Company Announcement - With South Africa's national water ministry on record saying it needs over R600 billion to fix the country's water and sanitation infrastructure, WEC Projects has taken a modest yet positive step in the right direction by continuing to invest in its Maintenance & Operations division. Johannesburg-based WEC Projects is one of the country’s foremost developers of bulk water & wastewater treatment solutions, biogas to energy solutions as well as an expert supplier of packaged modular water and wastewater treatment systems.

According to Head of Maintenance & Operations, Paul Griffiths, WEC Projects has developed and resourced its O & M department towards ensuring the packaged water and wastewater treatment plants it installs at client sites keep functioning optimally. "We need to ensure that plants that are installed are operated and maintained correctly. The perils of poor and improper operations and maintenance of plant and equipment include poor quality of treated water, and all the consequential environmental and human health risks. Our division's sole aim is to ensure the plants installed by WEC Projects leave a legacy of which the country can be proud," said Mr Griffiths.

He explained that very often contractors are awarded projects for the deployment of water and sewage treatment plants only to find that the plants are not operational several  months after commissioning because of failure caused by substandard and incorrect operation.

"Once we  have the the plants up and running, we train the operators on-site  and  supply them with comprehensive trouble-shooting manuals. Unfortunately,  some manuals go missing and  trained personnel often  leave without in turn training their replacements. Even if new personnel did receive some sort of briefing, without WEC being involved makes the training exercise  inadequate.  We would prefer the operator to be involved in the commissioning of the plant  says Mr Griffiths.

Maintenance was another huge problem. Like all mechanical equipment, there are specific service intervals that need to be met in order to ensure the longevity of plant equipment.

While WEC Projects does build in 100% redundancy on all critical equipment, mechanical failures must be rectified as soon as possible. Furthermore, mechanical failures must be avoided as much as possible by following the prescribed maintenance and servicing schedules of the equipment. "That just wasn't happening," commented Mr Griffiths, "And therein lay the rationale for the establishment of WEC's Maintenance and Operations division," he concluded.