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