The spotlight is again placed on the country’s water infrastructure in the wake of National Water Week. To understand the current water infrastructure status quo, it’s important to take a closer look at its most pressing challenges. For one, ageing infrastructure remains a major concern. As with many countries in the world, South Africa has to continuously maintain its water infrastructure which includes ongoing components and piping replacement.
Furthermore, leakage detection remains a very real challenge with a report from the CSIR in 2018 stating that as much of a third of the country’s water supply is lost due to leakage and ageing infrastructure. Also, SA continues to deal with a dire energy shortage which means water infrastructure must operate in an optimised and sustainable manner.
Financially strained local municipalities must also heavily invest in their water infrastructure to upgrade and maintain it, unfortunately, in some instances, very little or no maintenance is done on plant and water networks.
Considering the above, what steps can be taken to alleviate some of the pressure posed by SA’s ageing water infrastructure? Technology has the potential to reduce operating costs while improving operational and energy efficiency, saving both water and energy.
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