While South Africa made some headway in overcoming water and sanitation backlogs, long-term, strategic water resources planning has taken a back seat and will result in a water crisis worse than the energy crisis, says consulting engineering company SSI CEO Naren Bhojaram.

As South Africa is transitioning from a 75% rural society to one that will be 75% 
urbanised in the near future, he believes that there needs to be careful, long-term planning in providing basic services in rural areas, so that wasteful expenditure, owing to urbanisation, is avoided.

The need for long-term (25 years to 50 years) strategic planning extends to education and the energy sector, besides others, and work should start on these plans now, he says.

Unfortunately, senior employees in local government are generally appointed on a five-year contract and, as such, tend to have short-term planning horizons, he says, adding that the danger in satisfying the daily, short-term needs of local communities lies in losing the long-term strategic focus.

He believes that the operation and maintenance of existing infrastructure are significant areas of neglect in the country. Existing infrastructure, such as mechanical and electrical plants, need to be assessed and, if necessary upgraded or replaced with more-energy-
efficient plants, says Bhojaram. He believes that the issue of long-term planning and 
operation and maintenance provides huge 
opportunities for consulting engineers.

Opportunities also exist with the backlogs in passenger rail and rail freight transport systems, he says. SSI has a new 2015 strategic plan that tackles some of these issues, specifically focusing on the operations and maintenance of existing infrastructure and supplying clean energy, he explains.

While 70% of SSI’s work is in local projects, it also has an agenda of cross-border work, largely on the African continent, including water supply, energy and transport infrastructure. Its parent company, Netherlands- based engineering group DHV, provides the company with international expertise, technology and resources. This includes specific knowledge on specialised wastewater treatment, intelligent transport systems, spatial planning and passenger rail.

Locally, SSI is undertaking the Free State Roads Rehabilitation project, which it won, in partnership with a locally based company, 
in April, and is worth R36-million. The project duration is three years.

The company has also won all four projects associated with the Tshwane bus rapid transit system, on an open tender basis. The project duration is 30 months and the project is 
valued at R30-million.

Desalination Plant Necessity
SSI is designing its fourth desalination plant in the southern Cape and the second in Mossel Bay. The 15-Mℓ/day plant is worth R180-million and is expected to be completed 
in October.

The company also successfully built and commissioned a 1,5-Mℓ/day mobile desalination reverse-osmosis plant, together with the wastewater treatment works (WWTW), that enabled the indirect reuse of final effluent, in Sedgefield, last year. It plans to upgrade this WWTW. A desalination plant was also built in Knysna and a future plant is planned for Plettenberg Bay. The projects came in response to the severe drought conditions that the southern Cape coastal belt experienced last year.

Bhojaram says that, while there are investigations into building possible desalination plants in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, the use of the plants needs to be carefully considered, given the significant amount of 
energy required to run them. 
He believes that desalination plants should be the last resort, which guarantees supply after other water supply sources have been exploited. 
He adds that technology is advancing in terms of improving the energy efficiency of desalination plants, which makes them a good 
future prospect for the country.

Water reuse is also a significant topic on SSI’s agenda. The social barriers in South Africa in terms of reusing the final effluent from WWTWs need to be overcome, says Bhojaram. A lot more can be done to produce a better-quality effluent for waste water industrial use, thereby allowing fresh water sources to be used for domestic consumption, he concludes.