In the past year, the Ekurhuleni metro municipality exceeded its water demand allocation by the Department of Water and Sanitation from the Vaal system by 4.5%, mayor Mondli Gungubele said at the Summit for Sustainable Water and Wastewater Management in Local Government in South Africa: Bridging the Skills Gap, held last month.

He added that the water demand in Ekurhuleni was 356-million kilolitres last year and that the adequacy of water resources and the availability of the related infrastructure were major concerns for water managers.

It was imperative that water losses be reduced and available resources be conserved, Gungubele pointed out.

“Our city continues to lose thousands of kilolitres of water each year, which is unacceptable. “To this end, the municipality has developed a ten-year Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Plan that aims to reduce the non-revenue water from the current level of 37.7% to less than 20%,” he said.

Gungubele explained that the programme included water pressure management, pipe replacement, meter management, leak repairs, treated effluent reuse and cathodic protection.

He also highlighted that 106 km of water pipes have been replaced in Ekurhuleni since last year.

“The national Department of Water and Sanitation is making an effort to ensure that the desalination of acid mine drainage (AMD) in and around Johannesburg to potable quality is done by 2018, which is a very welcome inter- vention.”

Gungubele pointed out that understanding the strain of limited water resources required innovative thinking and, given the challenges of the availability of these resources, the Ekurhuleni metro municipality was aiming to diversify the mix of its water sources.

The municipality was exploring the reclamation and reuse of rainwater harvesting, groundwater and treated effluent from its East Rand Water Care Association wastewater treatment works, as well as using neutralised or desalinated AMD water.

“We will also explore the use of the treated effluent as a substitution for potable water for irrigation requirements and for potable direct or indirect use,” Gungubele stated.

The use of reclaimed water from the wastewater treatment works for direct potable purposes was a major consideration to be taken into account, he noted, stating that it was fundamental to the success of the intervention.
“The presence of heavy metals, pharmaceutically active and endocrine- disrupting compounds in wastewater effluent remains a major cause for concern that needs to be thoroughly researched,” he said.

Some of these concerns pertain to the reuse of treated effluent – which include high treatment costs and technologies, such as membrane and nanotechnology – that will require high levels of electrical energy and high levels of quality and risk management.

Gungubele added that there were no clear regulations and policies that provided guidance on the use of treated effluent.

“The City of Ekurhuleni is intensifying its efforts to monitor the quality of wastewater that is deposited into its sewers as this affects the treated effluent quality,” he said.

He noted that the municipality had a huge backlog of R2.8-billion for the replacement, upgrading and extension of water infrastructure in Ekurhuleni and that it would invest significantly in upgrading the city’s water infrastructure this year.