Ever-evolving technology is starting to play a significant role in managing South Africa’s scarce water resources; however, more can be done to ensure security of supply amid ageing infrastructure, climate change impacts and urbanisation.

South Africa will continue to face an increasingly severe water crisis amid growing demand for access to clean water, unless government and end-users understand the value of technology.

It is becoming increasingly important to embrace and leverage automation and technology to tackle South Africa’s water challenges and to obtain higher efficiencies from existing infrastructure and resources, says global technology company ABB Energy Industries South Africa sales manager Joyce Moganedi.

“To fully embrace technology in the water sector, we need to recognise that we have a water crisis and, if nothing is done about it, it will have a bigger impact, not only on the consumer but also on industry,” she says.

As consumer expectations rise, the industry faces pressures to improve water quality and energy efficiency, preserve scarce resources and minimise leakages.

However, not enough is being done to deploy the correct infrastructure, prioritise and speed up the right projects and increase the current capacity to reduce the impacts of water scarcity.

“Municipalities and government should recognise the value of having certain technologies within the water plants to optimise the current operations and increase efficiencies.”

In particular, there is an opportunity to embrace more advanced technologies and digital solutions in newer, greenfield projects, to curb some of the leakage challenges that some municipalities have in their piped networks.

While technology will assist with savings and efficiencies within older, legacy infrastructure, with advances in technology, there will be a need for upgrades, in line with what is available in the market, to match the infrastructure to the type of technology available out there.

ABB sees itself as a key player in terms of delivering innovative solutions to help alleviate the water crisis in South Africa through automation, electrical and digital solutions for the water industry to ensure safer, smarter and more sustainable use of water.

“We have many water management solutions that could help end-users resolve challenges, such as leakages, in the pipeline,” she explains, noting that there are several complex automation and control solutions available for all types of water processes, including desalination, water pumping, distribution, industrial water treatment, wastewater treatment, waterways and coastal protection.

“The company’s solutions ensure that the overall plant, for example, is optimised and operating efficiently, right from plant asset level to the company’s differentiator digital solutions.”

ABB can provide users with a comprehensive view of their plant by integrating data from all plant areas and systems, including remote Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems.

The control system’s open architecture can seamlessly consolidate and rationalise plant data and enhance operator response to changing conditions, improving both plant safety and uptime.