The story of Nelson Mandela Bay’s bulk water maintenance

Following 10 years of little to no proactive maintenance on the bulk supply system, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) transformed its approach. Transitioning from a lack of systems to a futurism approach, the municipality has significantly improved the operation of the system.

By Chandre Barnard*

NMBM is a Category A municipality, with a population of over 1.3 million. Current potable water production is approximately 280 Mℓ/day. The bulk supply pipelines are up to 100 years old, vary in size from 225 mm to 1 400 mm in diameter, and consist of several different pipe materials. These pipelines, with an estimated value of over R5.5 billion, are crucial to the supply of potable water to residents and businesses in NMBM, as well as the neighbouring Kouga Municipality.

Inadequate resources

Since the formation of NMBM in 2000, there has been no review of the institutional arrangements of the organisation. The environment has changed significantly in terms of water demand and geographical extent but, due to a moratorium on the filling of vacancies, the staff complement of the Bulk Water Supply Division has dwindled over time.

The approved organogram dated June 2005 indicates 211 approved positions and 98 vacant posts in the division – a 46% vacancy rate. However, even at 100% occupancy, the organogram will not be able to satisfy the needs of the

NMBM bulk water resource map current system. Added to this is an insufficient budget. During the 2016/17 financial year, just R2.178 million was available for the maintenance of NMBM’s 700 km of bulk pipelines. With the cleaning up of budgets and prioritisation, the 2018/19 budget for maintenance to pipelines was more than R9.5 million.

While this is a tremendous improvement, it is still inadequate to eradicate the backlog. According to the CIDB’s maintenance budgeting guidelines, NMBM should have an annual maintenance budget of at least R220 million for bulk water pipelines.

Problem identification

NMBM had also fallen into the trap of becoming completely reactive in its operations, with a maintenance backlog in excess of 10 years. Pipe bursts and disruptions to supply were the alarms for duty. Similar to the majority of municipal infrastructure in South Africa, very little was replaced proactively before a component ultimately failed. This makes repairs more expensive and increases safety risks.

The lack of systems was a large contributor to a general lack of maintenance and the failure of infrastructure. The main storage building for all bulk supply materials was found to be in a state of utter neglect, indicating a clear lack of systems implementation. A neglected storage space means that repair materials are presumably only purchased when needed, if not found after a long search through the clutter. This delays repairs, in turn disrupting supply and increasing consumer frustrations.

The store was cleaned, a stock list created, and sufficient stock levels procured for a minimum of at least two repairs for every pipeline at any given time. This ensures quick turnaround time on repairs.

The municipality also adopted a ‘back to basics’ approach, followed by an intricate programme. Pipeline inspectors were mobilised and tasked with asking the following simple questions while inspecting pipelines:

• Can you access the servitude?

• Can you drive on the servitude road?

• Is the chamber locked?

• Are there visible leaks?

• Is there any corrosion of pipe, valve or fittings?

• Does it function?

The answers to these questions resulted in a comprehensive external condition assessment.

Problem identification is a crucial step in engineering. For instance, if the assessment shows a recurring problem, it can be highlighted and prioritised. Documenting standard procedures assists in preventing problems from repeating themselves. Pipeline inspectors carry a file in their vehicle containing many important documents, schematic plans and condition assessment sheets.

These sheets are very basic – a tick list – as too much writing would create extra challenges among staff that already have low morale. There is an added benefit when technical staff accompany the inspectors. They are usually in possession of a smartphone with the ability to pinpoint the locations of chambers or problems as well as photographically documenting what is observed. The technical staff also assist in the capturing and sorting of this information once the assessment is completed.

The newly acquired information was captured in the municipality’s water management system, known as Edams (Engineering, Design and Management System), which has been in use since 2005. The information was transformed into a network data modelling system through the association of element topology and zoning characteristics. This detailed information can give the engineer performing a desktop study the feeling of being on-site, as the entire external condition is captured and visible.

This exercise also enabled NMBM to generate maintenance management reports. These automated job cards are predefined and will ensure that the pipeline receives routine maintenance and does not return to the state it had been in before this project. The asset values and existing useful life of the pipeline could also be updated – valuable information for the maintenance manager.

Additional problems

One of the largest contributing factors to a lack of maintenance is the loss of intellectual assets, better known as skilled individuals. When these positions remain vacant or are filled by less qualified individuals, it leads to a breakdown in services.

The consequences of the departure of experienced staff are a loss of mentors, skills and institutional memory. The latter is critical when it comes to water infrastructure, as pipelines are mostly buried and the bad recordkeeping of plans could see the pipeline location lost. This is often exacerbated by no career path or succession planning, which results in low staff morale.

Another challenge is the siloed approach within the municipality. This is one of the most frustrating issues to a municipal engineer, as they are aware of the problem but lack the ability to fix it. Major inefficiencies are witnessed in the overall operations of the municipality when this constriction in information exists, as different divisions are working with completely different understandings of project outcomes.

In addition, operating budgets are usually the biggest cause of financial distress. It is relatively easy for municipalities to acquire capital funding; however, operational issues cannot be rectified with national government funds.

Sadly, the political landscape in South Africa focuses funds on investment rather than recurring expenditure. For smaller rural municipalities who must largely rely on national grants and subsidies, generating money to maintain this infrastructure is particularly problematic.

Furthermore, financial managers usually set maintenance allocations as a percentage of the operating budget, which is an unsound method that does not consider the current condition of assets or what is needed for the asset to achieve its expected useful life. The vandalism of assets adds a further layer of complexities.

Added to this, many municipal engineers indicate that supply chain management is the biggest challenge when it comes to executing their duties. Excessive queries and a lack of responsibility can easily see formal contracts taking more than a year to be awarded. Systems like signatory or procurement requirements regularly change, requiring technical staff to start executing nonsensical administrative duties to simply process a payment. This is a large contributor to the underspending of budgets.

From a lack of systems to futurism

The budget is depleted by the obvious maintenance requirements, which leaves little to no money for the underlying, unforeseen issues. These issues can be identified through technologies that enable internal condition assessment and non-intrusive surveys. They can assist in identifying weak spots, which could be repaired, proactively, as well as budgeted for.

With maintenance teams constantly facing reactive duties, it becomes a disturbance to repeatedly react to the operations of a dynamic system as well. A clever control system, using telemetry or Scada, can sometimes assist when faced with a lack of human resources.

The information captured on the pipeline before and after the interventions. Previously, there was only a blue line indicating position – now, each item is captured along with its condition

NMBM executes most of its monitoring and operating functions of all its reservoirs and pump stations via a control room Scada server, where a process controller monitors it constantly. For the most part, the system functions reactively and upgrades are required for increased functionality. A link has been created between the water management system and the Scada system, which provides the ability to generate a wide variety of reports.

A task team was set up to expedite the installation of bulk meters in order to establish losses on the bulk supply systems and develop water balances. Work is still ongoing and the number of meters currently in operation is 85 out of 107. With more metering, problem sections can be pinpointed and prioritised for maintenance.

Conclusion

It is evident that a large maintenance backlog exists in South Africa. NMBM has shown that simple methods can be used to achieve great results by using an internal workforce. However, it is essential to obtain a stable workforce by retaining skills, having clear career paths, and thorough succession planning. To maintain an asset requires buy-in from all departments – goals should be united.

Inventory management, recordkeeping and document management should be done according to an approved quality management system such as ISO:9001. Municipalities must harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution in water network management and control.

Communities all over South Africa that have been forgotten are increasingly turning to violent protests to get their voices heard. Similarly, these pipelines will continue to protest with bursts and disruptions, reminding us that we have forgotten them for too long.

*Chandre Barnard is the deputy director: Water Management & Bulk Supply at Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.