NEWS 11
Reducing water leaks at schools
Sasol South Africa, Rand Water Foundation, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs( Cogta), Cobra Watertech and Govan Mbeki Local Municipality entered into a partnership in 2015 to implement the War on Leaks Project in schools within the municipality’ s district.
The first phase of the project involved piloting an innovative approach to dealing with high water leaks at six identified schools within the district. Partners to this phase of the project were Cobra Watertech and Govan Mbeki Local Municipality. The second phase of the project will be to roll out the approach successfully demonstrated in phase 1 to all 18 schools in the district.
As part of Sasol South Africa’ s Corporate Water Stewardship Programme, the company committed to supporting municipalities linked to its operations to reduce water losses. One such municipality linked to Sasol South Africa’ s Secunda Operations is Govan Mbeki Local Municipality.
The schools were audited by Cobra Watertech for water leaks, who then recommended the materials required to fix the leaks. A water demand baseline was established at the six schools identified for the pilot project, by logging individual water meters. An innovative device called the Aquatrip was installed and programmed at all six schools to reduce pressure and restrict flow during non-operational times, thus preventing leaks.
Major leaks were observed in four of the six schools. Water consumption from all six schools averaged 1 000m ³/ week and was reduced to 275m ³/ week upon installation of the Aquatrip and by fixing the leaks. Cogta and the municipality identified 12 local unemployed youth from the community who were interested in being trained as plumbers. They were given on-the-job training as well as formal training by Cobra Watertech. Funds were approved by Sasol South Africa – Secunda CSR for the implementation of water leakage reduction at a further 12 schools in the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality.
The entire pilot project was funded by Sasol South Africa – Secunda CSR to the value of R1-million and it committed a further R1.5-million to implement the initiative to the remaining 12 schools. Rand Water Foundation pledged funding support to the value of R1-million for plumber training during 2016. Sasol South Africa committed a resource from its Risk and SHE divisions, as well as two resources from its Secunda CSI team. Cobra Watertech committed resources to conduct leak audits at schools as well as provide formal plumbing training. The Department of Water and Sanitation— as part of the National Water Resource Strategy II— has mentioned the development of a water offsetting policy and it is currently amending this to a Water Stewardship Framework policy to encourage public / private partnerships in this sector. The initiative is supported as part of Sasol South Africa’ s CSI mandate, and is pursued to showcase how partnerships beyond the factory fence can realise results, as well as shape the discussion that water conservation or water demand management projects require significant investment to realise meaningful savings.
Sasol South Africa is of the view that to attract private sector investment, incentives— such as water offsetting programmes— are required. PA
“ Incentives— such as water offsetting programmes— are required.”
Happy birthday!
Melibo, started by Alexander Boehm and his wife Tatjana, celebrated 20 years of operation in South Africa in 2016.
The company represented and still represents the well-established Hansa range. Additions complementary to the range now include Burgbad, Conti Sanitaryware & Fittings, Geesa, Grunbeck, KWC, and Vitra.
Melibo has grown over the years and earned itself a reputation for excellent products and service. PA
Stop press
In the Plumbing Africa January issue, page 7“ SATAS certification for PVC and HDPE”, the DPI product names were incorrectly spelt.
It should read Ultraflo, Duroflo and Freeflo.
We apologise for the error. PA www. plumbingafrica. co. za February 2017 Volume 22 I Number 12