FEATURE
45
Deon Pohorille, MD of SA Leak detection, speaking at
an IOPSA Gauteng Plumbers evening.
Speaking at the same IOPSA event, Sewerin export
manager, Christian Scheepers.
Daan Badenhorst and Helen Burke, directors of
National Leak Detection. Pipes have to be well cleaned before a leak can be repaired or pipe lining will not stick.
looked at data collected from 132 out of 237 municipalities
at the time. They calculated how much water a municipality
received and how much was billed for (the water flow patterns)
recorded it in a water balance sheet. do not keep records of their water statistics. A good example
is the data the City of Tshwane provided for the 2014/2015
financial year – as they are appalling. It shows an estimated
water supply of 105 807 911 kilolitres, of which 85 723 303
kilolitres were estimated to be lost. This would mean close to
81% of the metro’s water was lost in that financial year. This
is in stark contrast to the water loss reported in the metro’s
annual report for 2014/2015, which was listed as 23.33%.
To produce this balance sheet, WRP collected information
from Statistics SA’s non-financial census of municipalities,
the then department of water affairs’ regulatory performance
measurement system and the national information system along
with other data sources. The balance sheet was then emailed to
various water service authority managers who were required to
fill any gaps and rectify mistakes. There was a 3% response rate.
From this analysis, the firm estimated that the average share
of water lost by the 132 municipalities studied was 36.8%.
This average, the report noted, was close to that of 32 other
countries considered, namely 36.2%. Physical leaks made up
25.4% of the non-revenue water.
However, this data has limitations and is regarded as too
unreliable to be published. Most municipalities, for good reason,
April 2020 Volume 26 I Number 02
A great amount of water loss takes place in the municipal
sector, and what is currently restraining the water leak
detection and repair market from growing to its full potential is
the scarcity of money to fund leak detection services by local
government.
Different methods of detection
Speaking at a Gauteng Plumbers’ evening on 16 January at
SA Leak Detectors (SALD) premises in Benoni, SALD MD Deon
Pohorille explained that the company had in the early 2000s
converted from being purely a leak detection plumbing
company to become merchants, and partnered with Sewerin
www.plumbingafrica.co.za