Increased need for groundwater

According to the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), groundwater provides half of all drinking water, over 40% of irrigation water, and a third of the industrial sector’s global need for water. Worldwide, about 2.5 billion people depend solely on groundwater to satisfy their daily drinking and other domestic water needs. By Isak Malherbe & Jonathan Schroder, AECOM

Demand for groundwater is increasing due to population growth and changing global consumption patterns. In this regard, groundwater depletion is largely driven by irrigated agriculture to satisfy needs for basic global food security and luxury crop outputs. Ever-deeper boreholes and tube wells, as well as more powerful pumps, put a strain on groundwater reserves that are not rejuvenated in a lifetime. Shared groundwater resources are also threatened due to climate variability and change, as well as quality deterioration, reports the SIWI.

There is a growing need for society to understand what role it plays in water solutions. Governments, while providing frameworks and legislation, essentially respond to the way society, as the end-users, behaves around water use and pollution. As the general public, we need to be more concerned with water, and how we impact and use it to be able to achieve true, longterm sustainability. Securing a safe water supply was once a primary focus of people. We need to, once again, become more conscious every time we open our taps and use this water.

Seeing a shift

Traditionally, rural areas in Africa have used groundwater as their main resource, with surface water developed mainly for urban areas. As a result, there has been a stigma attached to groundwater over the years as a potentially less-desirable source of water. However, the recent devastating droughts across the continent have proven the resilience of groundwater, with an attendant shift towards tapping into this resource. An important part of this shift has been the realisation that implementing and operating large-scale surface water schemes can be prohibitively expensive to diffuse communities in our beautiful but hilly terrain. This has resulted in a renewed appreciation of the sustainability of groundwater resources, as well as more local surface water resources.

For example, we have a specialist team focusing on groundwater development planning and associated remedial work such as pollution monitoring and mitigation. In

most instances, we pull in specialists, but we consider the conjunctive use of groundwater. We have also provided our expert support to various environmental studies to classify and protect water resources, which involves a holistic consideration of both groundwater and surface water resources.

End-to-end African solutions

A particular focus for us has been water resource projects in Africa and the Middle East, where we are conducting water-yield studies for a range of dam and irrigation projects. A close interface with the civil infrastructure side of the business gives the water resources team the capability to run with projects from inception to implementation, and even long-term monitoring. Essentially, we provide seamless, end-to-end solutions for our clients. Surface water looks more closely at rainfall run-off and modelling to best manage river systems and catchment areas. We look at where it is required to build new infrastructure to meet growing water requirements and how to optimise existing infrastructure. This is important to allow us to navigate droughts and manage overuse of our water resources. The primary goal is sustainable, long-term water resources security.

Looking at the entire catchment system, the interaction between surface water and groundwater needs to be taken into consideration. In some systems, these are quite separate, with long-term processes impacting on the groundwater resources. In other specific catchment areas like Tshwane, Gauteng, the prevalence of dolomitic structures allows for a much more dynamic interaction between the two.

sustainable & long term WATER STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Pressed Steel Sectional Water Tanks

Ensuring sustainability

As a broad rubric, water management also encompasses scarcity issues and sustainable use, in addition to stormwater management and flooding. Here, the trending concepts are sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and watersensitive urban design. Historically, this simply involved discharging such run-off into a distant river.

However, sustainable solutions now include recharging aquifers by promoting natural drainage. The ‘greening’ effect associated with managing water resources optimally has also been shown to have a major influence on the well-being and quality of life of local communities, which is particularly important given the toll that the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the global population.

+27 (0)16 362 9100 www.prestank.co.za

Prestank tank capacities range from 1 500 litres to 4.2 million litres designed to SANS 10329:2004 guidelines and SANS structural codes. Our Hot Dipped Galvanising units are easily transported and assembled on even the most remote sites.

Specialists in the manufacturing of domestic and industrial water storage.

Structa Technology is a Level 1 BBBEE Contributor, and is part of the STRUCTA GROUP of Companies

MEYERTON | watertanks1@structatech.co.za Director: Rodney Cory rodney@structatech.co.za | 082 575 2275