ONGOING STUDY - STATUS ASSESSMENT OF WATER LOSSES IN 8 (EIGHT) LARGE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS
The Department identified the need to develop detailed strategies that will ensure adequate future reconciliation of water availability with water requirements for the large supply systems. Water conservation and water demand management is indicated in these strategies as a key component to the sustainable management of South Africa’s scarce water resources and is a key strategic intervention to reconcile water requirements with water resource availability. Targets have been set for the major demand centres, e.g. Metropolitan Cities, who are in most instances the largest water users within the 8 large water supply system. The B1 municipalities, also termed Secondary Cities are also situated within the 8 large water supply systems and together with the Metros have the largest potential to improve its water efficiency, reduce water losses and Non-Revenue Water. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and assess the progress made in terms of the recommended WCWDM interventions and targets set during the development of the Reconciliation Strategies, and also monitor the system performance indicators (e.g System input Volumes, NRW) as defined by International Water Association. The 8 large water supply systems are: The Integrated Vaal River, Crocodile (West) River, KwaZulu-Natal Coastal Metropolitan, Western Cape, Algoa, Amatole Bulk , Greater Bloemfontein and Olifants River Water Supply Systems.
ONGOING STUDY - REDUCTION OF WATER LOSSES WITHIN MUNICIPALITIES THROUGH THE NO DROP PROGRAMME
The Department, as the custodian of all the water resources, concerned about the risk regarding the country’s water security and the knowledge that large volumes of water (and revenue) are lost at municipal level, developed the No Drop Programme in collaboration with private partners, The Strategic Water Partners Network-SA (SWPN-SA). The No Drop programme, meaning “No Drop” of water must be lost within municipal water supply systems, is an incentive based regulatory programme that seeks to draw attention, encourage progress and improvement in water use efficiency, water loss and Non-Revenue Water management in the South African municipal sector. No Drop assessment is a comprehensive audit that gives an inclusive view of the WCWDM business of the WSI, based on a wide range of KPI, to answer the questions of planning, surety of supply, finance, technical skills, and performance against best management practices. The results of No Drop Audits can be used by municipalities to mobilize the required resources to reduce water losses; by SWPN and other partners to identify and act on water loss reduction partnership opportunities with local government, ideally within the catchment that is impacting on the business viability of the partner; and by sector stakeholders to focus effort and resources to drive WCWDM and (alongside DWS) measure progress or digress on local level. All the WSAs including the Metropolitan Municipalities will be assessed annually by a specialist team, including DWS team. The data will be collected using the No Drop Scorecards, The No Drop PATs and NRW spread sheets.
ONGOING STUDY- BENCHMARKING THE WATER LOSSES, NON-REVENUE WATER AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY IN SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPALITIES
The National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (DWS, 2018), in tandem with the macro national vision, issued an ambitious and timely call to action for the water sector, including (i) the provision of equitable access to reliable water supply, (ii) protection, management and development of the nations’ water resources in a manner that supports justifiable and ecologically sustainable economic and social development, and (iii) transformative access to water to redress the racial imbalances created by apartheid. The journey towards achieving these objectives begins with understanding the extent and nature of the Non-Revenue Water (NRW) challenges faced by those tasked with its management. The primary intent of the benchmarking exercise is to provide a status update of the levels of NRW, water losses and water use efficiencies in South Africa. The status update on NRW in South African municipalities serve as a catalyst for the No Drop assessments, with expanded Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all municipalities. It is also creates a higher level of awareness and fast track prioritisation and execution of Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WC/WDM) initiatives to address prevalent issues in a coherent manner.
ONGOING PROJECT- NATIONAL NON-REVENUE WATER TRAINING PROGRAMME
DWS intends to position its “Infrastructure Branch Training Centre (IBTC)”, which was constructed in 2014, as a centre to provide training to develop skills of municipality’s staff and also as a hub of coordination and information sharing of human resources development in the water sector. The South African Government requested the Japanese Government for technical cooperation in establishing a training scheme and procedures as well as in strengthening training implementation to improve IBTC’s management capacity. In response to this request, DWS and (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reached an agreement on implementation of “Project for Strengthening the Training Capacity of IBTC on Non-Revenue Water” by singing of the Record of Discussion (RoD) in April 2017.
The Department is faced with a huge challenge regarding the state of Non-Revenue water in South Africa. The Municipalities do not have the capacity to train their officials on Non-Revenue water and the country does not have a specific functional facility available to offer training on Non-Revenue water. The Japanese model of non-revenue water management focusses mainly on the practical side of dealing with non-revenue water than theory. Therefore through this technical support a National Non-Revenue Water NRW Training Facility has been build and roll out of actual NRW management training undertaken to increase the skills and capacity of the water sector in particular local government in tackling NRW, To empower all identified beneficiaries with relevant skills and knowledge to manage NRW and to develop the technical skills and knowledge on NRW in order to meet the demand of the daily routine work in municipalities.
COMPLETED STUDY- GUIDELINE FOR THE NO DROP ASSESSMENT GUIDELINE
The guideline was published in 2018 by the Directorate: Water Use Efficiency in Collaboration with the Strategic Water Partners Network (SWPN) and the Danish Ministry of Food and Environment. The guideline is aimed at: providing background to the No Drop Scorecard, providing additional information and guidance for WSAs to successfully complete the No Drop Assessment and maximise their scoring and providing practical guidelines to improve water loss management and water use efficiency. The guidelines also provide recommended and optional reading material from the DWS, WRC and IWA that will further assist WSAs in their Non-Revenue Water management initiatives.
COMPLETED STUDY- GUIDELINE FOR THE PREPARATION OF IWA WATER BALANCE TO DETERMINE NON-REVENUE WATER AND WATER LOSSES
The South African Water Services Act (Act 108 of 1997) requires all spheres of government to ensure water services are provided in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner. This can only be achieved through the understanding of the System input volume, authorized consumption, water losses and non-revenue water of all urban and rural potable water distribution systems. The water balance developed by the IWA for this purpose has actively been promoted by South Africa since 20222. This guideline discusses the technicalities and standaridises the IWA balance calculations for the country and provides a guide which can be used and understood by WSAs, officials, politicians and the public at large. This guideline follows the terminologies, methodologies and requirements of the IWA and the No Drop Programme and will assist WSAs with compliance. The guideline was published by the Directorate : Water Use Efficiency in 2014.