Lack of water puts freeze on uMhlathuze firms
INCREASING water shortages as South Africa experiences its worst drought in decades are threatening the expansion of mines and factories in KwaZulu-Natal, as the water authority in one of the country’s busiest industrial regions has put a freeze on new water allocations.
With dry and hot weather persisting, dams and other water sources are running low and now the City of uMhlathuze, where Richards Bay Minerals, Mondi, BHP Billiton, Foskor and other big businesses have operations, said this week it will soon implement level 4 restrictions.
The level of the city’s largest dam, Goedertrouw, has dropped to 27.9%. Lake Mzingazi is at 12.34% and Lake Chubu at 60%.
Mhlathuze Water, which has pending water applications from Tongaat Hulett, Tronox Fairbreeze mine, Richards Bay Minerals’ Zulti South Mine and Nyanza Light Metals, said no new allocations would be made for industry during the drought.
“Some of these industries have informed us of their future requirements. We will only supply these industries once we have the capacity to do so, which we currently don’t have, due to the drought,” said acting CEO Swaswa Ntlhoro.
These requirements would be planned for in the future, he said.
Ashley Starkey, head of water and sanitation for KwaZulu-Natal, said industrial development in Richards Bay was not yet threatened by water shortages.
Future development would require additional water facilities and various options had been identified for investigation at a detailed feasibility level, said Starkey.
Water licences for industry are issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation, and give companies the right to use water in dams or rivers near their operations. But if a company needs to be supplied with potable or waste water it needs to, in some instances, apply to the water authority for an allocation.
Richards Bay Minerals, owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, is preparing to move its mining operations to Zulti South mine, 20km from its current Zulti North mine, and is aiming for operations to start in 2019. The mine has applied for about 14.6 million cubic metres of water a year, according to Mhlathuze Water’s 2014-15 annual report.
Richards Bay Minerals’ corporate relations manager, Fundi Dlamini, said: “Mining, as we all know, is dependent on water. Our mining, smelting and processing operations all need water to function.” But Dlamini did not respond to questions on how the freeze on new water allocations could affect the business.
Richards Bay Minerals’ 2015 Sustainable Development Report says that without adequate rainfall, surrounding communities, ecosystems and operations will be significantly affected, without giving details.
Richards Bay Minerals reuses about 6.62 million cubic metres of water. It has cut its consumption to about 16 million cubic metres from three sources in 2014 from 30 million cubic metres in 2004.
Michelle Jean-Louis, Tongaat Hulett’s communications manager, would also not comment on how the halt in water allocations would affect the business. Jean-Louis did say that “the company has an agricultural water allocation, for the supply of water from the Mhlathuze systems for irrigating sugar cane that currently provides some 3% of the group’s cane supplies”.
Pulp and paper maker Mondi, which bought about 23.5 million cubic metres of purified water from Mhlathuze Water last year, has invested around R5-million to cut consumption at the mill by 15%.
Mondi was looking at increasing water recovery from the mill’s production process.
Mondi spokeswoman Lora Rossler said: “We are anticipating some impact from the drought in our forest where planting has been delayed.”
Nikisi Lesufi, senior executive for health and environment at the Chamber of Mines, said: “Water is not only a precious commodity, but represents a growing cost [for the industry].”
Dr Chris Moseki, a specialist scientist in climate change research at the Department of Water and Sanitation, said: “Every industry will be seriously impacted [by water shortages] to a varying degree. It depends on whether we do have the resources to deal with the matter.”
Meanwhile, South African Weather Service meteorologist Cobus Olivier said the El Niño system, which has been the main cause of the drought, had been weakening slightly over the Pacific Ocean, “but it will still take a number of months before it reaches neutral conditions”.