Let’s make water smart

Vikash Rampathi, segment lead: Marketing at Schneider Electric, talks with WASA about the role that technology can play in alleviating some of the pressure on South Africa’s ageing water infrastructure.

The theme for this year’s World Water Day is ‘Accelerating Change’. Why must we change our approach to using and managing water?

VR Currently, South Africans are focused on the energy crisis. But it is important to remember that energy and water are intricately connected. Most energy production or conversion involves water in its processes.

Over the past 100 years, global water use has increased nearly eight times. This is due to a combination of population growth, economic development and changing consumption patterns. Water use has been growing at 2.5 times the rate of population increase. In just seven years, it is estimated that only 60% of the world’s water demand can be met, while South Africa is the 30th driest country in the world, with a history of droughts.

What change needs to occur in the water sector?

I believe that three pain points need to be addressed:

1. We need urgent investment in the water sector to supply people with this basic and critical resource. The African Development Bank estimates that US$64 billion (R1.16 trillion) should be invested each year to meet the 2025 Africa Water Vision. Current water and sanitation sector investment in Africa stands at between $10 billion (R1.82 trillion) and $19 billion (R3.46 trillion). According to South Africa’s National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, there needs to be an investment of R33 billion a year for 10 years to achieve water security for the country. This was published in 2020, and the gap has widened since then. The sooner we close this funding gap, the more feasible this vision will become.

2. Large distributed and ageing water and sanitation infrastructure (that is not unique to South Africa) must be maintained, upgraded and optimised where possible. The technology is available today for us to make informed decisions around the prioritisation of tasks that will have the greatest impact.

3. Energy and resource conservation

(and protection) is key – this is applicable to utilities, municipalities and consumers. Water treatment and distribution has to become more efficient and sustainable.

What can Schneider Electric do to implement and accelerate these changes?

Our offering revolves around water and energy conservation. Schneider Electric assists our clients in managing their energy and resources responsibly. Water and wastewater treatment are energy-intensive processes where Schneider Electric offers an all-encompassing solution. Energy management, reducing consumption and improved visibility of operations can be done through sensors, intelligent motor protection, variable-frequency drives and advanced process controllers. We are experts in asset management systems. It is expensive to maintain these plants, but technology can be used to predict when failures will occur and measures can be put in place to prevent these failures. Actions can also be taken to prolong the life cycle of water and wastewater treatment assets.

What are the barriers to installing technology to reduce non-revenue water and improve asset management?

Inadequate funding hinders investment in these types of technologies. Another barrier is that project processes can be onerous when things go wrong. Water treatment and distribution is a specialised field.

- OEMs need to bring their solutions forward with the client’s best interests at heart – providing our asset owners with information around fit-for-purpose, impactful solutions.

- The chosen solution needs to be specified correctly (in terms of capability, integration and the fit into the overall system architecture) by an engineering consultant that specialises in this field.

- The procurement process must call for, and only award to, specialised installers and integrators – having a proven track record and being certified by the OEM to install a certain solution.

Water services authorities in South Africa vary in size, available budgets and expertise and skills. Does Schneider Electric provide more basic solutions?

Our solutions are split into three layers that make up our ecosystem, which we call EcoStruxure:

• Connected Products

• Edge Control Layer

• Apps and Analytics. This ecosystem enables us to cater for any budget and any requirement – no matter how basic or advanced. We always advise our clients to start practically with the basics, while keeping their future requirements in mind. Connectable products can be installed easily to solve a problem today while our clients know that their solution is future-ready.

What does Schneider Electric’s recent acquisition of Aveva software mean for the water sector?

Aveva provides leading industrial software solutions. A very exciting example of Aveva’s innovative solutions is its Unified Operations Centre (UOC), which enables water utilities to combine the monitoring of multiple complex water management platforms into one integrated, contextdriven operations management interface. We are incredibly excited about this acquisition and the value it will provide to our customers within the water sector.

The World Water Day theme for 2023 is ‘Accelerating Change’. What change in the water sector would you like to see in South Africa?

PS There are five changes that I want to see:

1) There needs to be a greater sanitation focus. Sanitation and sewage works that do not operate to full compliance levels inevitably pollute our water sources. This has huge ramifications – from the rising expense of water treatment to the damage to our environment, as well as health risks. Water hyacinth is found in many of our dams and wetlands, and it is well known that this invading plant thrives in polluted water with high nutrient loads.

2) The Working for Water programme of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) seems to have lost momentum and I would like to see its resuscitation. This programme was successful in removing alien invasive plants that pose a threat to water security.

3) The use of raw water must be minimised through water reuse and water conservation initiatives. This should include reducing non-revenue water in municipalities and water utilities through repairing and fixing leaks.