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few, still functioning boreholes and 20 % of municipal water comprising recycled sewerage water to quench their thirsts. The Gamka Dam, which is the main source of drinking water for the town’ s residents, is empty, and the little bit of water left on the dam surface is unusable. To remedy the dire situation, the town requires R23-million to develop its water infrastructure.
As South Africa struggles with ageing infrastructure and a bankrupt Department of Water and Sanitation( DWS), the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, said in a media briefing about the water infrastructure investment summit that took place in November, that South Africans need to adopt a different mindset around water usage.“ There is no such thing as waste water,” she stressed, referring to technologies that extract water from diverse sources, including sewage.
Meanwhile, in parliament, the DWS warned about the inadequacy of water-services infrastructure, revealing the mammoth annual R30- billion funding gap, and the Water Research Council’ s( WRC’ s) Jo Burgess said:“ We are in trouble, big trouble.” She commented that the response to drought warning signs came too late and even if rainfall was normal, or above normal, it would take three to four years before the aquifers and reservoirs“ are back to what we think is normal. We are just going to have to adapt. It is very frightening.”
Climate change, too, is impacting rain cycles in South Africa, which is getting less rain annually over shorter periods and with fewer rainfalls in number. One solution is to capture rainwater, which presently simply drains away. Part of urban design historically, however, has been to ensure that cities are not flooded during heavy rainfall, with stormwater systems that effectively drain away excess water, disgorging the run-off into the rivers and out to sea.
While towns like Beaufort West( the first town in South Africa to officially be declared‘ dry’ by the end of last year) serve as a dire warning of how dreadfully the situation might evolve for the rest of South Africa if the drought persists and crumbling water infrastructure collapses even further, there is light on the horizon. Siyabonga Mbanjwa, the regional managing director of Sener Southern Africa, maintains that over the next three years, plans by government are
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afoot to invest R234-billion in energy infrastructure— which, while not impacting on the drought with any immediacy, tacitly, will impact on water infrastructure in the long term. Without power, there is no water infrastructure, so this bodes well for the sector.
The Integrated Resource Plan
The Integrated Resource Plan( IRP), which has already been updated by the Department of Energy( DoE) but has not been gazetted or publicised yet, will be the driver for energy industry players to commit to investment in the sector and also energy-intensive users and the economy at large will benefit from it, he points out.
Mbanjwa says that in the broader context of infrastructure,“ The resolution of the scarcity of safe, drinkable water and the backlog in the provision of sanitation services also present prospects for investors, contractors, and water industryfocused suppliers to scout for opportunities to participate in the roll-out of water infrastructure across the country over the next three years. The roll-out is estimated to cost about R125-billion,” he adds.
A gas market will be established in South Africa with the finalisation of the IRP, and the DoE will invite independent power producers( IPPs) to bid on the expansion and operation of gas-fired power stations, set to feed 3 126MW of electricity into Eskom’ s national grid, he assures.
He explains that the gas procurement programme“ will be similar to the Renewable Energy Power Producer Procurement Programme( REPPPP), whereby gas IPPs will produce and sell gasgenerated electricity to power parastatal Eskom through 20-year power purchase agreements( PPAs).”
As natural gas and liquefied natural gas( LNG) become crucial sources of power generation, production and distribution infrastructure will be necessary, including gas-fired power stations, pipelines, and terminals as part of the expansion.
“ Companies like ours will benefit from incubating diverse solutions such as onshore terminals, liquefied natural gas virtual distribution systems, and offshore solutions such as floating storage regasification
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units( FSRUs), depending on specific infrastructure needs of the country,” Mbanjwa says.
As part of its commitment to the Paris Agreement, by 2030, South Africa plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30 %. The industry is therefore playing its part in promoting energy efficiency through investing in R & D to bring new technologies to market, Mbanjwa adds.
He outlines that his company is developing a prototype hybrid solar energy plant“ that will combine concentrated solar power( CSP) technology and photovoltaic( PV) solar technology into a single technology platform.”
CSP is effective in producing solar energy 24 hours a day, even when the sun does not shine.“ While PV solar energy is considered‘ cheaper’ to produce, PV plants, however, are known for being effective in producing electricity only during the day. Batteries for PV plants are in the process of being developed; however, they are currently not economically viable at a large utilityscale level,” he adds.
He explains that both technologies( CSP and PV) have been combined to bring down costs and increase reliability, while also boosting production.
In 2018, Mbanjwa says that on the back of the severe drought and ageing water infrastructure, investors are keen to get involved in providing a reliable water supply to communities and businesses.
Good news indeed and hopefully, not too late to undo the lack of maintenance and maladministration throughout the water sector that has all but crippled the country.
Siyabonga Mbanjwa is the regional managing director of Sener Southern Africa, a global engineering and technology group. The company’ s work includes hydraulic and hydrological planning studies, hydraulic construction projects, technical support in construction, technical support for start-up and operations, and R & D projects.
Sources Times Live:‘ The great thirst: water crisis paralyses rural towns’ EWN:‘ Beaufort West dam runs dry’ IOL:‘# WaterCrisis: Beaufort West runs out of water’ u
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