South African Business 2020 edition

OVERVIEW
10 megalitres of drinking water.
In 2018 JG Afrika and technology
partner NuWater delivered
a R72-million desalination plant
to South32’s Hillside aluminium
smelter in the same town.
A new kind of water filtration
was reported in Engineering
News in 2019, a system which puts
macadamia nut shells to use. The
brainchild of Murendeni Mafumo,
the idea was first put into action in
2018 and has been used in schools
and rural communities by Kusini
Water. Powered by solar power, the
purification system uses a carbon
filter that is made from macadamia
nut shells.
In an attempt to reduce the
amount of water sucked up by
alien plants, Coca-Cola aims to recover
nearly 3-billion litres of water
through the removal of invasive
plants. The Coca-Cola Foundation
is investing R18-million the
Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN)
through catchment restoration,
invasive plant removal, wetland
rehabilitation and conservation in
four provinces.
The introduction by the
National Department of Water and
Sanitation and the Water Institute
of South Africa (WISA) of the Blue
and Green Drop Awards has been
successful. The nation’s municipalities
receive scores reflecting how
well they are doing in terms of
providing clean water.
In order to win a Drop Award
(Blue for water quality, Green
for waste treatment), water
systems have to score 95% or
higher. The DWS has allocated R4.3-billion to helping municipalities
deliver water. The Interim Water Supply Programme concentrates on
23 district municipalities.
Two water companies have recently been sold to local black
business leaders. Aveng Water was bought by a group of investors
that included E-Squared Investments and Suzie Nkambule, who was
the MD of Aveng Water at the time of the sale.
Sebata Group Holdings sold a majority shareholding in USC Metering
and Amanzni Meters, two of its subsidiaries, to Inzalo Capital Holdings
in August 2019. The transaction means that the two companies qualify
as “Black Industrialist” businesses in terms of the Department of Trade,
Industry and Competition’s Black Industrialist Policy (BIP).
Supplying water to households and businesses has often been a
task beyond the capabilities of some of South Africa’s municipalities.
The newly-formed Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency
(MISA) falls under the National Department for Cooperative
Governance and Traditional Affairs and will assist municipalities to
plan for, provide and maintain infrastructure. The first action of MISA
was to commission 81 engineers and town planners to get to work
in areas that need the most help.
Another response to the municipal problem is a new national
strategy which gives a bigger role to well-resourced water boards
such as Umgeni Water and Sedibeng Water.
In terms of the National Water Resource Strategy, catchment
area management agencies have been established to oversee water
resource management on a regional basis. The Imkomati-Usuthu
Catchment Management Agency covers Mpumalanga, parts of
Limpopo and part of the Kingdom of eSwatini. Another example
of a CMA is the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency
in the Western Cape.
The National Water Resource Strategy considers groundwater to
a far greater degree than previous plans. Extracting groundwater
takes skill and money, but with droughts becoming commonplace
it is likely to become a much higher priority in water planning.
ONLINE RESOURCES
National Department of Water and Sanitation: www.dwa.gov.za
South African Water Research Commission: www.wrc.org.za
Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority: www.tcta.co.za
Umzimvubu Catchment Partnership Programme: www. umzimvubu.org
Water Institute of South Africa: www.wisa.org.za
73 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2020