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FEATURE
Why don’t leaks just follow
the rule book?
By Eamonn Ryan
Daan Badenhorst, director of National Leak Detection, explains
the motivation behind why leak detectors detect leaks: “It’s
because we imagine a world where we take responsibility for our
water so that, at the end of the day, we can honestly say, ‘We have
done our bit to save this precious resource, one repair at a time'.”
Any number of factors can cause leaks – faulty
plumbing fixtures, burst pipes, blocked drains for
instance that traverse eight floors from roof to
basement, and more. Worse still, they can and do occur
in hidden and hard-to-reach places such as sewer
pipes, behind walls and under slabs.
After ruling out surface and fixture leaks, a plumber will need
to look for leaks either underground or hidden in the walls.
The most effective tool to detect these types of water leaks is
professional sound detection equipment. Using headphones and
a microphone, a highly skilled technician will be able to listen
for the sound of running water underground as it travels through
the pipes.
South Africa is not alone in losing a massive amount of clean
water through leaks (not to mention theft and non-payment).
Many countries lose as much as 30 to 60% of their treated
water before it reaches customers. This is both an enormous
waste of clean water and a waste of the resources that have
been used to extract the water, treat it and distribute it.
Yet it doesn’t have to be this way. For instance, water loss in
Denmark is 7.8% on average and ranks among the best in the
world. To achieve this low level, it uses commonly available
technology: Denmark has implemented systematic measures
to reduce the loss of drinking water as it makes its way from
waterworks to the consumer.
One of the reasons Denmark is so good at keeping drinking
water in the pipeline grid is that providers use new technologies,
methods and knowledge. This makes it possible to measure
and register water data and to quickly identify even the smallest
pipeline leaks. All this technology also exists in South Africa.
Denmark creates accountability by penalising waste: since
1994, waterworks with a water loss of more than 10% are
required to pay a penalty fee to the state.
A pipe receiving attention while repairing a leaking series of pipes.
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In South Africa, statistics are vague. In 2012 a national average
for municipal water losses was established in a report submitted
to the Water Research Council by water engineering firm WRP.
To estimate the average water lost by municipalities the firm
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April 2020 Volume 26 I Number 02