l l i p a c e h t , r e t e m a i d n i m n 5 3 f o e z i s e r o p a h t i W . s t n e l a v i u q e d e t r o p m i implement in remote rural communities. barrier and selectively rejectnanoparticles: substances smaller been made made by,tthe the water industry to develop the Nanocatalysts and magnetic magnetic nanoparticles: a ro naniwater matnoindustry c ralucitrto apdevelop a gnivom er been by the •• Nanocatalysts and ,nori yleman ,sedixo latem dna ,ruoloc ,sesuriv dna airetcab fo lavomer eht selbane ygolonhcet It will also than their pores, removing harmfulproperties pollutants new infrastructure required.

Before such aotime, time, These are nanoparticles nanoparticles with catalytic catalytic tnereaffect ffid grequired. nithe su ,’sway ksaBefore titwater lum‘ such taisht purified na itulos These tnemtaare ert eht dna retawaeswith fo tnemtaert-erproperties p eht rof elbatius osla si tI .muinimula dna esenagnew nam infrastructure the and retaining improvements to existing materials such as memthat can chemically break down pollutants right rof country laeto diexisting si sonce ihT .materials sthe euqiinitial nhcesuch t investment desas abmem-onan improvements that pollutants sredcan loh tchemically netap euseful ht ybbreak ecnutrients necidown l eht depresent tnarg sawin reright twater. aW asasukI .retawetsaw dna retaw lairtsudaround ni fo has industry Nanotechnology branes can be made through nanotechnology. where they are, avoiding the need to transport tsethey W tesare, remoavoiding S nenables i yrotcathe f athe nneed i smmembrane etsto ys transport enarbmepore m dna senarbmem FUC eht ecudorp ot )C RW(been smade nbe iatn oby c rethe tthrough awwater esuacnanotechnology. eb noitacto fiirdevelop up retaw branes can made where Fbe UC emade ht ,rotMany csmaller es retanew wand naapplications cirmore fA htuouniform, S ehtare ot elband aliava woN .9002 etal ni epaC nretseW ethe htNanotechnology, ni new niinfrastructure size toelsewhere.

Nanotechnology, which is on the cutting them elsewhere.

Many new applications are stnanimwhich atnocrequired. fo on smrBefore of tn esuch reffid is the cutting them seitilaincreased piat cinphotocatalysts um esoreactivity. ht rof yllaicthat eFor pseuse ,saelight ra laruto r the robreak f sn oitulos tnemtaert retaw sedivorp ygolon hcetime, t of discovery, aedge have example, pilot edge off ers ahto variety of new career looking simprovements latem yvaoff ehers sa a cvariety usexisting ,snoof itacnew olmaterials tncareer ereffid of discovery, looking at photocatalysts that use light to break .gnirocs porD eulB rieht evorpmi ro secivres retaw wen edivorp ot gnsuch ikees as membranes can be made through study pollutants. in Madibogo Village nanoparticles uses reverse osmosis opportunities down Magnetic bind snixot for lacigotoday’s loib ,)cinyoung esra ,yrucscientists. rem .g.e( opportunities for today’s young scientists. down pollutants.

Magnetic nanoparticles bind nanotechnology. Nanotechnology, which is on membranes to treat brackish groundwater to the cutting edge of discovery, offers a variety produce potable water. of new career opportunities for today’s young • Nanocatalysts and magnetic nanoparticles: JAN/FEB 11 11 11 B E F / N A JJAN/FEB scientists. Owing to the cross-cutting nature of These are nanoparticles with catalytic properties nanotechnology, there are a multitude of possible that can chemically break down pollutants right careers to pursue and an array of new opportunities where they are, avoiding the need to transport

A

110

THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

25 42

Recent statistics indicate that more people are dying from unsafe water annually than from all forms of violence combined, including war. Providing access to clean water is a priority worldwide. In South Africa, an estimated 5.7 million people lack access to basic water services and about 17–18 million lack basic sanitation services. Most of these people are the marginalised poor; and these figures are likely to increase due to industrial expansion, rising population, and impacts of climate change.

Access to safe drinking water – free of disease -causing bacteria and viruses – is a basic human right, and essential to maintaining healthy people. It also impacts economic growth and development, especially in developing countries such as South Africa.

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ADVERTORIAL

Cleaning brackish water

Photo courtesy of CSIR Photo courtesy of CSIR

A partnership between the North-West University (NWU) and the Council for Scientic and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a treatment plant in the rural village water of Madibogo Cleaning brackish in the North West province. The plant A partnership between themembranes North-West incorporates ultra ltration (NWU) and the Council toUniversity clean brackish groundwater, as the for Scienti c and Industrial Research majority of the inhabitants depend on (CSIR) has developed a treatment groundwater or borehole water for plantwater in theneeds. rural village of Madibogo their inSeveral the North West province. The plant types of membrane were incorporates ultra ltration membranes tested in this pilot study, including to clean brackish groundwater, as reverse osmosis membranes and the majority of the inhabitantstodepend on ultra ltration membranes, see which groundwater for would remove or theborehole pollutingwater solutes theirsuccessfully water needs. most while retaining the Several types of This membrane were essential nutrients. pilot study tested in this pilot study, includingof has demonstrated the importance reverse osmosis membranes and available supporting infrastructure What is nanotechnology?

One of the original collaborators of the nanoltration membrane project, Dr Mbuthi ultra ltration membranes, toto see which (e.g. electricity) and the need Through the NWU, United Nations Millennium Development is the the actlocal ofthe manipulating Hlope from shows the newly installed pilot plant at MadibogoNanotechnology Village to would remove pollutingto solutes involve community ensure schoolchildren . most successfully while retaining Goals, the international community committed itself the scales uptake (generally and sustainability of thethe materials at very tiny regarded essential nutrients.

This pilot study technology. halving proportion of people as are nanoscale) at the the atomic and of socks toaccess reduce foot odour released Owing to thethe cross-cutting nature of without fortothe up-and-coming workforce.

Spec­ example, silver to nanoparticles used in – essentially has demonstrated importance during washing, and titanium dioxide nanotechnology, there are a multitude of safe water and sanitation bylikely 2015. translates into available supporting ial­ ised postgraduate courses are to This socks to reduce footthe odour are released and scientific data thatinfrastructure demonstrate the molecular size levels.

When materials have One of the original collaborators of the nanoltration membrane project, Dr Mbuthi THE FUTURE AND (e.g. electricity) and thethe need to particles used in paints released from possible careers pursue andtofor an array beimproving developed in to the next five 10 years during washing, and theare titanium dioxide impact on humans and environment water supplies 1.5 billion worldHlope from NWU, shows the newly installedpeople pilot plant at Madibogo Village to of their one or more dimensions under 100 nanNANOTECHNOLOGY involve the local community to ensure exterior of in building walls into drainoftonew up-and-coming meetopportunities the increasingforneed for expertise the particles used paints are released from of products already in use. It is likely wide. Ways of achieving thisschoolchildren objective include the It the is important nanotechnology uptake sustainability of the be ometres, rules and ofthat physics and age systems.ofBased on the scientifi c fithe nd- normal youngsters.

Specialised in the nanotechnology field.postgraduate the exterior building walls into drainage that these regulations will be modified technology. developed in a safe, responsible, acceptexploration and of in new technologies for socks to Based reduce foot released Owing to the cross-cutting nature of ings chemistry often no apply.

As a result, systems. onthis thefiodour scientific findings published in eld to are date, these courses are likely todevelopment be developed andlonger tightened accordingly as new data able and sustainable manner. As risk during washing, thetotitanium dioxide nanotechnology, there are to a multitude producing clean drinking water. published in are thisand field to date,materials these WHAT ARE THE likely interact with the next five toRISKS? 10 years meet theof nanoparticles become many start toavailable. display unique and part of assessment becomes an integral THE FUTURE AND particles used in paints are released from possible careers to pursue and an array nanoparticles are likely to interact with In addition to being used to improve water and destroy beneficial bacteria which increasing need for expertise in the sometimes, surprising properties.

Their strength, nanotechnology research in South Africa, NANOTECHNOLOGY One of the approaches being explored in many the exterior of building walls into drainof new opportunities for up-and-coming and destroy beneficialrole bacteria which play technology, nanotechnology is being play THE FUTURE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY an important in wastewater nanotechnology field. risks be avoided based on the lesIt is may important thatofnanotechnology be ability to conduct and rate reactivity age systems.

Based onRisk the scientifi c find- electricity youngsters.

Specialised postgraduate countries, including toimportant tackle plants. this an role in wastewater treatment applied by other economicSouth sectors Africa, such treatment Itdeveloped is learned important thatresponsible, nanotechnology assessment sons technologies, in from a safe,other acceptincrease dramatically.

For example, solids such ings published in this eld to date, these courses are likely toproducts, be developed plants.

Risk is crucial as health, consumer industrial be inand a DDT, safe, responsible, is assessment crucial for firesearch establishing the WHAT ARE THE challenge of RISKS? increasing accessin toresearch clean drinking such asand asbestos which were abledeveloped sustainable manner.

As risk nanoparticles are to interact with the next five to 10 years meet the potential for establishing thelikely potential impacts ofintolater etc., and to dateto than acceptable sustainable manner. As riskof as gold turn liquids atand room temperature, impacts on Inapplications, addition being used tomore improve withdrawn from use. assessment becomes an integral part water, isto the application of nanotechnology.

The of nanoparticles and destroy benefi bacteria which nanoparticles human health and the 1increasing 100 nanotechnology-based products need for expertise in are the assessment becomes an integral part of human health on and thecial environment: the water technology, nanotechnology is Although substantial initial investsilver shows increased anti–microbial properties, nanotechnology research in South Africa, unique and novel properties of nanoparticles make environment: the technology’s benefits already available consumers worldwide. play an important nanotechnology field. nanotechnology researchbased in Africa, technology’s benefi ts role mustinbewastewater balanced being applied by to other economic sectors ment would required to South incorporate risks may bebe avoided on the lesinert materials like platinum and gold become them suited treating water. against Nanotechnology must beany balanced against any unintended However, there mayconsumer befor unintended effects treatment plants.

Risk assessment or risks may be avoided based the lessons unintended consequences. such as well health, products, switch to from nanotechnology-based sons learned otherontechnologies, catalysts, and materials like aluminium consequences. on human and etc., the to environment, learned from other technologies, such research is crucial the stable WHAT ARE THE RISKS? offers anhealth opportunity refine and optimise current Although there for are establishing currently no industrial applications, and to date water treatment methods, such as asbestos and DDT, once whichthese were Although impacts there of are nanoparticles currently no as it is likely a percentage of the nanotechnology-specific as asbestos and DDT,discovered whichcosts werewould later on are Intechniques, addition tothat being to improve become combustible.

These newly adopted, maintenance regulations more than 1 100 nanotechnology-based later withdrawn from use. and to used provide new and potential novel methods nanotechnology-specific regulations nanoparticles used in these products may withdrawn fromsubstantial use. the environment: water technology, be considerably lower over the investlong Although initial South health Africa and because of the relative products are already nanotechnology available to con-is inhuman properties ofthe nanoscale materials have opened of purifying water.

This can be realised through in South Africa because of the relative eventually interact with humans and the Although substantial initial technology’s benefi ts must be balanced being applied by other economic sectors term and a higher-quality water product ment would be applications required to investment incorporate infancy of this emerging technology, the sumers worldwide.

However, there may up exciting fields of study and in tailor–made solutions suitable for removing a infancy this emerging technology, the environment ateffdifferent stagesproducts, of the government, would be incorporate against of any unintended consequences. such as health, consumer would be required provided, particularlyortoswitch rural or switch to to nanotechnology-based through the DST, is fundbe unintended ects on human health can the quality human government, through the DST, is that funding products’ life cycles. to nanotechnology-based waterlife treatment particular contaminant a solution “multi–tasks” areareas no improve industrial applications, and to date communities.

It is of vital that the water water treatment methods, once these ing Although a researchthere platform tocurrently investigate and the environment, as etc., it isor likely that a that ananotechnology-specific research platform to investigate the Therethan that the same methods, oncemaintenance these with arecosts adopted, in the fields of water health. sector becomes familiar this techareand adopted, would regulations more 1 concerns 100 the environmental, safety and health percentage of the nanotechnology-based nanoparticles used in using are different nano–based techniques. environmental, safety and health aspects properties thatalready make available nanoparticles so maintenance would be considerably nology as it iscosts set to change how be considerably lower over thewater long in South because of the products are to conaspects of Africa nanotechnology.

An relative ethics these products may eventually interact NANOSCIENCE is theand study and of nanotechnology.

An ethics committeethe is useful, namely size,However, shape,solutions reactivity, over longdiscovery term and aoffhigherislower cleaned, and clearly stands toof er sigNanotechnology-based water term athe higher-quality water product infancy of sector this emerging technology, sumers worldwide. there may committee is also being established by with humans and the environment at in the also being established by the government, etc., could also eff them harmful to quality product be provided, cant water advantages forwould a country such as would be provided, particularly to rural these government, through is fund- nifi bewill unintended ects human health findstages wide make application if they low cost, highly government, madethe upDST, of properties. diverse diff erent of theonproducts’ lifeare the made up of diverse stakeholder represen­ the environment and as toxic to humans, particularly It is water vital South Africa.to rural communities.

It iscommunities. vital that the ing a research platform to investigate and the environment, it is likely that a stakeholder representatives, to ensure cycles.

There are concerns that the same efficient, ableenter to provide clean drinking water in that the ta­ tives, to ensure technology for example,and they and build up NANOTECHNOLOGY the sector use of thesethis that theis water becomes familiar here we come! sector becomes familiar with techthe environmental, safety and health Nanotechnology, percentage ofif the nanoparticles usedso in that the technology adheres to ethical properties that make nanoparticles very remote – and which isfood not possible with the principles. adheres to ethical To ethics date, in drinking waterregions supplies the with thisas technology aschange it is set to change nology it isand setapplications. to how water properties in special products aspects of nanotechnology.

An these products may eventually interact principles. To date, around the world (in useful, namely size, shape, reactivity, around the isworld (in Canada, the US, chain.

These concerns areused exacerbated how water isand cleaned, and clearlytostands to is cleaned, clearly stands offer sigcurrent technologies in both water supply and committee also being established

by Scriba, with humans environment the US, Japan and(Source: the European etc., could also and makethe them harmful toat Canada, Manfred CSIR) Japan and the European Union), relatively by the current poor understanding of nificant advantages for a country such as offer significant advantages for a country wastewater treatment. the government, made up of diverse diff erent stages of the life Union), relatively loose regulations have the environment and toxicproducts’ to humans, loose regulations have been developed, the fate and behaviour of nanoparticles South Africa. stakeholder representatives, to inconensure such as South Africa. cycles. Thereifare concerns that build the same been developed, mainly based on for they and up mainly based on inconclusive evidence in example, humans and theenter environment.

For Nanotechnology, herewe wecome! come!

Nanotechnology, here that the technology adheres data to ethical that make nanoparticles evidence and scientific that inproperties drinking water supplies and the foodso clusive principles. To date, around the world (in useful,These namely size, are shape, reactivity, demonstrate the impact on humans and chain. concerns exacerbated Canada, the US, Japan and the European etc., alsopoor makeunderstanding them harmful ofto the environment of products already by thecould current loosethese regulations have thefate environment and toxic to humans, inUnion), use. It relatively is likely that regulations the and behaviour of nanoparticles been mainly based on inconexample,and if they and buildFor up will bedeveloped, modified and tightened accordinforhumans the enter environment. clusive evidence and scientific data that in drinking water supplies and used the food ingly as new data become available. example, silver nanoparticles in demonstrate the impact on humans and chain. These concerns are exacerbated the environment of products already by the current poor understanding of JAN/FEB 11 regulations in use. It is likely that these the fate and behaviour of nanoparticles will be modified and tightened accordin humans and the environment. For ingly as new data become available. example, silver nanoparticles used in

26

THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

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Bubbler sanitation solutions for Africa Eliminate the bucket, install Bubbler At Bubbler we are driven by different, anything different.

We’re creative, passionate and a little bit out there. But more than anything, we are tired of the mundane and ordinary. We are tired of the tag given to Africa: poor sanitation, diseases and everything negative. Hence we are constantly INNOVATING and finding SOLUTIONS. Our vision is to revolutionise sanitation in Africa, which will eliminate most water borne diseases.

Our parent company, NWWS is a black empowered sanitation and wastewater treatment company established in 2006. Proudly African. This is a brainchild of entrepreneurs, Piet Nel, Wikus Muller and Marcus Mzolisi Banga, who invented, designed and patented it. We are driven by the need to dignify citizens. South Africa alone has 22 million people without access to sanitation living in rural and informal settlements.

What is Bubbler?

The Bubbler System is a water-borne sanitation solution for areas where no municipal infrastructure exists. We liken the bubbler to a mobile sanitation plant. It can be installed at multiple sites without damaging the system, temporarily or permanently.

It is a small sanitation and waste water treatment system similar to a septic tank system which uses an aerobic process for digestion and a specialized aeration concept which is patented and other specialized filtering methods not used in normal

septic systems.

The bubbler system is especially designed for rural areas where public sewers are not available, and may be used for a single residence, a small group of homes, block of flats, hotels etc. The system is very flexible with little limitations.

Where can the bubbler be installed?

Millions of people in South Africa lack access to sanitation and thousands of households are still reliant on bucket systems. As the need for sanitation grows, the capability to meet these needs gets more difficult. An alternative to regular municipal flush toilets that also saves water is a solution to this complex problem, the bubbler!

The Bubbler System is ideal for: • Densely populated informal settlements • Rural Areas, because of the difficulty in installing • Rural Schools which lacks infrastructure • Farming Communities • Camp sites including holiday sites • Low income housing • High income housing What are the advantages of Bubbler?

The bubbler can be installed anywhere. Because of its versatility, it can be used across the social strata.

From high-end residential houses, exclusive holiday homes, middle income house, low income (RDP) houses to rural and farming communities.

In densely populated informal settlements, the bubbler is the answer because one unit can be connected to six houses with six family members each. One unit of the bubbler system can be installed at a school and work perfectly.

As a South African invention, bubbler is poised

HOW TO FIND US: 22 Electron Road, Blackheath, Cape Town Wikus Muller 071 896 3546 • Marcus Mzolisi Banga 071 056 4511 / 074 463 3225 Email: wikus@nwws.co.za • Web: www.nwws.co.za

Dignity in sanitation

to be a big employment creator in the country.

With a policy to source labour and other nonessential skills in the areas it’s installed, Bubbler will become a countrywide employer of choice, as the system is the answer to country and continent wide sanitation challenges. This dovetails with the government’s policy of stimulating and localizing employment opportunities thereby reducing rural to urban migration.

With a Bubbler we reuse the water, we reduce waterborne diseases and we recycle final effluent water so that it can be used for flushing or irrigation.

It can even be safely discharged into the environment without doing any harm.

“There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy customer. It is even more gratifying when that customer’s life is changed for the better permanently.

That is what we continue to strive to do with our Bubbler Water Efficiency System. We provide a sustainable and progressive water-borne, water recycling, green solution to the sanitation problems in our country. Making it possible for many communities to truly have dignity in sanitation,” Marcus Mzolisi Banga, Director at Bubbler.

COMPANY

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

Abeco Tanks Aquadam Bubbler

20-21 72 110-111

Endress & Hauser South Africa

33

Geberit Southern Africa

14

Hach South Africa

16

IWR Water Resources

46

Kronhe

2-5

Maskam Water

28

Miwatek

58

Nedbank

OBC

Rauco Trading SAASTA Sebata Group Sika South Africa Sustainability Week 2016 Talbot & Talbot UIS Analytical Services Woolworths

114

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THE SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE HANDBOOK

66 107-109 18-19 10 IBC 8 IFC-1 6

SUSTAINABILITY

WEEK

GET READY TO PUT IDEAS IN MOTION Advancing the Green Economy through the sharing of knowledge and experience across disciplines, sectors, and 17-19 June 2014 CSIR International Convention Centre markets - actively seeking to develop and accelerate sustainability oriented project pipelines.

The convergence of government officials, private sector investors, business operators, professionals, researchers, and NGO’s under one roof to re-engage on key challenges and solutions will once again prove to have a catalytic effect on the Green Economy.

Through its innovative and interconnected event construction, delegates at Sustainability Week, are exposed to the need to balance interests in a bid to achieve the most appropriate approach to each decision. The day to day market realities are put to one side for three days as decision makers re-evaluate their business context and the cause and effect of actions.

HOSTED BY:

In 2016 delegate access to all sessions will again be open, enabling each individual to structure a bespoke programme that suits their personal preferences. This unique approach enhances the delegate experience as people from different sectors and different places interact with each other, seeing similar challenges from different perspectives, and discovering new opportunities.

CONTACT US

IT STARTS HERE! www.sustainabilityweek.co.za

Highlights for 2016 include: The 2nd annual African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum, led by the City of Tshwane, and which welcomes high level delegations from cities around the African continent to deliberate on shared experiences and perspectives, and agree on matters of leadership in relation to sustainable cities.

The 10th annual Green Building Conference, will focus on African approaches and leap-frog thinking to bring fresh thinking to what is fast becoming a mature market.

See you at Sustainability Week 2016

CSIR INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE

31 MAY-2 JUNE 2016 021 447 4733

sales@alive2green.com

purpleberry 1215/9296

25 YEARS OF GREEN INITIATIVES Celebrating 25 years of doing good for the environment.

Since 1990, with the support of Nedbank Green Affinity clients, the WWF Nedbank Green Trust has donated more than R180 million towards funding conservation projects across South Africa.

Over the last 25 years, more than 200 environmental projects nationwide have benefited from the Trust, which aims to educate our youth on environmental and sustainability issues, conserve endangered species and freshwater ecosystems, and fight against climate change.

Thank you, South Africa, for 25 years of your continued support.

Visit your nearest Nedbank branch, call us on 0860 555 111 or go to nedbank.co.za.

Nedbank Ltd Reg No 1951/000009/06. Authorised financial services and registered credit provider (NCRCP16).