Water & Sanitation Africa
Complete water resource and wastewater management
VoVani
Filtration to perfection
W AS te WA ter t re A t M ent
Finding solutions in nature
Meter I ng
Smart solutions
S A n I t A t I on Is infrastructure enough?
W A ter M A n A ge M ent
Implementing a WC/WDM turnaround project
That’s right! As a member of Grundfos for Well Drillers you’ll have unlimited access to all of this. Tailored to a common well driller’s needs, Grundfos for Well Drillers is designed to ease your daily workload.
• Helpful on-the-go tools
• Online training videos
• Free downloads of comprehensive guides and manuals
• Business tips and tricks
All of this will be right at your fingertips. And you’ll also be the first to know about special offers, upcoming events and the latest Grundfos products!
Sound good?
Visit za.grundfos.com/grundfos-for-well-drillers and create your free account now.
the use of membrane technology for water treatment is beginning to pick up in the Southern African region. WASA speaks to Henk Smit, managing director, Vovani Water Products, about the options available to the local market. P6
THERMAL IMAGING CAMERA
LASER ASSISTED DISTANCE MEASUREMENT
INDOOR AIR QUALITY SENSOR:
Capable of measuring temperature, humidity and volatile organic compounds
FULLY WATERPROOF:
• Waterproof up to 3M for 60 minutes
• Underwater 16MP rear camera
• 8MP front-facing camera
RUGGED: IP68 AND MIL-SPEC 810G:
• Dust proof and drop tested onto concrete from 1.8 metres
• Vibration, sand, salt mist and pressure resistant
OTHER GREAT FEATURES:
• Huge battery (4500 mAh)
• Super bright 5.2” FHD display with Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5 screen protection
• Optimised for outdoor use with auto wet-finger and glove support*
• 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM (expandable via microSD™)
Publisher Elizabeth Shorten
Editor Danielle Petterson
Managing editor Alastair Currie
Head of design Beren Bauermeister
Chief sub-editor Tristan Snijders
Sub-editor Morgan Carter
Contributors Lester Goldman, Nora HankeLouw, Derek G Hazelton, Valerie Naidoo, Ronald A van Steenderen
Client services & production manager
Jayshree Maharaj
Distribution manager Nomsa Masina
Distribution coordinator Asha Pursotham
Financial manager Andrew Lobban
Printers United Litho Johannesburg
t +27 (0)11 402 0571
Advertising sales Hanlie Fintelman
t +27 (0)11 467 6223 | c +27 (0)82 338 2266
h.fintelman@telkomsa.net
Publisher
Physical address:
No 9, 3rd Avenue, Rivonia, 2191
Postal address:
PO Box 92026, Norwood, 2117, South Africa
t +27 (0)11 233 2600 • f +27 (0)11 234 7274/5 alastair@3smedia.co.za
ISSN: 1990 - 8857
Annual subscription: R330 (SA rate) subs@3smedia.co.za
Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. All articles herein are copyright protected and may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the prior written permission of the publishers. The views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the Water Institute of Southern Africa or the publishers.
WISA Contacts:
Head offiCe
Tel: 086 111 9472(WISA)
Fax: +27 (0)11 315 1258
Physical address: 1st Floor, Building 5, Constantia Park, 546 16th Road, Randjiespark Ext 7, Midrand
BRANCHES
eastern Cape
Chairperson: Selby Thabethe
Tel: +27 (0)41 506 2862 | email: ssthabethe@vodamail.co.za
Secretary: Christopher Maduma
Tel: +27 (0)41 506 7527 | email: cmaduma@mandelametro.gov.za
free State
Chairperson: Sabelo Mkhize
Tel: +27 (0)53 830 6681 | email: smkhize@solplaatje.org.za
Secretary: Noeline Basson
Cell: +27 (0)71 362 3622 | email: ndb@malachi3.co.za
KwaZulu-Natal
Chairperson: Vishnu Mabeer
Tel: +27 (0)31 311 8684 | email: vishnu.mabeer@durban.gov.za
Treasurer: Renelle Pillay
email: PillayR@dws.gov.za
Limpopo
Chairperson: Paradise Shilowa
Cell: +27 (0)79 905 9013 | email: paradises@polokwane.gov.za
Secretary: Salome Sathege
Tel: +27 (0)15 290 2535 | email: salomes@polokwane.gov.za
Mpumalanga
Chairperson: Susan van Heerden
Cell: +27 (0)82 800 3137 | email: susanvanhd@gmail.com
Secretary: Theo Dormehl
Cell: +27 (0)83 294 0745 | email: dormehl@soft.co.za
Namibia
Chairperson: Dr Vaino Shivute
Secretary: Kristina Afomso
Tel: +264 61 712080 | email: afomsok@namwater.com.na
Western Cape
Chairperson: Natasia van Binsbergen
Tel: +27 (0)21 448 6340 | email: natasia@alabbott.co.za
Secretary: Wilma Grebe
Tel: +27 (0)21 887 7161 | email: wgrebe@wamsys.co.za
WISA’s Vision
The promotion of professional excellence in the water sector, through building expertise, sharing knowledge and improving quality of life.
My recent attendance at the WISA Biennial Conference and Exhibition – a first for me – did not disappoint. WISA 2018 saw almost 2 000 delegates from around the world gather to discuss South Africa’s numerous water and sanitation challenges.
The series of keynote addresses spoke to the need to build resilience into our water systems as well as explore the evolving nature of scenario planning. As Professor Tony Wong, CEO, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, pointed out, climate change has thrown out a lot of statistical models used for predictions. According to renowned scenario planner and strategist Clem Sunter, we have passed the tipping point on climate change and the more extreme weather patterns it brings are inevitabilities we must deal with. We can only moderate and adapt.
Scenario planning for Cape Town
Sunter pointed out that you cannot predict the future; you have to look at the future using scenarios, taking into account predetermined elements (the factors changing the present into the future). He and his team developed such scenarios for Cape Town, developing two short- and long-term scenarios for the city experiencing its worst drought in 100 years.
Short-term scenarios:
1. Ramp Up – Supply augmented through temporary desalination plants and underground resources to a maximum of 120 MLD, together with reduced consumption.
2. Dire Straits – Day Zero happens.
Long-term scenarios:
1. Lost City – Cape Town becomes a lost city because of climate change.
2. Liquid Gold – We treat water as liquid gold because rain is only a short-term solution.
While, in the short term, Cape Town has achieved the Ramp Up scenario and avoided Day Zero, it now needs to work towards the Liquid Gold scenario or risk becoming a Lost City. This will require resilience – the ability to adapt, plan ahead, develop scenarios and act accordingly.
Conserving a precious resource
The recent IWA Water Loss 2018 Conference in May also touched on building water resilience. The conference addressed the pressing need to improve water utility efficiency and sustainability in Southern Africa, and papers covered the latest developments, strategies, techniques and applications of international best practices in non-revenue water management and water-use efficiency. Because of this pressing need, this issue of Water&Sanitation Africa also contains the first of a series of articles by Derek Hazelton on water conservation and water demand management (WC/WDM). These will give a complete overview of what needs to be done to implement a comprehensive WC/WDM turnaround project to assist water utilities in delivering potable water supply services that are reliable and sustainable, both financially and in terms of water demand.
While Cape Town appears to be out of danger, many other cities are still facing serious drought. However, it is clear that South Africa is learning from these situations, hopefully working towards a more resilient water supply system for the future.
Dr
Based upon general feedback, the WISA 2018 Biennial Conference, held at the CTICC from 24 to 28 June, can be considered a success, and I sincerely thank the organising committee and head office staff involved for their efforts and appreciation.
The 2018 conference hosted numerous dignitaries, including Deputy Mayor of Cape Town Ian Neilson, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, and Minister of Water and Sanitation Gugile Nkwinti.
Along with addressing the current Cape Town water crisis and related droughts, the strong recurrent theme was that of the need for improved collaboration. This resonated very well with the conference theme ‘Breaking Boundaries, Connecting Ideas’.
Smarter collaboration for the future of water
I also spoke about the need of improved water efficiency, infrastructure investment, and smart collaboration. That is, using water more smartly, investing in water infrastructure more smartly, and collaborating more smartly.
If we are to meet South Africa’s future water challenges, smarter collaboration between us all is critical.
Understanding the future
We explored the future of water and there are a few fundamental shifts that we need to get our heads around:
• Water resources are limited, and we need to do more with less.
• Urbanisation is both an opportunity for economic growth and a threat to liveability.
• An uncertain future underpins the planning of our cities and the management of our ecosystems. With increasing numbers of people living in metropolitan areas, water, energy and materials need to be carefully used, reused and renewed. More populated, denser cities will be required to provide more efficient services. Water is essential for the well-being of citizens, their safety and social inclusion, but current thinking alone will not be sufficient to address these challenges.
Simply put, historical thinking will not be appropriate to plan future water systems. It can no longer be ‘business as usual’.
As water professionals, we must inspire a new shared vision. And to achieve this, we will need to harness the power of collaboration, adapt our governance structures, engage smartly with all stakeholders, and encourage active citizen involvement.
Clearly, the ship we are sailing needs to be turned around, and I was pleased to see, at this year’s Department of Water and Sanitation budget debate, the minister’s introduction of the Five Pillar Turnaround Strategy. Acknowledging the problem is always a good place to start!
But more importantly, there is also intent to give effect to these strategic pillars through the streamlining of reporting structures and governance. As WISA, we pledge to provide support and assistance in this regard, and will be available when called upon.
However, none of this is generally given. Whatever arises, we as specialists in water and sanitation will need to persuade others to meet the challenges and secure the opportunities, and work closely with them.
It starts here, with us. Breaking Boundaries, Connecting Ideas.
Lester Goldman, CEO, WISA
Filtration to perfection
The use of membrane technology for water treatment is beginning to pick up in the Southern African region. WASA speaks to Henk Smit, managing director, Vovani Water Products, about the options available to the local market.
There are various membrane technologies available for water and wastewater treatment, ranging from microfiltration through to reverse osmosis. Worldwide, these technologies have become readily available and easy to implement, says Smit.
Locally, there has been a big uptake in reverse osmosis as Cape Town has moved to implement three temporary desalination plants to address the drought crisis; but the applications for membrane technology are far broader than this.
“From surface water to wastewater and mine water, there is no water that can’t be treated with membranes,” he says.
Membrane technologies
Membranes are manufactured from polymers or thin film composites to perform a specific function. There are four main membrane technologies:
1
Microfiltration (MF): This is largely used for the removal of microorganisms, commonly in the food and beverage industry.
2
Ultrafiltration (UF): In addition to removing suspended solids and microorganisms, UF also removes certain viruses down to 0.01 μm.
3
Nanofiltration (NF): Referred to as a softening membrane, NF removes monovalent ions from about 50% to 90% and is good for process technologies, particularly in the dairy market.
4
Reverse osmosis (RO): This removes up to 90% of monovalent ions in brackish water and seawater applications.
Selecting the right membrane technology depends on the end use, feedwater analysis and volume requirements.
Benefits
One of the biggest advantages of membranes is their ability to provide consistent output quality, regardless of feedwater quality. “South Africa’s treatment plants often experience fluctuations in the quality of the feedwater, which can create problems in traditional treatment plants where treatment needs to be adjusted accordingly. Membranes will always provide a consistent output based on their design,” explains Smit.
He believes membrane technologies lend themselves to the South African environment, where space, costs and skills are becoming increasingly inhibitory.
Conventional treatment plants require more civil works, a larger footprint, and more manpower and technical skills to operate. Membrane technologies can be built into small buildings or even containerised mobile systems. They can be assembled off-site and installed at a much faster rate than traditional plants.
Membrane plants are also becoming increasingly automated and, therefore, require fewer operators and less technical skills, as the plants largely run themselves and mainly require only monitoring and oversight. “South Africa is facing a skills shortage and membrane technologies essentially replace these skills. This is leading to a bigger move towards membrane technologies in the region,” says Smit.
“Importantly, many of these systems can now be monitored and run off-site at the operator’s premises and even remotely via a smartphone or tablet. You can start or stop a pump, or even start up the entire plant remotely without anyone doing anything at the plant itself.”
The ability to build membrane treatment systems into containerised, remotely
operated systems also lends itself to decentralised solutions needed for South Africa’s rural settings. Vovani supplies a UF gravity-fed system that requires no electricity, as well as a UF system that can operate via solar power. Removing solids down to 0.04 μm, these off-grid systems are ideal for providing clean drinking water to small, rural communities.
Pre-screening and treatment
One of the best ways to improve the lifespan of your membranes is with good screenings and prefiltration. “Membranes can be very sensitive, so you do need to prescreen to 100 μm and pretreat to protect your membranes. You have to look at the whole application to determine whether you need self-cleaning strainers or sand filters, or potentially UF and MF,” says Smit. Vovani supplies UF membranes that remove all suspended solids from feedwater and serve as prefiltration to RO membranes, to protect and increase membrane lifespan. These UF membranes, supplied by SUEZ Water Technologies and Solutions, are also used for surface water, wastewater and water reuse filtration.
The company also represents Muhr, which manufactures screening systems used for desalination and wastewater treatment plants. These systems are imperative to remove seagrass, seaweed, shells and other large solids from the desalination plant’s feed stream that can damage any of the upstream filtration processes.
energy and cost savings
Membrane technologies can be energy intensive, particularly when it comes to RO treatment of brackish water and seawater. However, technologies are available to drive down energy use, as
Vovani has demonstrated at Cape Town’s desalination plants.
Vovani has been involved in all three of Cape Town’s emergency desalination plants, supplying flexible pipe couplings, high-pressure pumps, energy-recovery devices, FRP pressure vessels, and RO membranes to the plants at the V&A Waterfront, Strandfontein and Monwabisi.
Vovani supplies Fedco high-pressure pumps for desalination projects, as well as various Fedco energy-recovery devices. These devices can be used in areas where water flow and pressure can be utilised for saving on power consumption, or turned into electricity.
By using these high-pressure boosters, along with low-pressure hydraulic energy management integration and low-pressure drive conversion of brine hydraulic energy into electricity systems, energy demands can be reduced, explains Smit.
The RO membranes used at the plants, sourced from LG Chem, further reduce the costs of desalination while delivering superior water quality due to the incorporation of innovative thin-film nanocomposite technology. The RO membranes provide salt rejection of 99.85% and the highest boron rejection in the market of up to 93%. They also produce 20% more flow than membranes manufactured with conventional technologies.
future possibilities
Although Smit believes that the adoption of membrane technologies locally is growing, he still sees a need to educate governments and consultants on the various membrane technologies and applications available, in order to empower them to make the best choices for their treatment needs.
“I think we are entering a phase, worldwide, where membrane technologies are becoming the norm. The number of large membrane plants globally is growing; in South Africa, there are already about five plants in the development stage, ranging from 50 MLD to 150 MLD. These may take a few years to materialise, but are what the country needs and we are moving in the right direction,” Smit concludes.
Rain and behaviour
According to reports in July, Cape Town saw its highest rainfall in three seasons. While the average dam levels have shifted within a week from 24% to 48%, some dam levels are still very low, like Theewaterskloof at 34%, writes Valerie Naidoo.
Cape Town has embarked on an augmentation plan that includes bringing online an integrated approach to water supply by 2022, which is inclusive of dams; aquifer storage, recharge and use; wastewater treatment and reclamation; groundwater; water conservation and demand management; and, finally, desalination.
One can only hope that both communities and businesses don’t immediately revert to old habits of wasteful water behaviour, which typically occurs in South Africa. Nationally, we should all aim to reduce our annual per capita water use in urban areas to build resilience in our own activities.
In other words, we should not be using more water than we need to. We should think about how to irrigate our gardens and fill up our pools using non-potable sources. Businesses should be benchmarking their operations and supply chain water-use efficiencies, and invest towards reuse, recycling and offgrid sources for operations that require water at non-potable standards.
Not quite respite
As we breathe a little easier for Cape Town, spare a thought for Nelson
Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) and the Algoa Water Supply System. This system extends from the Kouga River system in the west to the Sundays River system in the east, and provides water to the Gamtoos Irrigation Board, the NMB metro, over 350 industries and smaller towns within Kouga Municipality.
Current average dam levels for the Kouga, Churchill, Impofu, Loerie and Groendal dams are at 19.5%. In terms of rainfall patterns over the last three years, they have varied from dry in 2016 to exceptionally dry in 2017. While the national and international media does not cover this in as much detail, it is important to acknowledge that they, too, are in a serious state; if the rains do not come, they will need to take unconventional routes to maintain the supply of water.
The metro has implemented water conservation and demand management measures, which have led to demand decreasing from 340 MLD in 2016 to about 260 MLD in 2017. Critically speaking, though, Cape Town went from 1 200 MLD to about 500 MLD at the height of the Day Zero campaign – a drop of about 50% in water consumption. NMBM, though, chose a reduction of about 25%. In hindsight,
one wonders if this should have been set at 35% to 50% after it became known that, based on rainfall patterns, it was considered to be an exceptionally dry period.
Learning lessons or repeating history?
The KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape droughts must yield tangible lessons to take into the future, not per municipality but as a national mindset. First, we must rethink our operating rules and the point at which we trigger responses in cities. Municipalities should be developing integrated water supply options that allow groundwater, rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment and reclamation, and water conservation and demand management to be part of the general operational mix, not only when droughts are declared.
Government also needs to rethink how money is released for disasters. By the time a disaster occurs, it is already too late and the economic and social ramifications are widespread. We should be investing well ahead of time for these disasters. Triggering restrictions for farmers or for municipalities should not be something that we wait on for national government to stipulate. It should be guided by science and clear operating triggers understood by all – from farmers, businesses and communities to their municipal, provincial and national representatives.
But probably the biggest shift will have to come from us – the citizens of this country who value water enough
Dr Valerie Naidoo, president, WISA
to change our behaviours and invest in our own resilience. Behaviour change is a difficult process and previous droughts have shown that people only tend to react when the dams are empty; once the rain falls, they revert back to normal habits that are simply not water efficient. Most communities also don’t make the connection between where national or regional water storage occurs and where the rain falls. Research from the
Water Research Commission using ethnographic research shows great promise in better understanding this phenomenon of water behaviours. Ethnography (the work of describing a culture) is a method of observing human interactions in social settings while people perform normal activities. This gives an “understanding of how other people see their experience”. In a country where we are already very judgmental of our
fellow man, it does provide a different lens – not only for the one looking in but for the community, as it allows them to change their behaviours themselves. This could be the type of resilience model of the future that will not come in the form of disaster management plans and climate change adaptation plans, but from how well the people of South Africa understand the challenges and their reaction to it.
The past two years in my term as chair have been amazing. I have made friends for life and hope I have left my mark on the network like the chairs before me. YWP-ZA remains a hub for talented young people who are determined to create an environment where all can thrive. “I wish I had gotten involved sooner” was the most common sentiment from current and previous committee members at our 10-year anniversary celebration.
Diversity and inclusivity have always been hallmarks of YWP-ZA and the past year was no exception. Born from a group of five friends who founded YWP in South Africa, the fifth national committee has grown to 49 committee members (56% black, 38% white, 7% Indian, and 47% female).
Internal mentorship and growing talents are cornerstones of YWP-ZA
YWP is turning 10!
1
1How time has passed – both for YWP-ZA and myself. YWP-ZA is turning 10 this year and my term as chair is coming to an end.
By Nora Hanke-Louw*
YWP-ZA won the 2018 WISA Aqua Vita Est Award for its level of activity, transformation, and outstanding performance over the last two years
and harness the strength of each individual. YWP-ZA won the WISA Aqua Vita Est Award at the recent WISA 2018 Conference, recognising the level of activity, transformation and outstanding performance of the last two years. This is second time in YWP-ZA’s history that we won for outstanding performance; in 2014, YWP-ZA was awarded as the most active WISA division.
Overall, the ninth year of YWP-ZA has been marked by increased stability in the network and closer links between the national and provincial structures. We continue to create innovative and exciting opportunities for our members and active committee members. We
are also increasingly looking outwards, with 70% of our reach being outside the water sector. According to our estimates, this year alone, we have reached 3 200 people, mainly driven by the provincial chapters.
Over the two years of my term, we have reached over 4 500 young people. On top of that, we have 2 379 subscribers to our newsletter, our website views increased by 77% from last year, 1 435 like our Facebook page, and our Twitter followers more than doubled over the last year, to 2 308. All round, our social media reach has increased substantially. Beyond the numbers, from personal feedback, I know that YWP-ZA has inspired many to enter or stay in the sector. That is impact.
Positive change
The next two years will bring many changes to YWP-ZA. I have no doubt
The ninth year of YWPZA has been marked by increased stability in the network and closer links between the national and provincial structures
that the next national committee, led by Suvritha Ramphal, will tackle these with gusto. The WISA governance structures have changed and YWP-ZA will convert from a division to an empowerment platform. This bears many opportunities: more community engagement, increased focus on transformation, a louder voice for YWPs, and the need to redefine what YWP-ZA stands for in the new WISA. I would like to call on all
our members and interested partners to take part in this conversation. The risk of this conversation will have to be managed and expectations of members carefully balanced.
Continued investment
While things change, we will carry our success stories into the next two years.
The Imvelisi programme will continue running in partnership with GreenMatter. We are hoping to create a self-sustainable business model where Imvelisi becomes less reliant on donor funding. To this end, we are hiring a full-time Imvelisi project lead – a first in YWP's history.
YWP-ZA also continues to play a role in the IWA youth leadership structures, specifically the Emerging Water Leaders. This continues to link us to the global
water community; we are not unique in our challenges.
YWP Conference
Lastly, our 8th YWP Conference will take place in Durban in 2019. We are beyond excited and are counting on the strong partnerships in the region to make it happen. After the big-splash international conference in 2017, we are going back to localised and South African challenges in a smaller, more compact event.
It was an honour to lead a team that is so inspiring, energetic and continues to challenge the status quo. I will miss my YWP family.
*NoraHanke-Louwistheoutgoing chairpersonoftheSouthAfricanYoung Water Professionals. people subscribe to our newsletter 2 379 Twitter followers means we more than doubled these numbers over the last year 2 308 peope like our Facebook page 1 435
YWP-ZA members at the AGM
Building resilience
The 2018 instalment of the WISA Biennial Conference and Exhibition brought together almost 2 000 water professionals from around the globe at a time when Southern Africa faces increased uncertainty and vulnerability regarding water supply.
Fitting for a conference held in Cape Town during the city’s worst drought in over a century, the focus of many of the speakers fell on resilience and the vital need to move towards more resilient water planning.
Cape Town is one of the cities in the 100 Resilient Cities network and is working on a major study of what resilience comprises. Addressing the opening session, Hellen Zille, premier, Western Cape, highlighted what this means: being ready for all eventualities and being able to deal with them as they arise.
“The important thing is that resilience does not rely on old models of prediction because climate change is making those prediction models very unstable and very uncertain,” she said. This has been made all the more
apparent by the current drought in Cape Town, where the models did not predict just how severe the drought would be. “Scenario planning is not what it used to be and for us on the cutting edge of having to make some key decisions, it is a major challenge.”
Another major challenge, said Zille, is who to listen to in a crisis. Amid a deluge of differing expert opinions, it is difficult to determine the best course of action.
This was particularly the case in Cape Town, where experts were pushing for large desalination plants – a course of action that proved to be ill-advised in Australia.
“How do you make those predictions and get those balances right, especially in a country like South Africa, when spending your budget is a zero-sum game, and when you have huge
demands on a rapidly urbanising society?” questioned Zille. “On what basis do you start spending billions on infrastructure that you may not need, but may be a question of life and death?”
Cape Town now seems out of the woods, with the municipality predicting that the city will not see Day Zero in 2018 or 2019, so long as restrictions are adhered to. Zille warned that people should not become complacent, but is optimistic that behaviour in the region and the national perception of water as a precious resource has changed permanently. “That change in perception is absolutely essential if we want to become a resilient country.”
However, there is a new challenge that this brings: as people move off of the water and electricity grids to become self-sufficient, funding service delivery
becomes a major challenge. The costs remain the same while the market shrinks, and often that market is confined to the many people who can’t afford to buy private solutions. This creates a huge problem of the poor having to rely on more and more expensive electricity and water. “Wouldn’t it be ironic if the solution to the crisis actually exacerbated a deeper problem, which is inequality and differential access?” Zille posited. “Our problems are not over; this has just been the hors d'oeuvre for what we require to become a resilient city.”
a call for better governance
The challenge Cape Town faced in terms of governance and the drought was the role the Constitution assigns to various levels of government when it comes to water. These roles become critical in a crisis and every link in the chain needs to be working properly, explained Zille. She believes there is a long way to go to achieve this, but that a lot has been learnt through the water crisis.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Gugile Nkwinti agreed that there needs to be better cooperation and more openness. In line with this, his department has developed a five-pillar turnaround strategy, which includes:
1. a national water resources and services authority to finance, develop, manage and operate national water resource infrastructure and sanitation.
2. a national water resources and services regulator to independently regulate tariffs, standards and performance in the water services sector.
3. a water resources and services value chain that streamlines the current overly complex value chain comprised of a large number of institutions with divided functions.
4. a water resources and services master plan that sets out prioritised actions
Cementing international ties
A new four-year MoU was signed by Minister of Water and Sanitation Gugile Nkwinti and the Netherlands’ Henk Ovink, special envoy for Water Affairs, at WISA 2018.
Over the past four years, South Africa and the Netherlands’ cooperation commitment has generated almost €11 million (R175 million) for the water sector.
The Netherlands’ current total commitment to South African water projects stands at roughly €30 million (R478 million). In total, the projects generate about €90 million (R1.43 billion) in investments in South Africa’s water sector, excluding investments from the Dutch private sector.
and investments to be implemented between now and 2030.
5. institutional rationalisation and organisational alignment to establish a business case for streamlined institutional rationalisation and organisational alignment in the water sector, in accordance with the outcomes of the Presidential Review Committee on State-owned Enterprises.
“As a first step to give effect to these pillars, we have streamlined the organogram of the department in order to respond more efficiently and effectively to the challenges. As a second step, the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan will be shortly presented to Cabinet for approval. The five pillars are fully embedded into the master plan and the more detailed
implementation plans will be finalised through an intensive round of stakeholder engagements, which will take place during the latter half of this year,” said the minister.
He believes WISA is well positioned to support the DWS and other government departments to address the many challenges South Africa faces.
“Through continued engagement on all water-related issues, strong partnerships, robust legislation and policies, and consistent implementation of our policies, we will be better placed to respond to the
BELOW LEFT Hellen Zille, premier, Western Cape
BELOW WISA board
a nd the award goes to…
A number of awards were handed out during the course of the conference, including:
• WISA Aqua Vita Est Award: WISA Young Water Professionals
• Best Poster: Rinaldo Kritzinger of NorthWest University, for his work in respect of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the associated genes in the drinking water in the North West province
• Best Student Presentation: Talitha Beyl of Stellenbosch University, for her examination of the significant opportunity for the integration of wastes from anaerobic digestion effluent into the production of microalgae
• Most Promising Research: Boipelo Madonsela of the University of Cape Town, for her work on the use of a diagnostic indicator assessment to understand sustainability transitions towards waster-sensitive design in the city of Cape Town
• Wilson Award for Wastewater Treatment Plant with Design Capacity <25 MLD: Fraser Wastewater Treatment Works, iLembe District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal
• Amanzi Award for a Water Treatment Plant in a Metropolitan Area or City: Durban Heights Wastewater Works, KwaZulu-Natal
• YWP Development Award: Rand Water
challenges of climate change, broadening access to water and sanitation services, ensuring acceptable drinking water quality and any other challenges that may confront us,” said Nkwinti.
a new vision Building on the minister’s speech, Dr Lester Goldman, CEO, WISA, spoke to the need for smarter water efficiency, infrastructure investment and collaboration. “If we are to meet South Africa’s future water challenges, smarter collaboration between us all is critical,” he said.
“The theme of this year’s event, ‘Breaking Boundaries, Connecting Ideas’, is the beginning of a new era in water,” he said. But to achieve this, the sector requires a few fundamental shifts: 1. Water resources are limited and we need to do more with less.
2. Urbanisation is both an opportunity for economic growth and a threat to liveability.
3. An uncertain future underpins the planning of our cities and the management of our ecosystems. Water is essential for the well-being of citizens and the current thinking alone will not be sufficient to address the challenges of growing cities with growing demands, cautioned Goldman. “Historical thinking will not be appropriate to plan future water systems. It can no longer be business as usual. As water professionals, we must inspire a new shared vision and, to achieve this, we will need to harness the power of collaboration, adapt our governance structures, engage smartly with all stakeholders and encourage active citizen involvement. It starts with us.”
Preventing a shutdown
Cape Town has experienced three successive years of very poor rainfall. Compared to an average rainfall of around 550 mm per annum, and up to as much as 850 mm per annum, the city has been experiencing less than 200 mm per annum over the last three years.
Despite recent rainfall, Cape Town is still experiencing an unprecedented drought. Experts from around the globe came together at the recent Water Loss 2018 Conference to examine the situation and speak about their own experiences.
“It is an extreme drought that no water supply system can prepare for without going through extreme stress,” said Peter Flower, director: Water and Sanitation, City of Cape Town.
While the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is responsible for planning and implementing water resource schemes to meet demand, it plans on a 1:50 year level of assurance. The current drought, however, is much more severe than a 1:50 event. According to Flower, the best estimate of the return interval of the meteorological drought in the Western Cape system is 311 years, with 90% confidence that it actually falls between 105 and 1 280 years.
The next augmentation scheme for Cape Town was only planned for 2022/3. While it is being accelerated
By Danielle Petterson
by the DWS, it is unlikely to be ready before 2021.
To avoid a reticulation shutdown, the city had to introduce people to the possibility of Day Zero to further drive down demand after it hit a plateau, explained Flower. In mid-January 2018, calculations showed that the city would hit the 13.5% dam levels that would necessitate a reticulation shutdown on 12 April 2018. Although this sparked initial panic and water hoarding, within two weeks, demand had dropped from 600 MLD to 500 MLD.
According to Flower, the dam levels will not drop below 13.5% this year if
restrictions are adhered to and rainfall patterns are similar to last year.
Getting through the drought
Demand reduction through punitive tariffs, demand management devices and flow restrictors, and aggressive pressure management and leak detection is saving Cape Town some 400 MLD.
“Demand management is key to dealing with drought. You cannot build your way out of drought,” said Flower. This requires consistent, sensible communication the public can understand.
The installation of water restricting devices at houses was initially part of
Speaking at the Water Loss Conference, Tim Waldron, recently retired CEO of Wide Bay Water Corporation in Australia, presented his 10-point plan during times of crisis: 1
The City of Cape Town has succeeded in reducing its non-revenue water to just 24%, against a national average of 41%, and reduced its actual water losses to just 16% to 20% lower than the national average
a debt management plan for the users who weren’t paying. This roll-out has been expanded to delinquent, high-water-usage customers.
The city has worked with business and organisations to assist them in driving down their demand and providing as much information as possible.
Dam management has also formed an integral part of getting through the drought and the agricultural releases were critical in maintaining supply. It is also vital to maintain system integrity, Flower explained.
Cape Town opted for an intensive approach to pressure management. “I made a decision early on that going on
to intermittent supply was the worst thing possible to do for Cape Town. We have a massive 11 000 km network in our mains and a lot of it is quite old. Although we have quite an advanced programme for replacement, the risk was too high. And we have managed to avoid that,” said Flower.
New water has also been a large part of the plan. “We’ve had a planning scenario together with the national
Peter Flower noted that without having seen this plan before, Cape Town has performed well in most of these areas as part of its drought management approach.
Peter Flower (left), director: Water and Sanitation, City of Cape Town, with Dr Ronnie McKenzie, former chairman of the IWA Water Loss Specialists Group
department over many years and it was always seen that we would need to respond to this threat of climate change. Our programme had been set up to introduce the alternatives of groundwater, reuse and desalination, in that order, given the unit costs. But we had to accelerate those plans rapidly,” he expanded.
Flower explained that while Cape Town has significantly reduced its demand from a peak of 1 200 MLD in 2015 to about 500 MLD, a further reduction in demand to 450 MLD is needed due to not meeting the 500 MLD target since July 2017.
improved efficiencies
The City of Cape Town has succeeded in reducing its non-revenue water to just 24%, against a national average of 41%, and reduced its actual water losses to 16% to 20% lower than the national average.
The city has also worked on better staff productivity as the Water and Sanitation Department receives roughly 850 call-outs per day for leaks and bursts. Reaction times have been streamlined through a multi-line response team.
Through mains replacement and pressure management, the city has
a warning against intermittent supply
Bambos Charalambous, chair of the IWA’s Intermittent Water Supply Specialist Group, commended the City of Cape Town on how it has managed the drought without resorting to intermittent supply. He recounted his own personal experience in Cyprus where reverting to intermittent supply caused severe damage to the reticulation system.
In 2008 and 2009, the Water Board of Limassol implemented a case of intermittent supply in which households received 12 hours of water every 48 hours.
Prior to this, in 2007, the network was in good condition. The water board had a non-revenue water loss of just 16.7%, with actual losses at 98 ℓ per service connection per day, and a 1.8 infrastructure leakage index.
After returning to continuous supply, Charalambous saw a definite increase in minimum night flow. Between 2007 and 2010, Limassol experienced a 200% increase in mains connection breaks and a 100% increase of service connection breaks.
This, in turn, had an adverse effect on finances. Two years of intermittent water supply cost the utility €990 000 (R15.5 million), broken down as follows:
• Reduction in sales:
• Staff overtime for opening/closing valves:
• Repairing additional reported leaks:
€300 000
€365 000
€325 000
Thereafter, the additional cost to the utility after continuous supply was restored was found to be €1 610 000 (R24.8 million), comprising the following:
• Additional leakage (2010-2011): €1 325 000
• Est. cost of locating leaks: €150 00
• Est. cost of repairing leaks: €135 000
After returning to full-time supply in 2010, consumer consumption was 1.2% less than in 2007, before the utility implemented intermittent supply. However, there was a 12.8% increase in system volume. “This is proof that the additional volume that we put into the network after returning to continuous supply is due to leakage,” said Charalambous.
“We need to have control over our system. When there is intermittent water supply, we have no control over the system,” he warned. “When we have continuous supply, we can control pressure, we know the volumes and we can manage it.”
He emphasised that intermittent supply should not be considered an appropriate intervention to drought and water shortage. While it may seem to be a water-saving measure, in the longer run, greater quantities of water will be lost through increased leakage and wastage compared to quantities that may initially be saved.
also reduced its bursts from around 66 bursts per 100 km in 2010 to roughly 30 bursts.
Going forward, Flower said Cape Town will continue to:
• implement aggressive demand management
• manage and monitor dam behaviour
• fast-track augmentation
• manage financial impacts with appropriate tariffs
• improve coordination and leadership within and between spheres of government
• engage stakeholders into active citizenry and progress communication with consistent messaging.
“An aggressive demand management strategy [is vital] to control the fall in the dams. Key to this has been pressure management, but the most important impact, I believe, is the behavioural change that the population of Cape Town has managed to achieve. It has taken a lot of work and a lot of interaction with the public, but it has been an amazing turnaround,” said Flower.
He added that although Cape Town is not yet out of the woods, he feels more confident that the city can make it through another bad year if it occurs because they now know what can be achieved and the systems are in place to manage the situation.
The current water crisis and WC/WDM
The money spent in South Africa building new water supply infrastructure since 1994 has been truly impressive. As a result, 95% of South Africans now have water supply infrastructure. But only 64% have a supply that is both safe and reliable, and many water services authorities are close to financial collapse.
By Derek G Hazelton
Only greatly improved asset and financial management will stop further decline.
Improved water conservation and water demand management (WC/WDM) is a core requirement for such improved management, which aims to deliver potable water services that are reliable and sustainable, both financially and in terms of water demand.
Government representatives and officials, professional services providers and other components of the private sector, and domestic water consumers will all have to work together to reverse the crisis.
introductory comments
The basic standards for service acceptability, shown in Figure 1, need to be considered in order to overcome service delivery constraints.
There are, however, several constraints causing poor service delivery (shown in Figure 2), all of which should be constantly kept in mind while a WC/WDM turnaround project is being implemented. WC/WDM includes achieving acceptable levels of non-revenue water (NRW), non-recovered revenue (NRR), and water-use efficiency (WUE). In turn,
Quality 5 95% samples class 1 and 99% class 2, according to SANS241:2005
4. Audit & Balance 10 & 11
5. Sustainability -
Keep monthly records and, for excellence, acceptable levels of NRW, NRR and WUE need to be achieved
Surface water: licence quantity not to be exceeded; Springs: monitor long-term flows; Boreholes: monitor level and do not exceed long-term yield report
Clauses refer to Compulsory National Standards promulgated under section 9 of the Water Services Act (No. 108 of 1997) on 8 June 2001
NRW = Non-revenue water NRR = Non-recovered revenue WUE = Water-use efficiency
WC/WDM is an essential component of achieving the basic standards for service acceptability.
Achieving sustainable excellence in service delivery simply requires teamwork and the care of the four critical parameters shown in Figure 3. However, without reaching a critical level of caring with respect to all four parameters, the targets will not be achieved and any improvements made will be impossible to sustain.
The first two of these parameters relate to things: the infrastructure carrying the water and the water itself. For this care to
be achieved, the WSP and its customers need to work together as a team, and individually, to care for the infrastructure and the water.
The second two parameters relate to groups of people: the staff of the WSP and their customers.
In fact, the emphasis is on ensuring that, through good communication and negotiation, a strong relationship develops, which results in each group having a balanced, caring attitude towards each other.
The WSP and any appointed PSP have the responsibility of leading the facilitation for building the caring relationship.
The iWa water balance
In South Africa, it is common practice to use the standard International Water Association (IWA) water volume balance diagram (Figure 4) to obtain a picture of the state of a water services authority’s (WSA’s) water wastage.
This water balance has two primary aims, namely to measure:
1. the efficiency with which the WSA delivers the water to customers 2. the completeness and accuracy of the volume of billed water.
1 Basic standards for service acceptability
FiGurE 2 Constraints causing poor service delivery
Derek G Hazelton, Pr Eng., FWISA, founder and manager of TSE Water Services
These aims are an essential part of effective water delivery everywhere, but not sufficient for effectiveness in the South African context. For this reason, WRC report no TT300-07 presents the same water balance, but with two modifications (Figure 5).
The first modification is just to indicate that free basic water should be included with the revenue water since, assuming it is properly managed, this water does not reflect any inefficiency on the part of the service provider. Second, as well as recording free basic water as a component of the billed consumption, this modified IWA water balance divides potential revenue water into recovered revenue and non-recovered revenue (NRR).
This modified version should probably be adopted worldwide because apart from the importance of recovered revenue in itself, in poor areas the reduction of NRR results in a significant reduction of the system input volume (SIV).
Figure 6 is essentially the same as Figure 5, but with some additional details, and the terms used are believed to be more accurate in the South African context. Hence the
words ‘billed and/or controlled’ have been used instead of ‘billed’, because bills are not issued when prepaid meters are used although the deliveries are controlled. The word ‘deliveries’ has been used instead of ‘consumption’ because water delivered includes: efficient usage, inefficient usage or wastage, and leakage from the pipework and plumbing fittings on customers’ properties.
In some areas with high NRR, this leakage on customer’ properties is significantly higher than the leakage on the distribution system.
The purpose of this more detailed water balance is not for WSAs to try to estimate the volume of each and every cell. Rather, it is to help WSAs to consider and manage all the factors that can contribute to excessive water demands and financially unstainable deliveries.
The detailed water balance also suggests that the acceptability of the SIV may have to be examined separately. This is because, in areas of water scarcity, the resultant SIV may still be too high for sustainability after acceptable levels of NRW and NRR have been achieved. In such cases, the SIV will have to
be reduced further by realising additional WUE improvements.
Non-recovered revenue
In relation to Figure 5, the modified IWA water balance, the importance of reducing a WSA’s NRR was described. Figure 7 indicates the urgency and the extent to which this reduction is required.
In 2015, 29% of WSAs nationally recovered less than 50% of their billed revenue, which reflects the need for considerably improved credit control and/or maximum water delivered management. For the more rural WSAs, the situation was even worse. While the more urbanised WSAs performed better, between 63% and 72% still need to reduce their NRR significantly, until a target of 95% cost recovery is achieved.
different economies of scale
The majority of WSAs in South Africa are large in area by international standards. However, Figure 8 compares and contrasts a few important attributes of Ekurhuleni Metro, an urban WSA, and Sekhukhune District Municipality (DM), a rural WSA. Such contrasting attributes indicate that one cannot use identical strategies to implement WC/WDM in each of the two WSAs, although the final aims will be the same.
Overall, it is recommended that similar state-of-the-art information management systems should be considered for use by the WSA management team in both WSAs but that for the Sekhukhune WSA, away from its main offices, much of the emphasis will be on capacitating community members and entrepreneurs to operate, monitor, maintain and manage their own supplies to a high degree.
Refer, for example, to the August 2011 SALGA Local Regulation Case Study Report for the Chris Hani DM WSA. Once the basic turnaround WC/WDM project has been implemented, to sustain the gains, state-ofthe-art technology will still be required to ensure good communication between the WSA and each community. One should also look at innovative, technology-enhanced methods to ensure cost-effective water supply services billing, customer payment and household water demand management. Employment creation through entrepreneurship and technical skills training needs to become a central feature of how all WSAs implement WC/ WDM contracts. However, such
Unbilled authorised consumption
Billed metered consumption
Billed unmetered consumption
Unbilled unmetered consumption
Unbilled metered consumption Non-revenue
Unauthorised consumption
Customer meter inaccuracies
Leakage on transmission and distribution mains
Leakage and overflows at storage tanks
Leakage on service connections up to point of customer meter
a focus is especially important for rural WSAs. Recent graduates of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s War on Leaks programme are often a source of youth with a potential for further training. Strict supervision, and commissioning pressure testing, before the infrastructure is handed back to the WSA, will ensure that the quality of the completed work is of an exceptional standard. This approach towards socio-economic development in the water sector holds significant future value for South Africa and the African continent generally.
Model for implementation
Figure 10 represents a recommended multiyear strategic model for implementing a WC/WDM turnaround project programme. The term ‘project’ describes the turnaround work, with a specific beginning and end, which the PSP is appointed to lead until the WSA
7 Non-recovered revenue
Scientific C™ Solid Chemistry for a Reduced Water Footprint in Cooling Tower Water Treatment.
Scientific C™ scale and corrosion inhibitors provide a comprehensive water treatment solution for cooling towers. Compact solid products up to 25 times more concentrated than conventional liquid scale and corrosion inhibitors. This on-demand solution means less chemicals to store and handle with a lower risk of liquid spillages.
FiGurE
FiGurE
Billed authorised consumption
Water deliveries (customer focused)
System input volume (SIV) (target acceptable?)
Unbilled authorised consumption
Apparent losses
Water losses (distribution systems focused)
Real losses
Billed exported deliveries Potential
Billed and/or controlled, metered deliveries
Billed unmetered deliveries (typically mostly uncontrolled)
Unbilled metered deliveries
Unbilled unmetered deliveries
Unauthorised and tampered-with connections
Estimated charges inaccuracies
Customer meter inaccuracies
SIV meter inaccuracies
Estimated SIV volume inaccuracies
Leakage on transmission mains and distribution pipework
Leakage and overflows at storage tanks, towers and reservoirs
Leakage on service connections up to the point of the customer meter
and other stakeholders reach, or are on a firm road to reach, the excellence targets calculated in stage one of the project. The term ‘programme’ indicates the empowering manner in which the PSP needs to lead the work, so that once the excellence targets have been achieved, or even earlier, the WSA and other stakeholders can maintain these targets indefinitely, on their own. Thus, although a programme may have a specific beginning, it has no end.
To ensure programmatic success, stage four of the strategic model is of central importance and needs to form a central part of each phase of the project-programme implementation. The multiyear aspect of the programme is also a core part of the project. In each year, an overall improvement in each KPI needing a significant improvement should be achieved. However, even with abundant funding –which is highly unlikely – targets, no-drop certification, and tier one classification in the SALGA-WRC Municipal Benchmarking Initiative are unlikely to be met in less than five years.
So, if your WSA is not already implementing an integrated WC/WDM turnaround project-programme, begin planning it immediately, start implementation without delay, set achievable, strictly defined targets, and, even if there are still setbacks, stay on course until all the targets have been achieved in a manner that can be maintained indefinitely.
Forafulllistofreferences,pleasecontactthe authorattsewater@icon.co.za.
Managed free basic water
Potential revenue sales Efficient, customer
All unbilled unpaid-for deliveries to customers (typically mostly uncontrolled)
Customer leaks and wastage Not-paid-for sales
Efficient customer usage
Customer leaks and wastage
Distribution system non-revenue water
2:Evaluate
FiGurE 8 Comparison of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan and Sekhukhune WSAs name of Wsa
FiGurE 9 Reticulation pipework being refurbished by community entrepreneurs in North West province
FiGurE 10 Multiyear strategic model for implementing a WCWDM turnaround project programme
Brett Brewin Research Scientist & Technical Manager: Water
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the suppliers of water testing solutions?
BB Among the main challenges when it comes to water microbiology testing are the legislation and bureaucracy.
Andrew Headland Senior Business Manager: EMEA
microbiology company with approvals and acceptances in over 40 countries. We sell over 22 million tests per year and roughly 2.5 billion people drink water tested by our products every day.
Products need different approvals in every country, and anybody trying to introduce new and improved methods faces significant challenges.
Achieving this requires R&D and regulatory teams working with governments and local regulators. We have the infrastructure, teams and presence to achieve this.
IDEXX is the world’s leading water
aBOVE Sample and reagent being added to the Quanti-Trays
BELOW Quanti-Tray sealer
BELOW riGHT Reading QuantiTrays after incubation
What sets us apart is our worldclass expert team focused purely on water microbiology. We have a small portfolio of products because we focus on the key things that work well, and couple them with training, backup and support.
How important is the sub-Saharan african region for ideXX and how are you investing in it?
aH Sub-Saharan Africa is our third biggest revenue region for the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, making it a very important region for us. In South Africa, we have significant market share in the municipal and utility segment.
We’ve invested significantly in our Africa business over the last two years and improved the way we manage the business in Southern Africa. The region is now managed directly by IDEXX’s global Water Division instead of
a local distributor, enabling us to be more focused. We now have two dedicated water salespeople, and a direct line to the UK office for technical and product support, enabling us to provide the best possible level of customer service to the water sector.
We are introducing modular web-based training on basic microbiology and IDEXX products as part of our IDEXX Water Academy, in addition to our worldwide seminars and workshops. In Africa, we’re finding a huge desire for this type of training. We also bring people into our UK lab for training and send our analysts to specific labs for bespoke training where required.
From a CSI perspective, we provide a great deal of aid and assistance in natural disasters and work with several NGOs to provide training and education on the importance of water quality, particularly in the developing world.
Please provide an overview of the testing products and services you offer.
BB We offer tests for detecting:
• Coliforms/Escherichia coli
• Enterococci
• Legionella pneumophila
• Cryptosporidium/Giardia
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Heterotrophic plate count
• Chlorine.
Most labs worldwide test these parameters on a daily basis; however, when you compare our tests to the traditional methods, we win on every account. We can achieve high sensitivity and high specificity, without false positives or false negatives, which can be very costly.
But we don’t just sell a product; we sell a full solution. When you buy one of our tests, you also get a huge support network and training. Our lab in the UK provides full technical and product support for the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We’ll investigate any issues our clients face, and conduct an analysis and investigation for them in our own lab if needed.
You’ve recently released a new product for Legionella testing. Tell us about this. aH The existing method of testing for Legionella is about 20 years old and has been shown to have up to 40% false negatives. Our new product, Legiolert, specifically detects Legionellapneumophila, the primary cause of Legionnaires' disease, and eliminates the subjective interpretation found with traditional culture methods. The test provides confirmed results within seven days and quality control can be performed in just 15 minutes.
Previously, samples would have to be sent to a specialised lab for this kind of testing, but we’re opening up the market. We’ve had a lot of interest from local labs and municipalities and the National Health Laboratory Service in Johannesburg is currently trialling Legiolert.
Leachates from plastic are real
Plastics have transformed everyday life and usage is increasing. But there is analytical confirmation that ‘leachates’ from plastic containers utilised as storage vessels for water and wastewater are real. By ronald a van steenderen*
As far back as 1970, I had developed a total dissolved organic analyser system with which I could, with all conviction, report that water stored in plastic containers, whether stored below freezing point or not, including the alternative of preservation with mercuric chloride, increased the organic carbon content of that water. However, the result of what has been published concerning plastics in the environment over the last few years is quite disturbing.
Plastics, as we commonly call them, are the most abundant synthetic compounds we encounter in our daily activities today. Even though the basic make-up of most plastics is carbon and hydrogen, most of our plastics are known as polymers e.g. polyvinyl chloride, a common name for a variety of repeating units of vinyl chloride (C2H3Cl) or PVC.
The containers used for water sampling on field trips in my days at the CSIR were said to be of polyethylene teraphthalate, one of the most common of the polyester family, and mainly used for their robustness, flexibility, and ease to handle and transport in large numbers at a time.
The problem we only realised later was that the phthalate used to manufacture the container, which made them so unique, was also a deterrent due to the slow release of the phthalate into the contents of the bottle. Add to this another deterrent, in that most of our potable water supplies are chlorinated for disinfection purposes, and that by doing this it has been universally proven that these materials plus those not removed by conventional water treatment (known as precursors) react with the chlorine to form halogenated hydrocarbons, among them polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and trihalomethanes (THMs).
All these materials are quoted to be a disastrous threat to the total environment and human well-being itself. Finally, add to this the realisation that by disposal to the ocean and landfall of the plastic materials, they can persist for hundreds of years due to their non-biodegradability, and we have an enormous problem on our hands. Water quality and the importance of obtaining correct
and reliable analytical information in order to take evasive action is, therefore, critical. Subsequent literature shows that plastics are indeed a contaminant when using plastic materials for water sampling and this was confirmed by persisting with the development of a total organic carbon (TOC) analyser that could beyond doubt substantiate this without needing highly qualified operating skills.
Carbon analysis
From the mid-1960s to now, there has been tremendous advancement in the technology and statistical evaluations of analytical procedures towards water and wastewater examination. Although I can only vouch for the period until 2002, the greatest advancement thereafter has been in the field of computer hardware and software and the improvement of the already existing analytical technology, such as fibre optics, laser and the new dawn of spectral analysis possibly utilising LED technology. Yet there are still water utilities using chemical oxygen demand (COD) as a surrogate for the presence of TOC in water and wastewater.
Although there are a number of less mentioned means of carbon analysis, traditionally there were three analytical methods used to estimate the degree of organic pollution: determining the loss on ignition of a water sample previously dried and heated at 850°C by gravimetric means, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and COD. All three of these are surrogate (indirect) methods for the determination of organic carbon in water. The fourth approach, and the theme dealt with here, was that of the determination of TOC by way of direct oxidation of organic material to carbon dioxide by means of a high combustion technique. The year 1963 saw the first high combustion total carbon analyser in South Africa, followed five years later by a Beckman dual combustion tube/infrared detection unit. Here, it became clear that to report an accurate reliable value for TOC, certain unknowns had to be overcome first. The organic content was calculated by difference – i.e. the reading obtained from a CO2 detector by manual injection of a 20 µℓ sample with a micro syringe into the low combustion column (IC) tube was subtracted from the value
obtained by injecting a similar volume into the high combustion tube (TC).
Here, the first problem arose. Unless it was a calibration standard solution, the sample required filtration in terms of its highly probable turbidity content. There are umpteen means of filtering a sample prior to DOC analysis, the basic one generally accepted is that of passing the solution through a 0.45 µm membrane pad. It was soon realised, however, that even this technique had its flaws in that many of these membranes sold by reputed and well-recognised companies in the water field contained plastic materials. This problem was overcome by the introduction of a 0.45 µm silver membrane pressure filter, which had the additional properties of releasing silver ions into solution, thereby simultaneously adding the preservation property as well. This technique also
replaced the highly toxic mercuric chloride previously used for sample preservation. Having solved the latter, it came to the most crucial part of all – to calibrate the TOC analyser to a scale suitable to enable analysing samples from virtually all water sources including the processes at water and wastewater plants.
automation
The most popular calibration ranges for TOC measurement in the 1960s and 1970s were 1 mg C/ℓ to 100 mg C/ℓ and 1 mg C/ℓ to 10 mg C/ℓ. Not withstanding that we could now calibrate and comply with the 95% confidence levels, it was not possible to create a medium (distilled water) for make-up calibration solutions void of some or other contaminant without very laborious pre-preparations as illustrated in a gas chromatic profile of triple distilled potable water (Figure 1). Because of all the complexities and idiosyncrasies of the manual TOC methodology, automation was called for.
Again, the emphasis was on reliability of results and what could influence them. Automation immediately led to mass sampling and countrywide water surveys commenced. Again, as with the initial manual method, automation was in its infancy. It took countless long hours in the laboratory over many years to master this technology. Employment at the CSIR made it possible to visit overseas instrument manufacturers and research units similar to ours, as well as universities, to make it possible to develop this technology to its utmost.
Plastics as a contaminant of the ToC
The methodology described was still based on high combustion TOC analysis,
but it was now integrated with an online automatic injection system, as shown in Figures 2 and 3.
automated injectors and peristaltic metering pump
The Teflon pump tubes used were pronounced to be chemically inert and were professed as having the lowest coefficient of friction of all plastics. These tubes were introduced into the analytical arena by the Technicon Corporation in 1957, who became the main supplier of colour-identifiable Teflon pump tubing for volume identification using a peristaltic metering pump.
Additional to this system came timers, auto samplers and recorders, making it possible to perform 20 samples per hour unattended. But, as mentioned previously for gas chromatography and other spectral water analysis, the techniques improved to enable lower detection limits so the number of compounds not previously detected appeared.
This is what occurred with the TOC determination in the regions of 100 µg/ℓ and the preparation of distilled water. Standard calibration curves of 0.10 mg/ℓ to 10 mg/ℓ, run repeatedly using a proven stable compound called potassium biphthalate (C8H5KO4) prepared in all-glass laboratory ware, were routine procedures and always fell within the 95% confidence limits required.
With the entry of so many water samples from all over the country and from a multitude of sources, whether water works or
FiGurE 2 Automated injection unit on twin combustion TOC analyser.
FiGurE 1 Gas chromatogram of triple distilled water showing background interference
FiGurE 3
KelRon peristaltic metering pump
industry, so came the era of the enormous number of plastic water containers for sampling. Irregularities with interpretation of results became more frequent and it became extremely important to investigate what external parameters interfered with this determination.
Was it the filtration method, preservation, temperature, pH, sample container material or sample storage prior to analysis? This had to be explored before we could continue with automated TOC analysis. The liquid that immediately came to mind was humus tank effluent (HTE) – a secondary product in domestic wastewater purification plants stored in maturation ponds prior to discharge to the environment. This product was the primary feed to the Stander Water Reclamation Plant in Pretoria where it was processed to drinking water quality.
The knowledge gained here was ultimately transferred to Windhoek, Namibia, to enable to the city to open the world’s first water reclamation plant, in 1969, to blend the reclaimed water with its then rapidly diminishing potable water supplies for public use.
Plastic interference in analytical procedures
And so, HTE became the guinea pig in the first stage of an upand-coming sensation of water reclamation from wastewater for potable use. Similarly, as with choosing a standard calibration material (i.e. potassium biphthalate), it had to first be determined beyond doubt that HTE decomposed completely at a temperature of 950 °C. It was found to happen at 750°C.
Prior to evaluation of the HTE, it was first ascertained whether the material that housed the calibration standard solution was affected by storage in a plastic container as opposed to a glass container. This, after all, we could control by now. It was discovered that, whereas the standard solution concentration in the glass holder remained constant, that contained in the plastic holders (new or previously used ones) indicated a difference in organic content based on a 99% confidence level using the t-distribution test.
Further detailed evaluations were subsequently carried out on the HTE using a 3x3x2 confounded factorial method designed by Sokal and Rohlf. The number of combinations for the evaluation was therefore 18-fold, and consisted of an
FiGurE 5 Mass flow meter as incorporated in the Aquadoc TOC analyser in the Windhoek laboratory
inter-comparison consisting of storage temperatures at 4.10°C and 30°C; storage in glass containers or plastic; no sample preservation or using 1 mℓ and 4 mℓ AgSO4/ℓ for preservation, respectively. All samples were previously filtered through a sintered glass filter, all were analysed in duplicate, and all 18 treatments were repeated for five consecutive days. Using a 95% confidence level, calculations indicated that there remained no doubt that plastic containers were found to release organic carbon into the solution.
A fully automated Aquadoc™ TOC analyser was subsequently designed and developed at the CSIR, which replaced the outdated high-combustion system with UV oxidation of samples with the CO2 liberated being measured with a totally new revamped infrared spectrophotometer. Not mentioned until now is the drawback of the minute sample used until now and which can now be increased from µℓ to mℓ. A fully integrated flow system – incorporating a dedicated 12-channel KelRon peristaltic metering pump (Figure 3), autosampler and processor – was incorporated and sold to a number of municipalities and industrial manufacturers in South Africa, including Umgeni Water (Figure 4). To increase precision even further, rotameters for gas regulation were replaced by a mass flow meter designed at the CSIR (Figure 5).
The unit was subsequently taken to Germany, where it was successfully DIN certified with the idea of marketing the equipment in Europe. Subsequent publishing of the technology in Analytical Chemistry magazine saw it incorporated in the universally accepted analytical methods Handbook for the Examination of Water and Wastewater to enable the interpretation and comparison of water-related analytical results on a worldwide basis.
*RonaldavanSteenderen,MSc(1974), DSc(1979)WaterEnvir.Sciences, UniversityofPretoria.FWISA,Memb.SA CouncilforNaturalScientists,(NIWR) CSIR,1957to1996.AquadocAnalytics 1996to 2002.
Forafulllistofreferences,contactthe authoronron.steenderen@gmail.com.
FiGurE 4 Sue Freeze and Ronald van Steenderen with automated Aquadoc TOC analyser at Umgeni laboratory
ENVIRONMENTAL WATER MONITORING SOLUTIONS FOR NATURAL RESOURCE AND OCEANOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS
FLOWS METERS, DATA AND ANALYSIS FOR RESPONSIBLE AND EFFICIENT WATER MANAGEMENT
Water Analysis made simple with our full range of Liquid analytics
HIGH-TECH FILTRATION, SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION
LEADING DEVELOPMENT OF WATER TREATMENT SOLUTIONS USING UV LIGHT FOR INDUSTRIAL AND MUNICIPAL NEEDS
Package solutions
The hospital required lowfootprint and -maintenance water treatment solutions to provide potable water to the hospital as well as to treat its sewage water for reuse.
Veolia Water Technologies designed, manufactured and commissioned two of its trademark containerised, plugand-play solutions in just three months for the hospital.
“Our package plant solutions are a cost-effective alternative to inground plants and are well suited for remote areas that are situated away from bulk water infrastructure, such as with Bambisana Hospital,” says Royston Moses, project engineer, Veolia Water Technologies South Africa.
Supplying consistent potable water
The previous reservoir infrastructure provided an inconsistent supply of water and was, therefore, unsuitable for the hospital, which requires consistent, high-quality water for its day-to-day operations. “Furthermore, our water quality studies indicated that the existing reservoir and borehole water were host to low-concentration
The state-owned Bambisana Hospital in the remote Eastern Cape has installed two package water treatment plants.
bacteria, high turbidity and slight residual colouring,” comments Moses. Veolia supplied the hospital with its Potable Water Treatment Plant (PWTP™) that produces 120 m3 of high-quality potable water per day. The PWTP features a clarifier, sand filter, carbon filter and a range of chlorine, coagulant, flocculant and pH dosing equipment, all packaged in a single container to treat the water to SANS241 and WHO standards.
Treating hospital sewage
With no former sewage treatment infrastructure in place, the hospital also required a package plant to treat its wastewater according to the General Standard for Discharge. Veolia addressed this with its package
Sewage Treatment Plant (STP™), which upgrades 60 m3 of sewage water per day. Enclosed in six 6 m containers, the STP features Veolia’s cost-effective trickling filter technology to treat the sewage water to certified reuse standards, as well as a bar screen, septic tanks, clarifiers and chlorine-dosing equipment. This treated water is now reused by the community for irrigation and agricultural purposes.
Both plants are fully containerised to protect the equipment from environmental impacts and for security reasons. “All our package water treatment solutions are pre-assembled and factory-acceptance tested at our workshop in Johannesburg. What this means for Bambisana Hospital is that the plants simply needed to be ‘plugged-in and switched on’ when they arrived on-site,” adds Moses. “By lowering manufacturing and commissioning time, we were able to supply these cost-effective water treatment plants in just three months.” Although both the plants are easy to operate and require very little maintenance, Veolia remained on-site to provide local operator training.
The PWTP produces 120 m3 of SANSapproved potable water per day for the hospital
The package STP treats sewage to certified reuse standards
South Africa’s first Organica wastewater treatment plant has been commissioned, using a combination of natural and engineered materials to treat wastewater in a compact, odourless environment.
By Danielle Petterson
More than a treatment plant
Murray & Roberts Water (MRW) recently opened South Africa’s first Organica Water Resource Recovery Demonstration Facility for eThekwini Water Services at the Verulam Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) in KwaZulu-Natal.
Organica’s treatment facilities utilise active biofilms on natural (plant) and/or engineered (patented biofibre media) root structures, all housed in a fully enclosed, odourless facility. The result is a solution that offers a 50% to 75% reduced physical footprint compared to conventional wastewater treatment solutions, with a reduction in operational costs of up to 30%, all in the form of a pleasant botanical, garden-like environment. This enables the wastewater treatment plant to be located virtually anywhere, thus substantially lowering infrastructure costs to connect to customers and enhancing land value around the facility.
MRW secured the exclusive licence for Organica technology in South Africa (and non-exclusively in the rest of the
SADC region) early in 2016. “We believe wastewater infrastructure in South Africa is in need of innovative and sustainable thinking and our combined technology and experience can offer the domestic solutions required,” says Harry Singleton, operations executive, MRW.
According to Ednick Msweli, head, eThekwini Water and Sanitation, the municipality is considering some major wastewater treatment upgrades and is eager to see whether Organica technology is a viable solution. The municipality has signed an MoU with MRW, which enables the pair to share knowledge, skills and innovation to improve service delivery, while exposing the municipality to new technologies.
“It is our aim to provide all citizens within eThekwini with access to appropriate, acceptable, safe and affordable basic water supply and sanitation services. The Organica demonstration plant allows us to apply innovative and sustainable technology to the water and sanitation services we provide to the people of eThekwini, specifically in the realm of wastewater services,” says Msweli.
an unconventional solution
As populations grow and water demand increases, it is becoming increasingly difficult to build wastewater treatment plants away from communities to be able to keep up with demand, explains Oscar Palomino, senior manager, Organica Water. What is needed is a compact, odourless, efficient and aesthetic system that can be built within cities. According to Palomino, this new way of thinking resulted in the Organica plant, achieved through a combination of process engineering, nature and architecture.
The core solution in the plant is the Organica Biomodule and Food Chain Reactor, which Palomino believes is the most advanced fixed-film biofilm process available. Each biomodule acts as the support structure for both the plants, whose roots make up the primary biofilm carrier, and Organica’s specially developed proprietary biofibre media designed to mimic the structure and function of the plant roots. The root structures in turn provide an ideal habitat for a thriving ecosystem that is both larger and more diverse than the biology found in typical conventional activated sludge-based systems.
This resulting self-regulating ecosystem offers operational flexibility and high resilience to unexpected influent fluctuations and shock-loading. The process also utilises up to 90% less suspended solids content in the water, which improves oxygen transfer efficiency and results in 30% or greater energy savings.
as green spaces. Organica Water has 100 reference plants installed or under construction worldwide, with some treating up to 80 000 m3/day. Many of these are in residential areas, with one plant notably built on a traffic circle on Hainan Island in China.
Verulam plant
Additionally, the system offers substantial capex savings because the same level of contaminant or nutrient removal can be achieved in half (or less) reactor volume when compared to conventional activatedsludge-based solutions. This translates to a smaller footprint as well as savings in construction and equipment, says Palomino. With up to 600 plant species (based on their root structure and mass) used for the treatment process, the Organica plant also offers a botanical garden-like look and feel and in some places around the world, these plants are used recreationally
South Africa’s first Organica plant, designed to treat 120 kℓ/d, is built alongside the existing Verulam WWTW in KwaZulu-Natal.
Construction took only five months, with earthworks beginning in September 2017. The plant was commissioned in February 2018 and Palomino says the preliminary results have been good.
The plant’s location alongside an existing traditional activated sludge plant means comparisons can be drawn between the two and the capabilities of the Organica plant are well demonstrated.
The Organica plant takes in the same feedwater as the existing Verulam plant,
explains Jaco Jansen from MRW, who will be operating the plant for the next year. This contributes significantly to odour elimination as the primary settling tanks are usually the largest odour-producing factor in a WWTW. The Organica plant’s odour control unit is housed in a sealed room, further eliminating odours.
The plant comprises three containers: one containing the mechanics of the plant, and the other two containing the wastewater being treated. Because the bulk of the activated sludge is attached to the biomedia, less air is required for mixing to keep solids in suspension. Most of the energy consumed by fine bubble aeration is thus used to oxygenate the water instead of mixing. This is where the substantial energy and cost savings come in, explains Jansen. The plant also uses a hydrocyclone, which acts like a clarifier by removing solids, further saving on space.
“In a normal system, you have about 800 species of microorganisms in the reactor. As soon as you start introducing the plants and the root structures, that count shoots up to above 3 000 species. These species migrate from the plant roots to the engineered roots, which mimic the plant roots and create a high surface area for the sludge to grow on to,” explains Jansen. Because the biofilm is attached to the root structure, the plant also has a better response time after a peak event.
The plant houses a number of plant species, which were introduced from a young age in order for them to grow accustomed to the environment. These plants derive their nutrients from the wastewater environment and will thrive as they grow and their root structures develop further, says Jansen.
“An Organica-powered facility is more than just a wastewater treatment plant. It is also a water reclamation garden, educational facility and symbol of sustainability in the community that enables cost-efficient water reuse and allows for maximised development opportunities – particularly in populated areas where footprint and odour are significant concerns,” concludes Palomino.
TBIG DATA: A critical tool for consistent plant operations
o some, big data is just the latest technology buzzword. To others, it is an exceptionally powerful tool to drive membrane plant operations.
Accurate water-analysis results from accredited labs typically take a week to arrive on-site, meaning operators must rely entirely on on-site lab equipment to make operational decisions.
This comes with challenges due to inaccuracies with online probes, resulting in a continual lag between sample taking and decision-making. Without the ability to continuously monitor each and every component in the feedwater to a membrane plant, which may induce fouling/scaling, a certain amount of ‘intuition’ is required to maintain consistent membrane performance.
Unfortunately, intuition is not a very bankable operation strategy, and this is where techniques developed with only a chemistry ‘hat’ on can lead to asset damage.
Enter big data. The correct consolidation and understanding of available data is now key in almost every successful business strategy.
Aveng Water is no different, with a wealth of knowledge of membrane operational data spanning an equivalent of 28 years of membrane operation. This data is critical to understanding how often the membranes are exposed to conditions that cannot be considered business as usual, and thus require a course of action to manage the exposed risk.
The Aveng Water Sigma Ops monitoring and control system manages these risks, and allows the company to offer five-year membrane warranties, even with very difficultto-treat feedwater, as is often the case with mine-impacted water. With these types of water, if the control and monitoring systems are not sufficient, the plant can very quickly get to a point where the required production is not possible; and in extreme circumstances membranes may become irrecoverable.
Aveng Water currently operates four large-scale membrane plants, all of which have very different and challenging feedwaters. Sigma Ops has been implemented as a continual improvement and optimisation tool, and can be linked to operator performance contracting to ensure that operational excellence and continual improvement is not only a discussion topic, but becomes part of operations teams’ DNA.
The operational ecosystem that has been developed at Aveng Water provides immense value for every new plant added to the structure. The operational expertise is transferred to each new plant through a core operational team, with the remaining personnel complement being sourced from local communities.
The ability to involve local communities in plant operations is contingent on a well-developed and reliable management system. This needs to be developed with a holistic view of the technical challenges that are commonplace on membrane plants in
complex water treatment environments. While many companies have a policy of hiring people from local communities, Aveng Water ensures that these new hires are absorbed into a structure that has the appropriate technical controls and understanding to allow a focus on learning, growth and career progression.
Aveng Water’s internal training programmes continually upskill new employees, and provide them with a well-defined career path through the organisation. This social engagement value-add can provide clients with a direct bottom-line improvement. Sigma Ops uses the gathered data, together with analyses from experienced process engineers, to understand where operational points should be considered as safe. These decision points are continuously iterated as a tool for continuous improvement, and ensure that the risk involved with time delays between analyses is well managed.
With population growth, rapid urbanisation and dwindling conventional sources in South Africa, alternative water sources such as mine-impacted water, municipal waste water reuse and seawater desalination are going to be key augmentation strategies to South Africa’s long-term water security. Through a combination of technologies, sound process engineering principles allow an operations product that adds value for small systems, and continuous operation on large, complex membrane plants with large capital risk.
A strong
foundation for infrastructure success Visit us on www.rocla.co.za for our nationwide branches
Water treatment solutions
for the future
South Africa is in a water crisis. Given the surface water depletion in the country, the question of where future water will be sourced must be raised.
The most common solutions for water provision always entail a massive infrastructure capital spend and long-term implementation, with the belief that bigger is better, cheaper and easier to operate. While looking for megaprojects to solve the entire South African water crisis, it is easy to forget the smaller, simpler projects that can assist with water supply.
decentralisation
The philosophy of decentralisation of water treatment is based on local water source availability linked to a local need. With failing infrastructure that includes the pipelines transporting water hundreds of kilometres across the country, decentralised water treatment starts making sense for remote, smaller communities or industry.
Advanced technologies provide a smaller footprint, less operator involvement and less dependency on chemicals for water treatment. QFS has brought first-world technologies to South Africa and localised them to be more affordable for South African applications.
ROCLA is South Africa’s leading manufacturer of pre-cast concrete products. Surpassing 100 years of product excellence, including pipes, culverts, manholes, poles, retaining walls, roadside furniture, sanitation and other related products within infrastructure development and related industries.
“QFS is well positioned to provide equipment through our in-house manufacturing and implementation. Our personnel are familiar with all of the
technologies required,” says Herman Smit, managing director, QFS.
Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are one of the core technologies used in compact decentralised water treatment equipment.
UF membranes replace conventional concrete structures with skid-mounted filtration modules. Each UF module is placed inside a module housing and becomes a serviceable filter element that can be removed from the housing for repair or replacement.
“QFS believes that membrane-based water treatment solutions provide the best solution for decentralised water. The local decentralised sources of water –wastewater, seawater and borehole water – all require membrane-based technology for treatment,” says Smit.
JUL/AUG 2018
www.infrastructurene.ws
OVER 100 000 visitors every month
+
TUse our rich media solution – video, animation and text – to reach and engage with your target market.
Rich Media can be used in our: Digimags Newsletters Website
ADVERTISE Jenny Miller on +27 (0)11 467 6223 or jennymiller@lantic.net
SUBSCRIBE TO DIGIMAG +27 (0)11 233 2600 or subs@3smedia.co.za SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER www.infrastructurene.ws FOLLOW US infrastructurenews @infrastructure4
SA’s solution to a global crisis
Less than half of rural populations in most Southern African countries have access to basic sanitation. While South Africa is one of the best performers, it still only offers 69% access.
Despite efforts to improve the sanitation crisis, there are insufficient water resources to provide all people with waterborne sewerage. In fact, the Department of Water and Sanitation is predicting a 17% water deficit by 2030 unless South Africa sees some radical changes in water use and resource diversification. The award-winning Enviro Loo offers a solution. The waterless toilet
system provides a safe, non-polluting, cost-effective solution to the sanitation crisis. Just one Enviro Loo can save up to 420 000 ℓ of water annually.
How it works
The containerised system operates via evaporation and dehydration, utilising sun and wind to transform human waste into a safe, neutral, pathogen-free material, without the use of water, chemicals or electricity.
Continuous air flow dehydrates the solid waste and evaporates the liquid waste, while sunlight creates intense heat that further decomposes the waste, converting it into an inoffensive material roughly 5% of its original volume. The negative pressure within the container and a wind-driven extractor prevent the escape of any odour.
effective solutions Krugersdorp-based Enviro Loo has various models, including a domestic
unit catering for up to 10 users per day, communal units for up to 30 users, an industrial unit for up to 40 users, as well as a waterless urinal.
To date, Enviro Loo installations have provided dignity to 2 million people and aided in saving 42 billion litres of water annually.
Enviro Loo was recognised by Frost & Sullivan as the 2017 Southern African Dry Sanitation Company of the Year for creating a sustainable sanitation solution that eliminates reliance on water and pollution.
Is infrastructure enough?
Southern Africa still has a long way to go to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal of clean water and sanitation, and a heavy focus on infrastructure without an emphasis on hygiene means many people are still left facing health issues. By Danielle Petterson
The new ‘State of Hygiene in Southern Africa’ report released by WaterAid shows that, with the exception of South Africa (69%) and Swaziland (58%), less than half of rural populations in Southern African countries have access to at least basic sanitation.
While access to sanitation is higher in the region’s urban areas, with 16% to 77% access, the proportion of rural people in Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe that practice open defecation is higher than that of those with access to a basic latrine. Another factor investigated in the report is household drinking water. A significant portion of the region’s population does not have access to
piped drinking water to their premises, and many people rely on off-site drinking water sources. Collection and transportation of drinking water presents a significant risk of post-collection contamination. Despite this, treating stored drinking water at household level is not commonly practised.
The good news is that sanitation use is the most comprehensively included hygiene component in policy for the region, with almost all countries having specific targets and objectives. However, the inclusion of WASH in high-level visions and implementation plans is mainly limited to water and sanitation provision, rather than broader hygiene.
“While getting clean water and decent toilets is important, it is only through
hygiene that you effectively address health issues,” says Robert Kampala, head: South African Region, WaterAid.
Promoting better hygiene
Handwashing with soap has been found to be one of the most cost-effective interventions to prevent top causes of under-five mortality in developing countries. It has been shown to reduce diarrhoea by almost 50% and respiratory infections by nearly 25%.
However, Kampala points out that only 19% of the global population practises handwashing after defecation. The numbers are far lower in Southern Africa and it is estimated that a child dies every two minutes from diarrhoea. The report found that basic handwashing with soap and water is practised by less than a quarter of the population in five out of eight Southern African countries for which data is available.
Handwashing rates are even lower among the poor, with the region’s poorest having 17% to 63% lower access to handwashing with soap than the richest. This is a significant problem, given
that four countries in the region have endemic trachoma and the World Health Organization is currently monitoring cholera outbreaks in five Southern African countries, as well as outbreaks of typhoid, hepatitis E, and listeriosis.
Another major challenge when it comes to effective hygiene is the disposal of child faeces. The unsafe disposal of child faeces is widespread in Southern Africa, and even households with access to improved sanitation do not consistently dispose of child faeces appropriately.
The study found that in Madagascar and Mozambique, more than 50% of households with children under the age of three disposed of their faeces unsafely.
Creating an enabling environment
Analysis of the policy and institutional arrangements for hygiene within the region identified three areas that present common bottlenecks for hygiene:
• financial allocations to hygiene
• coordination
• effectiveness of monitoring and review mechanisms.
According to Sophie Hickling, one of the authors of the report, the lack of financial allocation for hygiene is both a cause and an effect of the other institutional bottlenecks. The limited data available on hygiene is also a major inhibitory factor. “Having limited data available means that hygiene isn’t effectively included in review processes and planning. And if it’s not being measured, it’s not being prioritised in those plans,” she says.
The report points out that these bottlenecks can be addressed by raising the profile of hygiene within and outside the WASH sector, strengthening coordination, and influencing greater recognition of neglected components of hygiene.
Kampala says WaterAid hopes to positively influence hygiene behaviour change, but that sustained behaviour change requires new, innovative and creative approaches that appeal to people’s emotions and recognise changing behavioural settings. “We know that the old-fashioned, knowledge-based hygiene promotion campaigns do
not work; these have not ensured a sustained behaviour change,” he says.
He hopes that the results of this study will assist with designing robust hygiene campaigns in the region through a creative process to change the behaviour of policymakers, institutions, donors, practitioners and implementers.
Kampala would like to see two major changes. First, improved hygiene behaviour programmes, because a business-as-usual approach is no longer working. Second, a more enabling environment that supports the effective delivery of hygiene programmes, characterised by better financing, effective coordination, strong leadership and proper monitoring.
“If we do this, we will be able to accelerate and reap the benefits of improved access to clean water, decent toilets and the achievement of the SDGs by 2030,” says Kampala. “It is my hope that Southern Africa can demonstrate to other regions in Africa and the world that it can be the lead region driving hygiene behaviour change.”
FiGurE 1 Rates of key hygiene practices (sanitation use, handwashing with soap, and household drinking water treatment) in countries with data available
Water & Wastewater
Altivar Process — the first services oriented drive
Helping you face significant challenges in Water & Wastewater processes
Energy efficiency and sustainability
The world’s reliance on water is continuously growing, with consumption increasing and resource availability decreasing. Therefore, most stakeholders demand a sustainable and energy-efficient solution. Schneider Electric helps the Water & Wastewater (WWW) segment treat and deliver safer water 24/7, while lower operating costs and using less energy.
• Energy savings > 25%
• Green and ethical materials — free of PVC, halogen, and conflict minerals
• Improved serviceability and repairability
• Increased recyclability: The product is now 80% recyclable
• Packaging reduced by 64%
Altivar Process is the first drive that makes the Industrial Internet of Things a reality.
Check out this video to see how you can save 4million trees
www.schneider-electric.co.za
Pumping value into water and wastewater
Water scarcity across the Southern African region will continue and water utilities will have to adapt to new technologies and ideas. Wasa speaks to Marc Ramsay, vice-president: Industry Business Unit, Schneider Electric South Africa, about the need for pump efficiency and the potential of the industrial internet of things (IIoT).
Arecent report released by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission's science and knowledge service, found that there exists a strong probability of 50% to 70% monthly precipitation deficit every five years (more moisture is lost through evaporation and transpiration than is gained through rainfall).
“In addition, they found an increasing number of moderate to extreme heatwaves in Southern Africa over the last decade. These two factors combined could aggravate water shortages and lead to crises that are more frequent in the future,” explains Ramsay.
“Globally, only 0.3% of our water resources can be used as clean drinking water and the energy to provide it accounts for 30% to 50% of total operating costs. It is estimated that the amount of energy wasted through traditional methods of water processing and delivery can be cut by up to 25%.”
iioT in pump stations
Schneider Electric recommends several performance contracting improvements that can save millions in energy costs and untold
Schneider Electric participated in the recent WISA Biennial Conference and Exhibition, demonstrating its commitment to the water and wastewater sectors, and showcasing the technological advancements it can offer to mitigate the growing, global water crises.
kilolitres of precious water, with one often overlooked issue being pump systems.
“Pumps represent one of the largest asset expenditures for a utility, but also offer the greatest potential for savings. Our research has shown that 75% of pump systems are oversized, many by more than 20%, and electricity costs account for 40% of the total cost of ownership of a pump,” Ramsay explains.
The solution for the issue lies in smart (or intelligent) pumping, along with the use of IIoT.
“A smart pumping system has the ability to combine greater efficiencies with sensors and software to regulate and control flow and pressure. Utility owners should use controllers with intelligent applications for better protection and reduced commissioning time. They can also replace fixed-speed pumps with variable-speed pumps and, for ‘smart’ visibility of pumping systems, use remote monitoring for maintenance and energy efficiency.
energy efficiency and sustainability
“Schneider Electric helps the water and wastewater segment treat and deliver safer water 24/7, while lowering operating costs and using less energy through our Altivar
Process, the first services-oriented drive for the WWW sector. This variable-speed drive (VSD) is designed to reduce operational expenses in water and wastewater installations across the entire water cycle, with a specific focus on maximising productivity,” Ramsay says.
Key green features of the Altivar Process include:
• energy savings of more than 25%
• manufactured free of PVC, halogen, and conflict minerals
• easy to service or repair
• the product is 80% recyclable
• product packaging has been reduced by 64%.
The Altivar Process offers energy management through an integrated, accurate (<5%) power measurement function and standby mode, alongside digital services, to assist utilities in reducing operating and energy costs.
Pump management, with embedded process knowledge in the Altivar Process VSDs, delivers the information users need, and accurate diagnostics and remote services capabilities help make these processes safer and more efficient.
The embedded Ethernet web server system enables customised process monitoring and access to energy usage and process information anywhere, at any time. It offers a complete drive system to achieve high performance, integration in electrical distribution systems, and total management of power quality.
The simplified startup and integration of the drives make it easier to implement Altivar Process in systems, while intuitive built-in functions and diagnostics enable customers to monitor their pumping systems at the best efficiency point.
Marc Ramsay, vice-president: industry Business Unit, Schneider electric South africa
METERINg A vital resource
Smart meters offer many benefits to municipalities, but the metering environment in many South African municipalities presents a minefield of challenges that must be overcome if municipalities are to reduce non-revenue water and increase revenue.
By Danielle Petterson
The installation of new water meters can reduce both unmetered and unauthorised consumption. In one municipality, it was found that about 40% of non-revenue water could be reduced by increasing customer metering. It is not just about repairing leaks or replacing pipes, says Dr Pieter Crous, senior engineer: Management Services, SMEC. Although savings can be made regardless of the meter type, smart meters offer several advantages.
Going ‘smart’
Smart meters can be categorised into two groups: prepaid meters and automatic meter reading (AMR) meters. AMRs typically consist of a conventional meter
fitted with a communication device and user interface, while prepaid meters also include an automatic valve that is opened and closed based on the credit in the meter.
The biggest selling point of smart meters is that they are automated, explains Crous. Smart meters aim to
make monitoring of meters simpler by gathering all the metering information into a centralised system, to see whether customers are paying for services, to provide improved data on the billing system and, ultimately, to prompt the department to enhance billed consumption.
These meters enable municipalities to automatically see granular flow characteristics for a customer and automatically detect and flag customer leaks as they occur, as well as offer the ability to shut off water supply to customers not paying their bills. Increased accuracy also leads to increased customer satisfaction.
The municipal experience
Crous, together with SMEC, has worked throughout South Africa, and he presents experience from seven municipalities in the country. Some of these municipalities’ internal revenue was solely reliant on water services, making metering critical, while other municipalities had additional revenue streams.
Despite the critical nature of metering, there are many challenges municipalities face. These include meters being buried or paved over, inaccessible meters, customers who won’t allow access to meter readers on their property, and information not uploaded to the billing system correctly.
In some cases, information from prepaid systems was added to the third-party systems but not to the municipal billing systems. The municipality could therefore not audit or validate the efficacy of these additional systems. In other instances, Crous found areas where meter readers were still physically reading AMR meters, even after they were automatically transmitting data.
In one municipality, there was no integration of tariffs and customers were charged through a prepaid system for their water consumption, as well as billed separately by the municipality for basic charges and a connection fee, despite the fact that prepaid meters can accommodate both of these tariffs.
In another project, Crous found that about 2 000 customer meters weren’t being read where prepaid meters had been
Precise monitoring of water flows and leak detection in irrigation networks
WATERFLUX 3070 –technology driven by KROHNE
• Electromagnetic water meter with integrated temperature and pressure measurement
• Line pressure monitoring for leak detection or pump efficiency control
• Multiple power concept for any location
• Remote transmission of readings and meter status as option
KROHNE South Africa
8 Bushbuck Close, Corporate Park South Randjiespark, Midrand, Tel.: +27 113141391
Fax: +27 113141681, Deon Rampathi, d.rampathi@krohne.com, www.za.krohne.com
Can we as a Pioneer in Level Measurement still offer more? Absolutely!
Pressure for all types of products
Process pressure, hydrostatic level and differential pressure: the VEGABAR series 80 range of pressure sensors reliably measures the pressure in all liquids, gases and vapours.
VEGA pressure transmitters deliver highly accurate readings in all media.
The advantages speak for themselves.
For more information contact Chantal Groom, VEGA Controls SA +27 (0) 11 795 3249 chantal.groom@vega.com www.vega.com
installed but the batteries ran flat. The municipality did not have a contract in place to ensure the meters were maintained, and these customers were not metered for years.
In many instances, meters are not on the billing system, or the customer data is incorrect, having a direct impact on revenue.
“Information on the billing system needs to be correct. If it’s not on the billing system, it doesn’t exist in municipal financial planning or the water balance,” he says. There are also often challenges in processing information between departments. In one municipality, it took up to two years to update information on to the billing system after the meter was installed.
These examples indicate that, despite the municipality choosing to install smart water meters, the smart meters were not a panacea for systemic challenges faced throughout the metering lifecycle.
Conclusions
“Metering is not a magical process,” cautions Crous. “Smart meters don’t install themselves. It is not about the smart meter technology only, but about getting back to the basics of how the metering processes work. In order to reduce non-revenue water, municipalities will have to increase the customer metering component.”
He believes the barriers in metering are not a technology limitation. The main limitations are due to barriers within the management of staff and processes within the metering life cycle between the different stakeholders.
In principle, the installation of meters will increase billed consumption, whether smart or conventional meters. Prepaid meters, when working effectively, can be a means of reducing demand, but the systems need to be monitored and the processes followed and audited.
Crous cautions that although smart meters do make things ‘automatic’, they still require work. “You need people. As much effort as municipalities may be putting into specifying and selecting the appropriate meter technology, they need to spend time understanding their business and processes, from who is performing what, and what systems work, to proper management to enforce processes and monitor efficiency.”
Smart meters are also significantly more expensive and Crous recommends that municipalities first consider a feasibility study to determine the metering model that works for them. This will ensure that municipalities get value for money and a positive return on investment. Smart meters like AMRs should be prioritised for applications such as DMA meters, where the municipality can understand how its network operates, and how the AMR system works for it, before rolling it out to customers
“Municipalities can improve billed consumption with or without the ‘smart’, but sustained metering requires a lot of interdepartmental collaboration, monitoring and processes,” concludes Crous.
The cycle of solutions –water technology by KSB
Water is crucial for our survival – for every one of us, for all nations and peoples. Clean water supplies and efficient sewage treatment have never been more important. Prosperity and well-being depend on it, worldwide. KSB’s know-how and extensive pumps and valves product range help you meet all water supply and treatment requirements, efficiently and affordably. We are one of the few suppliers worldwide with end-to-end solutions addressing all stages of the water cycle – from water extraction to sewage treatment. www.ksb.com/cycle www.ksbpumps.co.za Tel: +27 11 876-5600
BERMAD GOES LOCAL MACSTEEL
Over the past 30 years, Macsteel and its partner Bermad have been major role players in the Southern African water industry, providing solutions in the municipal, irrigation, wastewater and firefighting industries.
The hydraulic control valve market has undergone many changes over the years, with perhaps the most radical change being the recent Department of Trade and Industry initiative around local content requirements.
As a valve importer, Macsteel Fluid Control opted for a measured approach, to add true value to our suppliers and customers, all the while providing good-quality employment to our valuable staff members. As such, June 2018 will be a landmark point in our relationship with both Bermad and the local market, as we are proud to announce that Bermad is now local. Not only do we comply with the 70% local content regulation by weight, but we have taken the
initiative to introduce Bermad’s latest control valve design –the SIGMA range. This new design optimises and improves the leading flow characteristics already in use with added value to the end user.
The Bermad C70 air valve is also now locally manufactured and adds the powerful Bermad name to this market. Our local manufacturing programme has resulted in Macsteel Fluid Control collaborating in partnership with local service providers. Stringent criteria were put in place such as BBBEE, local sourcing and ISO certification. In addition, emphasis was placed on partnering with small and emerging suppliers and embarking on enterprise and supplier development plans.
Both of these world-class products, combined with the Macsteel reputation for service and dependability, will add huge value to our clients.
Reducing leaks with low-pressure sealing
Air valves are essential for air control in water systems, and the Bermad C70 combination air valve is specifically designed to address the two major causes of leaky air valves.
Air valves work to prevent inefficiency caused by air trapped during filling and pressurised operation, as well as to prevent damage in vacuum conditions and pressure surges. However, air valves are known to leak, especially when located at low-pressure points in the water system. This can cause water wastage and interrupt the smooth operation of the water system.
Low-pressure conditions occur at high points, at the end of the pipeline or at the pump shut-off. Common air valves with a minimal operating pressure of 0.2 bar to 0.5 bar will not sufficiently seal at low pressure conditions, thus causing potential water wastage and interference with operation.
In order to solve this, system designers tend to increase water pressure in the system and/or raise the air valve installation points. These solutions are inefficient in terms of overall system cost and operational needs.
Foreign particles and dirt present in the water supply also tend to interfere with air valve seals, causing them to leak. This issue can be addressed through periodic maintenance and cleaning.
Selecting the right valve
As with all engineered products, water system designers and operators need to
consider the air valves selected for the system, as well as their functionality, making proper valve selection critical.
An air valve with low-pressure sealing will function appropriately within a system designed for optimal energy and water efficiency. Air valves designed for minimal maintenance will likewise save on time and costs involved in performing periodic maintenance, and will also reduce system downtime.
“The Bermad C70 combination air valve is specifically designed to address the two major causes of leaky air valves. It efficiently and effectively evacuates air during pipeline filling, and releases air pockets from pressurised pipes during operation. The valve also enables large-volume air intake to prevent vacuum conditions during network draining,” says Rowan Blomquist, CEO, Macsteel Fluid Control.
Macsteel Fluid Control serves as the local Bermad agent for sub-Saharan Africa and offers technical backup, and local manufacture and assembly.
C70 combination air valve
The C70 offers exceptional performance in a number of areas, including higher flow rates, and an anti-slam feature for built-in surge protection. It is especially
noted for its superior leakage prevention because of its low-pressure sealing design, which allows it to operate flawlessly at a minimal operating pressure of 0.1 bar. “The C70 is, therefore, a suitable choice for locating at low-pressure points in a water system without the need to increase operating pressure or raise installation points,” says Blomquist.
The valve features a compact, simple, robust structure with completely corrosion-resistant internal parts. In order to prevent leakage as a result of dirt or foreign bodies, the C70 valve has a unique, patent-pending mechanism that separates the fluid from the seals.
This allows it to work with water of varying quality, including effluent, with fewer maintenance problems than most other combination air valves on the market. In addition, the valve is designed to be easy to install and service in a variety of site conditions.
“The C70 combination air valve offers exceptional value for the water system designer seeking a low-maintenance, leak-free solution in a valve capable of operating at lower-than-normal system operating pressures. Its low-pressure sealing features and robust design result in a long-lived valve that is cost-effective to operate.”
HDD world first
that succeeded in producing two world-firsts has won the
The Temba Water Purification Plant in Hammanskraal is being upgraded to deliver water to thousands of residents in areas north of Pretoria. The upgrade will provide for additional onsite storage and included replacing an existing raw water pipeline.
A 1 300 m section of 800 NB asbestos cement (AC) pipe required replacement underneath wooden electrical pylons and cables, which were to remain operational during the replacement works, prohibiting the use of large
Project DescriPtion
Client: City of Tshwane Specialist Subcontractor: Trenchless Technologies cc Engineers: AECOM
Contract Duration: 26 weeks
Contract Value:
R14 million
Length: 1 300 m
Existing Pipe:
800 NB AC (wall thickness 47 mm)
New Pipe:
800 HDPE PE 100 PN 16 (wall thickness 76 mm)
conventional construction equipment. Thus, a trenchless solution was sought. Specialist contractor Trenchless Technologies explored a range of trenchless replacement and lining technologies, and pipe reaming proved to offer the most economical solution.
Although pipe reaming is a pipe replacement methodology similar to pipe bursting, it offers some unique advantages, explains Marco Camarda, general manager, Trenchless Technologies. “Pipe reaming allows for extremely large upsizing of 100% and more, which is
not available with displacement-type pipe-bursting techniques, both static and percussive, particularly at shallow depths. As such, pipe reaming can be a useful tool to expand the capacity of urban sewers and water pipes in dense urban areas.”
one for the history books
The existing 800 NB AC pipeline was reamed out and replaced with a new 800 mm OD PN 16 HDPE pipe, with a wall thickness of 76 mm supplied by Marley Pipe Systems. This marked the first of
what is believed to be two world firsts on this challenging project – the largestdiameter host pipe known to have been replaced by pipe-reaming technology.
To achieve this, a DD10 American Auger horizontal directional drilling (HDD) rig capable of pullback forces of 50 t and a rotation force of 18 982 Nm, was utilised, explains Camarda.
The rig’s 6.1 m long drill rods are threaded together by the HDD rig to form a long, continuous drill stem and
WINNER SASTT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE 2017 FOR WORLD-FIRST PIPE REAMING IN TSHWANE
pushed from the HDD rig through a receiving pit into the existing AC pipe up to the launch pit. The drill rods are then connected to a stabiliser and a pipe reamer with an extended shield, which is in turn connected via a swivel to a bull-nose. The bull-nose is attached to the new 800 mm PE 100 PN 16 pipe.
In order to reduce the number of butt-welds required, the 800 mm PN 16 HDPE pipe was delivered to site in 18 m lengths. These 18 m lengths were butt-welded into long continuous sections of approximately 150 m to be pulled into position in the reamed-out bore behind the reaming assembly.
The existing AC pipe was cut into smaller fragments, mixing the pipe cuttings into the surrounding soil and into the inflowing bentonite mud mix. The mixture of bentonite and water helps
to maintain the integrity of the bore, in addition to lubricating and surrounding the new HDPE pipe during pull-in.
This brings us to the second world first – undertaking the pipe-reaming process and installation of the 800 mm HDPE pipe in a single pass, without first filling the host pipe void with bentonite and then reaming in stages to insert the HDPE pipe.
electrofusion couplings
Connection between the 150 m lengths of installed HDPE was achieved by means of electrofusion couplings imported from Germany. According to Camarda, the process involved pre-warming the actual pipe through the coupling before welding, which proved to be extremely successful. Air valve systems were also connected by means of electrofusion saddles, vacuum held and strapped, to provide a complete HDPE solution.
Connection to end points and scour valve was achieved by HDPE stub-ends and backing flanges. The advantage
The Joop van Wamelen SASTT Award of Excellence is handed out annually by the Southern African Society for Trenchless Technology in recognition of exceptional contributions to the active promotion and implementation of trenchless technology in Southern Africa.
of this, says Camarda, is being able to position exactly where the highest points are. Only six stub-ends and backing flanges were used on the project.
Safe asbestos removal
A Department of Labour-approved asbestos removal plan for safe disposal of contaminated waste was integral.
All launch, receiving and catchment pits were lined with 250 µm plastic sheeting to contain the bentonite, spoil, asbestos and water. This was removed using a Kosun KSMR-250 mud separation system. Once separated, the bentonite and water mix was reused in the pipe-reaming process, and later filtered and disposed of.
“An interesting facet of the AC removal works was that it became apparent that you are able to control the amount of AC that enters the bentonite mix by the design and selection of the pipe reamers cutting teeth, as well as the design of the bentonite mix itself, to significantly
To see a video of this process, scan the following QR code:
reduce the volumes of contaminated waste,” explains Camarda.
a global solution
“The Temba project demonstrated the successful use of pipe-reaming technology to replace ageing AC pipeline infrastructure without disruption to the overhead powerlines,” says Camarda.
He believes this technology offers a relatively cost-effective and efficient trenchless alternative to the South African industry for both large- and small-diameter pipe replacements.
Internationally, many countries are not physically replacing their AC piping and are instead relining them. However, in this situation, the ability to utilise locally produced HDPE pipe results in pipe reaming being far more cost-effective than trenchless solutions that utilise any imported lining material.
“The pipe-reaming process undertaken on this project provides a possible upsizing solution to owners of AC water piping, and lays the foundation of an acceptable methodology for dealing safely with the AC material during replacement works. This could greatly aid South Africa and the international market by providing a viable solution to replace leaking AC water pipes in the future,” says Camarda.
South Africa is set to get its first solar-powered desalination plant at Witsand, Hessequa Municipality, Western Cape later this year.
In response to this, Erwin Schwella, Professor of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch and Tilburg universities, initiated the solar-powered desalination project together with the municipality. The project is co-funded by the Western Cape Provincial Government through the drought relief fund, and by the French Treasury through a fund dedicated to the implementation of innovative green technologies.
The site selected for the first solarpowered desalination unit forms part of Witsand Village, which has been suffering from critical water shortages. The plant, powered only by solar energy, will produce 100 kℓ of fresh water per day to address the normal local water requirements.
The plant also offers the ability to supply drinking water beyond sunlight hours through a connection to the local electricity grid. This will assist in addressing December peak periods, allowing daily production capacity to increase to 300 kℓ
“The shortage of water in the Western Cape is a harsh reality, and only by implementing preventative measures will
Desalination goes solar
Hessequa Municipality be able to create water resource stability in our region. The municipality is utilising innovative ideas in combating the effects of climate change, by taking the frontrunner approach in establishing public-private intergovernmental relationships and joint ventures. These partnerships will ensure a green economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities,” says Grant Riddles, executive mayor, Hessequa Municipality.
intelligent technology
Osmosun®, a technology developed by French company Mascara Renewable Water and brought to South Africa by local partner TWS-Turnkey Water Solutions, is the world’s first reverse osmosis
desalination technology coupled with battery-free photovoltaic solar energy, designed to supply coastal or boreholedependent communities with drinking water at a competitive price and without CO2 emissions.
An intelligent system of membranes enables the plant to cope with variations in solar power availability. All parameters are instantly optimised to ensure the best energy performance and simultaneously guarantee the maximum lifespan of both installation and membranes.
“The sun has been desalinating oceans for millennia. Mascara is delighted to provide its nature-inspired, resilient solution to do its share to sustainably alleviate the region’s water crisis,” says Marc Vergnet, CEO, Mascara Renewable Water.
Superior Process Control and Flexibility
