Veolia Southern Africa fully mobilized to maintain essential daily services in all circumstances for residents, food producing clients and other essential services companies

4th May 2020

By: Creamer Media Reporter

     

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Given the unprecedented health crisis the world is currently facing, Veolia is fully mobilized to safeguard the continuity of essential services while also protecting the health of its employees, the Group’s two absolute priorities.

Veolia South Africa provides a holistic range of solutions for the design, construction, maintenance, operation and upgrade of any water or wastewater treatment facilities in the industrial and municipal markets. We are also very active in the operation of Food and Beverage plants to ensure compliance and consistent quality for companies on process and waste water treatment. Our clients include groups such as Nestle, Simba, Coca Cola, Distell, etc.

Since the beginning of the crisis, Veolia has put in place business continuity plans specific to each country that focus primarily on producing and supplying drinking water and treating wastewater, preserving waste processing operations, in particular collections and processing facilities, to ensure industrial and tertiary facilities continue to operate and upholding its activities processing hazardous waste at DCLM, which is vital to maintaining key industrial operations

Supplying drinking water without interruption

In order to maintain the quality and availability of its services, Veolia South Africa has activated a business continuity plan to protect its operations for Overstrand Municipality and various industrial clients who are producing essential food products. Its teams continue to guarantee the supply of perfect quality drinking water in sufficient quantity, in all circumstances. We also treat effluent streams to ensure compliance and to guarantee the safety of our communities. To make this possible, Veolia has organized its operational and support services to continuously maintain the level of staffing required to keep its activity ticking over.

Tap water is perfectly suitable for drinking. The water supplied has systematically undergone various stages of treatment, including disinfection, which is designed to eliminate all viruses, as well as the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the virus has not displayed any resistance to the standard treatment applied to drinking water.

Protecting the environment by treating wastewater

Each day, Veolia employees are working hard to keep communities safe and continue providing essential services. This includes water treatment professionals. They are working day in, day out, to safeguard continuity in public water services, which also covers wastewater treatment at various facilities, because cleaning wastewater is essential to uphold public hygiene and protect the environment.

While important in everyday life, it is imperative in a time of crisis that people remember some things cannot be flushed down the toilet. Waste items such as disinfectant wipes, tissues and all paper other than toilet paper, dental floss, cat litter, medication, cooking fat and even nappies are found in wastewater, even though they should absolutely be thrown in the bin. A nightmare for our plumbing systems, these items clog up pipes in people’s homes and wastewater treatment facilities. Some users seem to ignore the severity of the environmental and financial consequences of disposing of waste in this way, which pollutes natural environments and creates an imbalance in the ecosystem.

When people do the right thing and throw away their waste properly, they are showing respect for the operatives working each day on the ground, combating the pandemic and maintaining good standards of household hygiene that helps to guarantee health security. Let’s all make an effort to support our heroes on the ground and allow them to concentrate on the job they are actually there to do.

Hazardous waste collection & Landfill operations

As an Essential Service, our Hazardous Waste Landfill (DCLM Operated by Veolia), complemented by our Transport and Environmental Divisions, have remained fully operational during the National Lock Down.  The provision of reliable, uninterrupted Waste Management Services to the Municipal, Industrial and Commercial sectors remains our priority, now more than ever, in order to combat the spread of disease by maintaining high standards of hygiene on our Client’s premises. 

DCLM has implemented tailored Business Continuity Plans which not only protect our Customers, but also safeguard our Employees in the field.  Safety is not negotiable;  our vehicles and office facilities are outfitted with protective equipment, and staff provided with PPE and sanitizers. Where possible, staff employed in Administration roles are working remotely to ensure that deadlines are met with zero impact to our Customers.

Handling emergencies as a priority 24/7 with our experts on the ground

All employees who are able to carry out their duties remotely using digital technology are currently working from home. Where people have to be present on the ground, in particular for certain tasks that are essential in maintaining service continuity, Veolia South Africa has organized team rotations and has furloughed a number of employees. The Group has also asked its employees to strictly comply with the protective measures, health regulations and professional risk prevention measures already in place within the Group. Veolia has provided its teams on the ground with the necessary protective equipment.

In accordance with the directives communicated by the government, and in order to safeguard the health of all people including employees, some of our branches will not be open to the public until further notice. On the ground, technicians and on-call teams are ready to assist the essential manufacturing clients of veolia. Interventions have been prioritized and the teams are concentrating on priority duties, including treating, producing and distributing drinking water, undertaking repair work on major leaks and handling emergency call outs like water cut-offs and leaks likely to damage property or harm people.

A crisis unit activated since the start of the pandemic

All operations carried out by Veolia South Africa on the ground are coordinated by a crisis unit working at national and regional level, in liaison with the Veolia Group global crisis unit.

“Veolia’s mission is to provide services that are essential in day-to-day life, like supplying drinking water, treating wastewater, processing waste and providing energy services. During this challenging time, our responsibility is even greater as needs are more pressing. Our operatives are fully mobilized to continue serving the country. Day in, day out, these everyday heroes are on the ground so others can stay at home”, said Stanley Steenkamp (CEO) at Veolia South Africa.

Mandla Baloi is a young professional chemical engineer that currently holds the position of superintendent at two key wastewater treatment plants in the Overstrand. He likes to lead by example and this is evident in the performance of his teams. Mandla has an affinity for detail and is always aware of all operational and maintenance aspects. He has recently overseen the recommissioning of a clarifier on the Hermanus waste water plant amid lockdown also showing his dedication to add value even during lockdown conditions.

Tyrone Iyavoo has vast experience in the operations of Coca Cola Beverages South Africa CCBSA Water Treatment Plant. Recently Tyrone and his team (Avishkar and Bruce pictured above) played an instrumental role in commissioning of the new Veolia manufactured Reverse Osmosis plant at the Premier plant in Durban. Tyrone is acutely aware of the need for high quality product water that needs to be supplied for beverage manufacture. He leads a multi-stakeholder team comprising operations, client representatives, external experts to ensure the product water is free of micro-organism contamination.     

Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. Present on the five continents and with close to 179 000 employees, the Group designs and provides water, waste, and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and replenish them.

In 2019, the Veolia Group supplied 98 million people with drinking water and 67 million people with wastewater service, produced almost 45 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 50 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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