Water, Sewage & Effluent Mar Vol 30 No 2 | Page 41

industry

Fiona Ingham

infrastructure

debate

“But there is good
work being done
and it is important to
tell people about it.
Gauteng municipalities
– Tshwane, Joburg and
Ekhuruleni – are saving
water through their
water loss reduction
programmes, which
is vital.”
Prof Mike Muller

Drought, though, is the main worry now
and Muller explains that this is what
government should always be preparing
for. At a national level, government
has done a reasonable job, he believes,
but not enough at has been at local
government level, so many small
towns have been using water as
quickly as before and are now are
running out.
For example, in Bloemfontein they
didn’t notice that their reserves were
running low and used them as quickly as
before. Suddenly they ran out of water
and they hadn’t prepared for it although
national government had warned them
about this months earlier.
People also worry about whether
there is enough water for all the
municipalities, industry and mines.
Arguably, South Africa has enough water
for the next 15 years, he says. But for
that water to be available, government
needs to do the right things on time and
in the right way.
“Take acid mine drainage in Gauteng.
We also need to talk about the other
sources of pollution in the Vaal region.
Acid mine drainage accounts for only 10
or 15% of the pollution. We need to ask,
where does the 85% come from? What
are we doing to reduce it?

technology

Preparing for drought

“But there is good work being done
and it is important to tell people about
it. Gauteng municipalities – Tshwane,
Joburg and Ekhuruleni – are saving
water through their water loss reduction
programmes, which is vital.”
Business has recognised increasingly
that it needs have to work with other
partners to make sure water is reliably
available and is of a quality that can be
used, says Muller. “Business is beginning
to play a very valuable role, helping
municipalities to work better and to
protect the natural resource.”
“Business already does a lot of
construction and specialist services in
water supply and they have generally
done this well. If you have a good client,
you can do a good job as long as both
sides play their parts.

networking

see the difference between a major water
crisis and a very local shortage,” he says.

Privatisation
“In South Africa we have very few
examples of full-scale privatisation
– the only one of any scale is in
Nelspruit/Mbombela where a private,
Singaporean-owned company is running
Ne