WATER & WASTEWATER
OVERSTRAND O&M CONTRACT sets the standard Globally, Veolia Water Technologies provides expert solutions in the water, waste and energy segments, with a core specialisation in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. IMIESA speaks to Chris Braybrooke, GM: Marketing, Veolia Services Southern Africa, about how turnkey operations and maintenance (O&M) contracts pass on major benefits for the local municipal market.
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apid urbanisation and the allied growth in informal settlements are key factors that impact service delivery in South Africa. Ageing water and wastewater infrastructure is under intense pressure, with a shortage of in-house technical skills and funding available to maintain and upgrade municipal treatment works. As a result, older and newer water and wastewater plants become overloaded beyond their design capacity, and potable water and effluent discharge standards are compromised. “Without adequate funds, municipalities are caught between a rock and a hard place. The money is not available to expand capacity, or even get these plants to run close to their design capacity. This is where private sector specialists like Veolia can step in with outsourced O&M concession contracts, where we have extensive experience locally and globally,” explains Braybrooke. In addition to ensuring that plants are professionally maintained, and compliant, Veolia’s O&M approach improves efficiencies and reduces process costs. “As part of the agreement, Veolia provides the necessary funding to upgrade plants to the point where they’re optimal. In the process, municipal staff employed by the O&M concession company receive training on the latest Veolia technologies and best practices applied,”
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IMIESA November/December 2021
Braybrooke continues, adding that annual training targets are established and adhered to for each employee.
Meeting Overstrand’s growth projections Veolia Services Southern Africa’s largest O&M agreement to date was concluded in December 2018 with Overstrand Municipality in the Western Cape. The initial agreement is for 15 years, with the option to extend by a further five. “In terms of its complexity and scale, the Overstrand O&M contract sets a new Chris Braybrooke, GM: Marketing, Veolia Services Southern Africa
benchmark for a PPP in this segment, and supports the municipality’s growth projections,” says Braybrooke. There are 11 towns within Overstrand’s approximately 1 708 km2 footprint. The key towns comprise Hermanus (the municipal district head office), Gansbaai and Kleinmond, all of which are popular tourist and retirement destinations that have experienced significant population growth. The municipal region is served by a comprehensive infrastructure network. This comprises nine water treatment plants, 19 pump stations, 44 reservoirs, 78 km of bulk pipelines, and 780 km of water reticulation pipework. On the wastewater side, there are 450 km of sewer networks, 36 pump stations, and six wastewater treatment plants. Raw water for potable treatment is sourced from five dams, a river abstraction plant, 17 boreholes, and three springs. To keep pace with demand, Overstrand has made substantial investments in the ongoing expansion and improvement of its major bulk water and wastewater infrastructure in recent years. The municipality also invested in newer technologies that include biofiltration of iron and manganese from groundwater, Nereda, reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration – all of which required additional skilled specialists to operate and maintain.
Maintenance constraints With a limited budget available for future maintenance, recruitment and development of specialist personnel, Overstrand subsequently identified the need to investigate other options in terms of the Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000; Sections 77 & 78). The key motivation was to ensure a sound return on their infrastructure investment and that optimum production availability and throughput would be maintained. Following the appointment of external
