South African Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW Water

OVERVIEW Water Innovative solutions to water scarcity are being pursued. South Africa is a water-scarce country and the recent drought has served to concentrate the minds of government, the private sector and farmers about the need to preserve and protect the country's water sources. Purification, desalination, water-leakage management and wastewater treatment are some of the issues facing South Africans, and experienced international companies are showing an interest in the country. The governments of South Africa and Denmark have a Strategic Sector Co-operation, which was signed at the annual Water Institute of South Africa (WISA) conference in Durban in May 2016. Denmark is a world leader in water management and the themes underpinning the agreement are groundwater management, urban water services and water efficiency in industries. The national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWAS) has said that demand for water will outstrip supply in 2018. It has also put a figure to what needs to be spent on water infrastructure and demand management in the years to 2022 – R573-billion. Water boards are responsible for provision of water services to urban areas. One of the biggest, Rand Water, will have spent more than R17-billion by 2010 in upgrading its infrastructure. The utility reports that demand has been growing at nearly 5% every year. According to Water Wheel magazine, 37% of water delivered to the nation's municipalities is lost. Government plans to arrest this trend (which costs the country R7-billion every year) include a training programme for plumbers and artisans to fix taps in communities. The first group of 3 000 trainees was recruited in 2015. Among the methods used by the firm WSP to improve water usage are water audits and measurers. These strategies have been successfully implemented at a reservoir controlled by the City of Cape Town, a borehole scheme in the Northern Cape and for private clients like Illovo, the large sugar producer in KwaZulu-Natal. Innovative thinking has been required to tackle the problem of acid mine drainage (AMD). Old mines (whose owners have long gone) pollute the water supply, further reducing the amount of available clean water. National government has committed to spend R600-million on an annual basis on a system that will treat this water. In the 1950s, the Orange River Project delivered water from the SECTOR INSIGHT International companies are investigating business opportunities related to South Africa's water-related problems. Orange River to citrus farmers in the far-away Eastern Cape. In a mostly dry country such as South Africa, this kind of transfer scheme is the norm. The country has several good river systems but they are not all ideally situated. So 80% of Gauteng Province’s water is imported, mostly from the Vaal River, which is supplemented by complex transfers from the Thukela River and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The Vaal basin, which serves the most populated and industrialised part of the country including Johannesburg, receives water from seven inter-basin transfer schemes. Usage has to be reduced in all sectors. The mining and energy sectors are very thirsty, and individual South Africans themselves are apparently thirstier than the average global citizen (consuming 235 litres per day per person, compared with the global average of 177 l/d per person). SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2017 66

Existing systems South Africa’s most central province, the Free State, is bound on all sides by water, the Vaal River to the north and west, the Orange River to the south and the mountainous, river-rich kingdom of Lesotho to the east. The Gariep Dam on the southern edge of the province is South Africa’s biggest dam. The agricultural sector benefits through irrigation from the flow of the Vaal River. The Vaal- Harts irrigation system is one of the most productive in the country, covering about 44 000 hectares with a variety of crops. The Vaal Dam and the Bloemhof Dam are important sources of controlled water from the Vaal River. The Vanderkloof Dam controls water flow and allows for better farming along the banks of the river, and the Gariep Dam has hydroelectric capacity. An inter-basin transfer scheme takes 40-million cubic metres per annum from the Caledon River basin and sends it to the Modder River basin for industrial and domestic use. New schemes The Lower Tugela Bulk Water Infrastructure Project in Mandini, KwaZulu-Natal, involves a 29km pipeline that will bring water to more than 300 000 people. Other recent transfer projects include the Western Aqueduct project (valued at R864-million) and the associated Northern Aqueduct Augmentation Project (Durban, OVERVIEW Umgeni Water), and the Mokolo Crocodile Augmentation Project, which is designed to supply water to Medupi, the new power station at Lephalale in Limpopo Province. A pump station and a 45km pipeline between the site of the power station and the Mokolo Dam is being built by the Trans- Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA). The TCTA has also overseen progress on the Komati Water Supply Augmentation Project, the raising of the wall of the Clanwilliam Dam and the Groot Letaba River Water Development Project. The Mooi-Mgeni Transfer Scheme has increased water supply to communities in KwaZulu-Natal. The Eastern Cape’s R20-billion Umzimvubu Dam project will provide much-needed water and hydroelectric power. The latest mega-project is the Olifants River Water Resources Development Project (ORWRDP). This includes the recently completed De Hoop Dam. Improving quality The introduction by the National Department of Water and Sanitation and the Water Institute of South Africa (WISA) of the Blue and Green Drop Awards has been very successful. The nation’s municipalities receive scores reflecting how well they are doing in terms of providing clean water. Many municipalities use water boards such as Umgeni Water, Rand Water or Sedibeng Water. The DWAS has allocated R4.3-billion to helping municipalities deliver water. The Interim Water Supply Programme will concentrate on 23 district municipalities. The Rhodes University Institute for Water Research is one of several institutions in the country that conducts research into water quality. The Water Institute of South Africa has 1 800 members. It does research, keeps its members up-to-date and runs conferences. As in most areas of life in South Africa, environmental standards are set and maintained by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). The Water Chemistry Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) tests water samples according to the relevant SANS. Water storage is becoming an increasingly important issue in South Africa, with many private homes and businesses investing in water tanks. The Nedbank Group is investing R9-million in the Water Balance Programme, designed to upgrade the functioning of watercatchment areas. ONLINE RESOURCES National Department of Water and Sanitation: www.dwa.gov.za South Africa Water Research Commission: www.wrc.org.za Water Institute of Southern Africa: www.wisa.org.za 67 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2017