Eastern Cape Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
delivered water from the Orange
River to citrus farmers in the faraway
Eastern Cape. This project
made the citrus industry possible
in places like Addo.
Amatola Water manages
bulk water infrastructure across
50 000km², encompassing the district
municipalities of Chris Hani
and Amathole, together with
portions of other municipal areas.
Backlogs in rural areas and smaller
municipalities are still prevalent,
and this water authority is playing
a key role in reducing and
eradicating these inequalities.
Among the projects that
Amatola Water is involved in are
Nooitgedacht/Coega low-level
project in the (Nelson Mandela
Bay Metropolitan Municipality),
the water and waste water
infrastructure upgrade (King
Sabata Dalindyebo), the Makana
Right of Use project, the Ndlambe
Regional Bulk Water Supply, the
Nahoon-East Coast Bulk Supply
Pipeline and the upgrades of
several Amatola Water plants.
The long-term drought that
afflicted South Africa brought
several responses from the
Department of Water and
Sanitation (DWS). These included
siphoning water 530km away
from Katse Dam in Lesotho to
Aliwal North, obtaining a total
of 10 giant water tanks (18 000L
capacity) and refurbishing 25
boreholes in Mbashe, as well
as the stockpiling of water in
Mdantsane in Buffalo City. These
water shortages have led to the
development of the Eastern Cape
Water Master Plan in an effort to
alleviate the drought situation in
the province.
In the 2016 new financial year, DWS approved a budget of R6.09-
million, which includes the Hyacinth project. The invasion of the
aquatic weed needs to be controlled and, if unchecked, will disrupt
water systems throughout the province. Importantly, clearing water
hyacinth can provide significant volumes of biomass for the creation
of alternative bioenergy.
Municipal water
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation is helping the Makana
Municipality in terms of the Integrated Social Infrastructure Delivery
Programme (ISIDP). With the city of Grahamstown housing many
schools and a university (and the National Arts Festival), the Makana
Water Crisis Intervention Project was seen as strategically important.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metropole currently gets its water from 10
dams, six of which are owned by the municipality. The Churchill and
Impofu Dams supply half the total supply, with the latter dam having
a full storage capacity of 105-million cubic metres. The municipality
maintains about 3 000km of reticulation water mains and about 650km
of bulk-water pipelines. Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality operates six
waste-water treatment works.
The Municipal Green Drop Certification Programme was introduced
in 2008 as an incentive-based regulation of waste-water quality
and waste-water management systems in South Africa. The Buffalo
City Metropolitan Municipality and Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan
Municipality have both been recipients of the Green Drop accolade.
The Rhodes University Institute for Water Research is one of several
institutions in the country that conducts research into water quality. A
lot of the institute’s funding comes with project-related grants from
the national Water Research Commission, some students receive funding
from the Carnegie Foundation and Unilever sponsors the Unilever
Centre for Environmental Water Quality, a unit within the institute.
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).
ONLINE RESOURCES
Amatola Water: www.amatolawater.co.za
Department of Water and Sanitation: www.dwa.gov.za
Umzimvubu Catchment Partnership Programme:
www.umzimvubu.org
Water Institute of South Africa: www.wisa.org.za
Water Research Commission: www.wrc.org.za
47 EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017