Ageing infrastructure; insufficient water management; not using water-related data; poor water recycling; and outdated irrigation techniques are the most common reasons for wasted water in South Africa, water technology company Xylem Africa says.

While modern technology can help reduce waste, fundamental operational changes are also required.

“A little insight can go a long way, not only to build better water-saving habits but also to make the right choices on how to better manage water and water infrastructure,” says Xylem Africa strategy and marketing manager Chetan Mistry.

“While Xylem is producing sophisticated solutions for improved water management, the biggest gains manifest when people understand how they can help reduce water waste.”

Water consumption and demand has surged rapidly over the past few decades, placing excessive strain on water resources and ageing infrastructure.

“It is vital to understand the picture on the ground to plan ahead. The key to unlocking this is [to] use data,” Mistry comments.

It is estimated that more than one-third of available water is lost owing to leaking pipes, ageing and broken infrastructure, vandalism and contamination.

Further, with an estimated 1.4-billion people living in closed basins, the overallocation of river flows has resulted in many different challenges, including overdrawn groundwater aquifers.

Significant numbers of water bodies are polluted, not enough water is being recycled and irrigation and farming techniques are inefficient when it comes to water use.

“All these aspects must be managed, treating water sources as strategic assets to help countries prosper. They are not inexhaustible – proper management will deliver greater availability.”

While infrastructure can be modernised to improve data, most utilities already have Scada systems that produce large amounts of data – the most overlooked and underused method to address large-scale water shortages and waste.

“They just often do nothing with it. This means there is a stockpile of insight that could be exploited now to make gains for water. In some cases, utilities found they needed no new investments in infrastructure once they could act on the pictures created by their data,” Mistry concludes.