COVER STORY
New water tower under construction in Benoni, Ekurhuleni
Treating water with the respect it deserves and effluent management. We also provide services in hydrology, floodline determination, river diversions, canals and irrigation.” “While these projects illustrate Mariswe’s experience in the water and wastewater space, they are also a microcosm of the input we need to ensure safe and secure clean water and functioning sanitation for all on the African continent,” adds Nonkululeko Sindane, CEO of Mariswe. “Water is a social need, a human right, and a vital cog in our economic future. This dovetails with Mariswe’s ethos of ‘Improving Lives. Engineering Solutions’.”
Day Zero, predicted for 12 April 2018 in the City of Cape Town, would have been the largest drought-induced municipal water failure in modern history. While it was narrowly averted, some municipalities in South Africa have not been so lucky.
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outh Africans are starting to understand the importance of water conservation and the implications of ageing and inefficient water and wastewater infrastructure. The diversity of water and sanitation projects in Mariswe’s portfolio testifies to the experience accumulated by this South African civil engineering
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consulting firm in its 48-year history. It also shows the many complex factors that must be combined to create a stable and sustainable water culture. “Our biggest asset is a highly motivated and agile team of experts that has undertaken numerous projects throughout Africa,” says Louis Uys, head: Water and Sanitation Division, Mariswe. “Our expertise spans the full water cycle – from water resource planning and the design of water treatment and supply infrastructure, to sewage collection, wastewater treatment works (WWTWs)
National Water and Sanitation Master Plan
Where does a water-scarce country like South Africa start on the path to create a sustainable water supply and create certainty around future water security? Sandra Munnik, head: Infrastructure Planning Division, Mariswe, explains that the firm was part of a team that developed the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan for
Stormwater management and a new pedestrian bridge in a high-density area of Lusaka, Zambia, constructed as part of the LWSSD project