The cost of saving water

Due to the cost of upgrading infrastructure, Sembcorb Siza Water (SSW) as of July, increased the price of their recycled water leaving a number of customers unhappy.

The price of the water increased from 10 cents per litre to 26 cents per litre, (R10 per a 1000 litres to R26 per 1000 litres).

The supply of treated recycled water was one of SSW’s ways of offering consumers a safe alternative to tap water during the drought, in turn saving water. In light of the recent price hike, some residents feel that “saving water is just not worth it”.

Ballito resident Paul Barkley said he had been using the recycled water to flush toilets and water his garden.

“We were not informed by Semcorb that the price of the water would be increased. Petrol is costly, food is costly and now even trying to save water is costly.”

Barkley said it did not make sense to spend money trying to save water and that he has resorted to using tap water again.

SSW’s treated recycled water, known as NEWater to consumers is not grey water but final effluent that goes through a series of treatments to purify it until it is safe enough to drink.

The water supplier recently upgraded their Frasers water recycling plant to augment water by three million litres a day. This decision has allowed SSW to ease water restrictions in its concession area from 50 per cent to 20 per cent for domestic consumers and 10 per cent for commercial consumers.

The many people who were purchasing the recycled water to fill their swimming pools will no longer have to as the relaxed restrictions now allow for pool top-ups on a weekly basis.

Other relaxations to the restrictions include garden irrigation twice weekly and car washing companies may now use potable water for their businesses, among others.

SSW’s PRO Khosi Matenjwa said the eased water restrictions would see less people buying recycled water anyway.

“Over the past few months we have spent about R10 million on the new filtration system for our NEWater plant,” said Matenjwa.

“This is a substantial investment and as a business we need to factor this into the price of the water, hence the increase.

“This filtration system that is utilised is the same that many beverage or water bottling entities use and their product’s price is far in excess of the charge we levy (approximately R5 per 500 militres, being approximately R10 per litre or R10000 per 1000 litres of water).”

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