MBOMBELA – Mpumalanga has the filthiest drinking water in the country. ”Boil water before drinking it”, headlines read last week. The Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation has released its Blue Drop reports, measuring the quality of drinking water. But like an oasis in the desert, Sembcorp Silulumanzi continued to score highly.
The service provider is responsible for the drinking water and waste-water cycle, from treatment and distribution, to operations and maintenance of pipes, pumps and plants in Mbombela on a 30-year concession agreement with the water authority, Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM). The company is also responsible for reading meters, billing and revenue collection. But Mr Richmond Jele, public relations manager of Sembcorp, explains the Blue Drop measures measure more than just how clean drinking water is; it takes into consideration water safety planning.
According to Good Governance Africa’s Africa Survey 2014 nearly 320 000 children younger than five died of easily preventable and treatable diarrhoeal diseases in Africa in 2012, the latest figures available. This was more than the rest of the world combined. It found the spread of the diseases directly related to a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, medication and healthcare services.
Given that large parts of Gauteng was recently left without water in their taps and problems with water provision persist is the North West, how safe is the water supply for residents of Mbombela?
Supply interruption
Silulumanzi says threats to the interruption of water supply exist. Reservoir capacity is about 24 hours, so power failures or load shedding lasting longer than this may result in water shortages in high-lying areas since it affects the water pumps. Of course, the threat of cable theft interrupting electricity supply, widely blamed for the crisis in Gauteng, is as big in Mbombela municipality as anywhere else in the country.
“We have implemented several mitigation measures such as extra guards, cameras, alarms and vandal proofing installations but cannot police everything,” Jele explains. “Sembcorp owns several mobile generators in order to cater for power failures caused by numerous issues, including cable thefts. All risks identified are linked to mitigation and control measures. Generators are available for the sewer system, while reservoirs have 24 hour storage capacity to supply water with monitoring via telemetry systems.
Availability
“At present, Nelspruit has more than sufficient purification, distribution and storage capacity,” Jele says. “All mechanical and electrical plants are designed to have duty and standby configurations to ensure continued availability.” A low risk is that raw water in the Crocodile River is limited during low rainfall periods due to over-subscription or drought. The Crocodile River Major Irrigation Board imposed a restriction on irrigators for the abstraction of water from the river in September.
Infrastructure
Jele says ageing infrastructure may also cause unplanned interruptions. “Although a 24-hour call centre handles all reports and the 24-hour standby teams attend the all complaints, a canal breakage, pipe bursts and pump failures may cause interruptions.”
The company has a running five-year capital replacement programme to address ageing infrastructure and have an annual pipeline replacement programme. An assset management system also records all maintenance jobs and schedule service intervals in order to do preventative maintenance. Water supply infrastructure to previously disadvantage areas are continuously being improved with municipal infrastructure grant funding received via MLM and implemented as capital projects.
Blue Drop
Aside from drinking water quality and process management, water safety planning, incident response management, management accountability, local regulation and asset management are used to determine the overall Blue Drop score. Sembcorp hence has water safety plans in place for each treatment facility as well as a risk management framework and crisis management policy as a requirement of international best practice.
Future
All the areas serviced by Sembcorp has water and sanitation master plans including all possible township developments, based on Mbombela’s Spatial Development Framework. To expand, Jele says additional raw water from the Crocodile River is needed and “all infrastructure from the Water Treatment Works, pumping stations, pipelines and reservoirs needs to be upgraded”.
Each new developer, regardless if a small dwelling unit or a new shopping mall is developed, also pays a water and sanitation bulk services contribution at Mbombela, based on their water demand. “These contributions are used solely for upgrading existing infrastructure to accommodate all densification or new consumers.
• For any complaints, queries or reporting of any leakages or disruptions, contact Sembcorp’s call centre at 013-752-6839 or 086-174-5858 (086-SILULU) 24 hours every day. Emails can also be sent to enquiries-silulumanzi@sembcorp.com Read more on Mbombela’s water provision plans next week.
Read more on Sembcorp Silulumanzi here.
