HOW BAY PLANS TO SAVE WATER

Programme to upgrade infrastructure will be rolled out over 10 years

AN ambitious R1.62-billion plan to reduce water losses from 38% to 20% is set to be rolled out in Nelson Mandela Bay over the next 10 years. The plan, tabled in the mayoral committee meeting yesterday, details how the city intends to upgrade its deteriorating infrastructure and introduce ways to reduce the loss of “non-revenue water” in the Bay.

Non-revenue water is municipal water lost through problems like burst pipes and leaks, also known as physical water losses, as well as faulty metering before it reaches residents.

At present, the city is losing 38% of its water supply due to challenges including:

ý Ageing water and sanitation infrastructure; ý Lack of financial resources; ý Assistance to the Poor (ATTP) consumers far exceeding free basic water allowance; ý High level of leakages in RDP houses; ý High growth rate of water demand; and ý Poor governance in the municipality. Infrastructure, engineering, electricity and energy political head Annette Lovemore said yesterday she was proud of the new business plan.

“We currently have physical water losses in the region of 30%, which is completely unacceptable from a water point of view and the amount of money that is literally going down the drain,” Lovemore said.

She said the business plan was compiled together with experts in the field, including the City of Cape Town.

“[The plan is] to achieve within a decade water losses that are within international best practice standards.

“Our minimum aim at the end of a decade is 15% water loss, which is the upper limit of international best practice.”

To help solve the crisis, the city will over the next 10 years introduce 40 water pressure reduction stations to supplement the 47 stations already in place.

“It is an accepted fact leakage increases with increased pressure,” the plan noted.

The intention is to implement this pressure reduction during off-peak hours.

Also part of the plan is the installation of bulk water meters and “smart ball” technology at a cost of R12-million to determine how much water is lost from the bulk supply system.

Earlier this year, the municipality released a list of 50 schools that topped the list of water wasters in the Bay.

Related to this, according to the Algoa Reconciliation Study quoted in the plan, 450ML of the city’s water supply is lost through leaks at schools.

The education department says it does not have the money to repair these leaks.

The metro’s plan is to facilitate the repairs of ablution facilities and the installation of flow-management devices.

Also included is the programme to replace part of the city’s 750km pipeline at a cost of R500-million over 10 years.

The estimated cost recovery on, for example, five bursts a month on a single Despatch pipeline would be R5-million.

Senior director Barry Martin said the city was losing a total of 29 807ML a year.

“The intention is to reduce that to a maximum of 19 000ML per year.

“That 19 000 will represent 15% physical losses,” Martins said.

This meant that the city would by 2026 have gained 10 807ML by making this intervention.

“The opportunities this brings is more water available for development, losses reduced, and improved revenue,” he said.

“Dealing with water losses is your cheapest form of water because the water is already there.

“You save the water, prevent it from going to waste and use it for something else.”

While most of the plan would be covered by the R1.62-billion pressure management strategy, meter replacement and pipe replacement would take up R415-million of the R700-million long-term loan funding the city had applied for.

Budget and treasury political head Retief Odendaal said additional money would be budgeted for on a yearly basis.

“Most pressing is to address critical water reticulation needs in Uitenhage, Despatch and other areas,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a metro standing committee meeting yesterday, infrastructure and engineering executive director Walter Shaidi said the city had a backlog of 3 254 water complaints and 2 259 sanitation complaints.

Shaidi said the backlog was due to the ongoing overtime dispute between the municipality and workers.

“Due to the outages and the alleged man-made disruptions with the closing of water valves, and the burst pipes which follow afterwards, we have not been able to correctly address leakages.”