IMIESA September 2011 Low Res

The official magazine of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa

IMESA

MEDIA

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT • MAINTENANCE • SERVICE DELIVERY

I N N O VAT I V E T E C H N O L O G Y

IMESA Project management

Mangaung Road rehabilitation

Insight A delicate resource

The revitalisation and beautification of Durban’s inner city ISSN 0257 1978 Volume 36 No.9 • September 2011 • R40.00 (incl VAT)

p71

250 000 metres of

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Contents

VOLUME 36 NO 9 SEPTEMBERER 2011

22 51 75 84 Rural water


WWTW upgrade

IMESA

MEDIA

Trenchless T renchless technology

IMESA

Waste

12 Project and business management

63 Concrete masonry from recycled material

examined

Industry news


15 Authorities urged to upgrade road network

Government perspective 17 Assessment of governance

Industry perspective I N N O VAT I V E T E C H N O L O G Y

IMESA Project management

Mangaung Road rehabilitation

Insight A delicate resource

The revitalisation and beautification of Durban’s inner city

p71

ISSN 0257 1978 Volume 36 No.9 • September 2011 • R40.00 (incl VAT)

As a leader in several vehicle market segments, and as a local manufacturer for 63 years, Mercedes-Benz continues to give the South African motoring public an array of world-class mobility options. It entices customers with its technologically advanced vehicles; innovative finance, insurance and fleet options; as well as its service and affordable parts supply solutions

65 66 69 70

Making a contribution to people’s lives The dynamic dynamos WiEBE Award winner Technically and socially aware

Beautification 71 Revitalising Durban’s inner city

Trenchless technology

Water and waste water

75 Sliplining of trunk sewer

22 31 33 35 36 38 41 43

CAPSA 2011

Ways to support water service authorities Meeting the demand for water Expertise for growth in KZN Rapid gravity filtration simplified Preserving the integrity of rivers A decade of achievement Environmentally friendly filter press Advanced training in demand

81 Advancing sustainable practice

Insight 84 South Africa, a dammed country

Education and training 89 Caterpillar dealer instructors Partnering with municipalities

Blue and Green Drop 45 A brief look at the 2011 achievements 46 Tlokwe profile 48 City of Cape Town profile

Bloemfontein

3 Editor’s comment 5 President’s comment

51 Increased capacity for Sterkwater

6 Mobility concepts showcased

Women in engineering

19 Striving for quality

Regulars Cover story

Dammed countr y

54 56 58

WWTW Service delivery excellence Intermodal public transport Upgrade of Mangaung sewage systems

People and events 90 No-Dig Live 2012 91 IPCC reviewer appointment Appointment at Thuthuka Aurecon appoints new manager

Products and services 93 The sky is the limit 95 Sewage in, water out 96 Water treatment solution for remote locations IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 1

BEE LEVEL 1 ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS PROVIDER Geosynthetics

Bulk Water Supply

Water Purification

Piping

CONTACT US TODAY M m www.tgast.co.za

United Nations

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[email protected]

T +27 (12) 660 1616

Ò +27 (12) 660 2093

EDITOR'S COMMENT PUBLISHER Elizabeth Shorten EDITOR Richard Jansen van Vuuren CREATIVE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Frédérick Danton SENIOR DESIGNER Hayley Moore Mendelow CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Cindy Maulgue SUB-EDITOR Danielle Hugo CONTRIBUTORS Johan Basson, Nathi Mthethwa, Jan Venter, Khuthalile Mahlaba, Karen van der Merwe, Cobus Oosthuizen, Robyn Tomkins, Edna Molewa, Garth Flores, Candice Landie, Tony Stone, Adele de Lange PRODUCTION MANAGER Antois-Leigh Botma PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jaqueline Modise FINANCIAL MANAGER Andrew Lobban (ACIS, FCIBM) ADMINISTRATION Tonya Hebenton DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Nomsa Masina DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Asha Pursotham SUBSCRIPTION SALES Nomsa Masina PRINTERS United Litho Johannesburg +27 (0)11 402 0571 ___________________________________________________

IMIESA in your inbox!

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MIESA has been distributing a weekly newsletter for several weeks and the response from readers has been very positive. A digital weekly newsletter allows us to keep you more informed and provides an avenue for a more personalised reader experience. If you would like to receive the newsletter, please e-mail me your contact details and you will be included on the mailing list – which I am proud to say is nearing 7 000 readers. Sections included in the editorial content are news and industry event listings. On 26 August, the University of Johannesburg and Group Five hosted the Women in Engineering and the Built Environment (WiEBE) Awards. This was a national competition celebrating women in engineering and technology to highlight and acknowledge the contribution women are making in engineering and the built environment. The competition included three categories: • Excellence at sector level for nominees with a minimum of 15 years’ experience. • Excellence at company level for nominees with a minimum of six years’ and a maximum of 14 years’ experience. • The most promising young woman engineer or built environment professional for graduate nominees with up to five years’ experience. In this edition, IMIESA proudly profiles nominees and winners from these awards in. A group of more committed and professional engineers and technologists will be hard to find gathered in one place! IMIESA has also partnered with the Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa (CAPSA) 2011. This conference has been held for the past 42 years and is an established showcase for best practice in the construction, preservation, maintenance and management of asphalt pavement infrastructure. The conference, held from 11 to 14 September, will be conducted under the theme ‘Roads of the

ADVERTISING SALES Jenny Miller Tel: +27 (0)11 467 6223 ___________________________________________________

PUBLISHER: MEDIA No. 4, 5th Avenue, Rivonia 2056 PO Box 92026, Norwood 2117 Tel: +27 (0)11 233 2600 Fax: +27 (0)11 234 7274/5 E-mail: [email protected] www.3smedia.co.za ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: R440.00 (INCL VAT) ISSN 0257 1978 IMIESA, Inst.MUNIC. ENG. S. AFR. © Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. ___________________________________________________ IMESA CONTACTS IMESA Administration Officer: Ingrid Botton P O Box 2190, Westville, 3630 Tel: +27 (0)31 266 3263 Fax: +27 (0)31 266 5094 Email: [email protected] Website: www.imesa.org.za BORDER BRANCH Secretary: Melanie Matroos Tel: +27 (0)43 705 2401 Fax: +27 (0)43 743 5266 E-mail: [email protected] EAST CAPE BRANCH Elsabé Koen Tel: +27 (0)41 505 8005 Fax: +27 (0)41 581 2300 E-mail: [email protected] KWAZULU-NATAL BRANCH Secretary: Rita Zaayman Tel: +27(0)31 311 6382 NORTHERN PROVINCE BRANCH Secretary: Cornel Taljaard Tel: +27 (0)82 899 8341 Fax: +27 (0)11 675 1324 E-mail: [email protected] SOUTHERN CAPE KAROO BRANCH Secretary: Henrietta Oliver Tel: +27(0)79 390 7536 Fax: 086 536 3725 E-mail: [email protected] WESTERN CAPE BRANCH Secretary: Erica van Jaarsveld Tel: +27 (0)21 938 8455 Fax: +27 (0)21 938 8457 E-mail: [email protected] FREE STATE AND NORTHERN CAPE BRANCH Secretary: Wilma Van Der Walt Tel: +27(0)83 457 4362 Fax: 086 628 0468 E-mail: [email protected] REST OF SOUTHERN AFRICA Representative: Andre Muller E-mail: [email protected]

All material herein IMIESA is copyright protected and may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the prior written permission of the publisher. Thee views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those off the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africaa or the publishers.


Instit ute Africa ern zine of the al maga eerin g of South The offici cipal Engin of Muni

IMESA

MEDIA

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INFR ASTR

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future’: ‘Living within the carrying capacity of our planet’. More than 60 reviewed papers will be presented at the conference. As this edition of IMIESA is a water-focussed one, we have made sure that there is plenty of informative and reliable information within our water and wastewater feature. We publish a paper titled ‘Designing an innovative way to support water service authorities’, in which the authors discuss municipalities that are resource poor in terms of human capacity. In addition, Tony Stone has written an ‘Insight’ article on South Africa’s reliance on dams for its fresh water requirements. He highlights that, according to the World Commission on Dams Report, South Africa, with 539 major dams and approximately 4 000 dams in total, is the 11th most dammed country in the world. It is also the seventh in size in water supply dams and ninth in size in irrigation dams. The article also poses a seemingly impossible scenario: a search on Google lists 3 180 000 articles about future wars between nations being fought over water. South Africa, one of the 30 most arid countries in the world, could well become a warmonger.

• MAI NTE PME NT

NAN CE

• SERV ICE

DEL IVER

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Richard Jansen van Vuuren, editor of IMIESA


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Kimbeupgrade Job War on Panel WWTW wastage discussion t ortcreation por li tra nsp n c l V A T ) pub lic i inte gra ted 7 • J u l y 2 0 1 1 • R 4 0 . 0 0 ( R86 million regional road project complete by May 2012 .

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In each issue, IMIESA offers advertisers the opportunity to get to the front of the line by placing a company, product or service on the front cover of the journal. Buying this position will afford the advertiser the cover story on pages and maximum exposure. For more information on cover bookings contact Jenny Miller on tel: +27 (0)11 467 6223.

ISSN 0257 1978 Volume 36 No.8 • August 2011 • R40.00 (incl VAT)

IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 3

COMMENT

PRESIDENT'S COMMENT

What are a municipality’s main functions? In my comment in the July issue, I said that we need to work together to find a proactive, innovative solution that could solve two major national problems, namely poor infrastructure asset management and large-scale unemployment. With this in mind, it is worth taking another look at our objectives in the IMESA constitution.

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he Auditor-General’s recently released report on the local government audit outcomes for 2009/10 contains some depressing findings: only the following seven municipalities received clean audits (with no adverse findings): • Mpumalanga: Ehlazini, Steve Tshwete and Victor Khanye Municipalities • Gauteng: Metsweding District Municipality • Northern Cape: Frances Baard District Municipality • Limpopo: Fetakgomo Local Municipality • Western Cape: City of Cape Town. Looking at our constitution again, it clearly calls upon us to promote service delivery and the financial well-being of our municipalities. Cities, in particular, are seen as crucial economic agents as, when they are financially healthy, they can become the catalysts for efficient delivery of services and employment, which in turn promote stability and general prosperity. When they are poorly managed, however, they induce general mistrust on the part of the public, which can and has manifested itself in service delivery protests. A recent Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) survey, based on the views of persons in 21 municipalities, found that only a paltry one in ten citizens is satisfied with the quality of service delivery provided by his or her municipal council (it was four in ten in 2006). These findings are worrying in that it is stated that a local government crisis in South Africa is deepening and starting to become a systemic structural problem that seems likely to become more embedded in our system of local government for as long as the governance issues raised in the survey persist. The

survey’s depressing inference is that local government is widely considered by communities to have deteriorated in both service delivery and governance, which will inevitably lead to a continuation and intensification of social instability and protest. Looking back to 2010, South Africans could proudly claim to have embarked on a journey to build what we believed were the best stadiums in the world in which we hosted, almost flawlessly, the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, the Olympics aside. Every single person who contributed to these great projects made us very proud, and indeed the entire country felt a degree of involvement,

outside the box and seek to understand what it is that we as engineers need to do to take our wonderful country to the next level. Possible ways to assist service delivery were discussed at IMESA’s strategic planning meeting held in Johannesburg in January 2011. Vital to this was finding ways to improve supply chain management (SCM) and infrastructure management. For as long as processes and monitoring are focused purely on compliance, and not on practical ways to improve service delivery, we can expect service delivery protests to continue.

We need to retain the mindset which enabled the successes of 2010 and show that we are truly capable of repeating that success ownership even, in this massive achievement. While the time for celebration of that effort has now past, we need to retain the mindset which enabled the successes of 2010 and show through our words and deeds that we as a nation are truly capable of repeating that success. Obviously, there have been a lot of downs recently, but we will survive the current storms better than would otherwise have been the case, thanks to the lessons learnt during the World Cup. Just as municipal engineers were essential to the World Cup effort, so they will be vital to the future well-being of South Africa, and I appeal to all municipal engineers to step Jannie Pietersen, president of IMESA


COVER STORY

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOCUSED ON RESPECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

Latest mobility concepts from MBSA to be showcased Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) will have an exciting and dominant presence at the Johannesburg International Motor Show in October, where it will showcase high-performance state-of the-art trucks, vans and buses.

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s a leader in several vehicle market segments, and as a local manufacturer for 63 years, MBSA will continue to give the South African motoring public an array of world-class mobility options. It will entice visitors with its technologically advanced vehicles; innovative finance, insurance and fleet options; as well as its service and affordable parts supply solutions. Following their claim of ‘inventor of the automobile’ 125 years ago, the company will demonstrate its commitment to vehicle performance, combined with cleaner technology that is kinder to the environment, whilst simultaneously offering a wide motoring audience vehicles suited to each individual’s needs. The company’s brand displays will be integrated into consolidated show stands for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The MBSA stands will again be the largest since the inception of the local forerunner exhibition, Auto Africa, in 1998.

The finest cars of impeccable quality have been carefully selected to ensure that each model is offered to the public in a manner designed to demonstrate its remarkable attributes. The company plans to substantiate its leadership in keeping the ‘engines of the economy’ running on multiple commercial vehicle wheels, as well as in the private and public transport sectors. To whet visitors’ appetite, here is a peek into what will be on display: MBSA commercial vehicles exhibition in Hall 5: The MBSA commercial vehicles stable (inclusive of trucks, vans and buses) makes a truly bold statement at the Johannesburg Motor Show this year. In addition to the German engineering of the Mercedes-Benz models, the company also showcases the best of its classleading American and Japanese marques. • The ever-popular FUSO from Japan will have three models on display – a must-see is the

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latest (and greenest) addition to the family, the Fuso Canter Eco Hybrid. Of American origin, the Freightliner Argosy range will show the serious visitor what the powerful Detroit Diesel engines can do for their business. Trucks can also be glamorous! Making a real splash at the entrance to the truck show at Hall 5 is a highly-polished, chromefinished Western Star model. Leading the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle exhibition will be its flagship Actros range, represented by two models. The first is an Actros Euro 5 BlueTEC, demonstrating that ‘the new green is BLUE’. The second is the Actros Special Edition, which comes with a host of fuel efficiency measures and safety systems – making the world’s safest truck even safer. The new Axor 6x4 is tough and can endure the harshest of conditions. No terrain or operating conditions are too rugged for this vehicle – a solid truck that can endure the toughest of environments. Also at the stand is a firm favourite in South Africa – the UNIMOG. This iconic brand has a rich and powerful heritage, having recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. An ‘environmental angel’ in the form of a Mercedes-Benz Econic NGT (natural gas technology) will ‘visit’ the truck stand. This advanced, environmentally-friendly, lowfloor transport vehicle is successfully used for municipal and short-radius distribution applications internationally, which explains why it dominates the inner-city mobility vehicle system sector in Europe and some South American markets.

MBSA vans exhibition in Hall 5: Mercedes-Benz vans consistently invest in products and technologies and therefore has

6 - IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011

COVER STORY a very new product range on display: • Premiering at the Johannesburg Motor Show is the award-winning; lithium-ion-battery powered Mercedes-Benz Vito E-CELL. A world-first, a van with an electric-drive system, supplied ex-factory, which supports Daimler’s claim to clean technology leadership. This vehicle has made strong inroads into the transport and logistics sectors with its impressive strength and performance. • Continuing the focus on ‘clean technology’, the Viano FUN with the latest BlueEFFICIENCY technology feature – the ECO start/stop system has exemplary functionality, as well as offering spontaneity. It has a highly flexible variable system for seven-passenger seating configurations. • Sprinter displays its versatility in the shape of a mobile office. Standard safety features, such as the ADAPTIVE ESP (electronic stability control), ensure sensitivity and precision in critical driving situations. MBSA bus and coach exhibition in Hall 5: ‘Rea tsamaya – We are going!’ This is the mantra of the Mercedes-Benz bus and coach team who will exhibit the Multego semi-luxury coach, together with the OF1730 commuter bus, specifically designed to meet South Africa’s tough road conditions. These models play an integral part in providing world-class transport services in both the public and private sectors.

FleetBoard from Mercedes-Benz is a worldleading telematics system that offers customers a safe, reliable and economical service to cut costs and ease the fleet management function. The Mercedes-Benz South Africa group offers a tailor-made solution to every customer, whether an individual driver or a fleet owner,

Although constructed under the overall Mercedes-Benz South Africa banner, each display, with its own particular ‘visual hook’, clearly defines every marque’s distinctive attributes. As exciting as the show will be for the enthusiast and the family, it will also provide an ideal opportunity to promote automotive

The Mercedes-Benz South Africa group offers a tailormade solution to every customer, whether an individual driver or a fleet owner whether in need of appropriate finance and insurance options, fleet management or aftersales service and support. As is evident from the above-mentioned, MBSA is the largest exhibitor at the 2011 Johannesburg International Motor Show with its the vast array of vehicles representing both commercial vehicles, vans and buses; the smallest smart car to executive passenger car, as well as finance, insurance and fleet management solutions.

trade opportunities and a chance to engage in one-on-one networking and business-building opportunities with local companies. The Johannesburg International Motor Show will be held from 6 to16 October 2011 at the MTN Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec, Johannesburg. For more information on the Johannesburg International Motor Show visit: www.jhbmotorshow. co.za. For more information on Mercedes-Benz South Africa visit: www.mercedes-benzsa.co.za.

MBSA value-add solutions exhibited in Hall 5: • TruckStore offers customers used trucks in three product classifications - gold, silver and bronze – all with a roadworthy certificate, and allows them to find the right vehicle for their business quickly and simply, and matched with their purchasing ability. • Predictable mobility is one of the most important factors for success in today’s competitive transport and logistics sector. CharterWay allows the customer to operate with fixed monthly costs for the duration of the lease contract. This makes it possible to truly optimise vehicle use. • FleetBoard offers effective control and management of a company’s fleet. With rising fuel, vehicle and maintenance costs, and increased time pressures, fleet managers need to operate their fleets in the most economical and efficient way possible. IMIESA offers advertisers an ideal platform to ensure maximum exposure of their brand. Companies are afforded the opportunity of publishing a two-page cover story and a cover picture to promote their products to an appropriate audience. Please call Jenny Miller on +27(0)11 467 6223 to secure your booking.


ABS Afri-Infra AJ Broom Arup SA Aurecon Bigen Group Africa BKS Consulting Engineers Bosch Stemele Bosch Munitech BVI Consulting Engineers CBI Consulting Engineers Civil & Blasting Solutions Concrete Manufacturers CSIR Built Environment Davies Lynn & Partners Development Bank of SA DPI Plastics EFG Engineers Elster Kent Metering EnviroServ Waste Management Geotechnologies GLS Consulting Goba Hidrostal SA Huber Technology Hydro-comp Enterprises I@Consulting Iliso Consulting Infraset Jeffares and Green

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Johannesburg Water Kgatelopele Consulting Knowledge Base KV3 Engineers Lektratek Water Makhaotse Narasimulu & Associates Maragela Consulting Engineers Much Asphalt Nyeleti Consulting Odour Engineering Systems Power Construction Pragma Africa Rocla SBS Water Systems Sektor Consulting Sight Lines Pipe Survery Services SNA Inc Siza Water Company SRK Consulting SSI Syntell Thm Engineers East London TPA Consulting UWP Consulting Vela VKE WSP Group Africa WSSA WRP Zebra Surfacing

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP ON NATIONAL MUNICIPAL BENCHMARKING INITIATIVE FOR WATER SERVICES

How best can you improve your operational efficiencies? How can you adopt best practice efficiency innovations by your peers? Municipal Engineers, Officials, Councilors, Service Providers and other practitioners are invited to workshop your involvement in SALGA’s new National Municipal Water Services Benchmarking Initiative - improving efficiency and effectiveness through comparative process benchmarking, peer-to-peer operational knowledge sharing, and iterative performance improvements

National Municipal Water Services Benchmarking: for municipalities, by municipalities, to the benefit of municipalities

25 October 2011 – 08.30 to 17.00 OR Tambo Conference Centre, Birchwood Hotel, Gauteng Cost per delegate: R500 (1 CPD point applies) Registration through the IMESA office Enquiries: IMESA Conference Secretariat: Judy Stephens @ 031 2663263 or [email protected] Registration closes 7 October 2011

Draft Programme

Venue: The Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, Gauteng

Tuesday 25th October 2011 12h00 - 16h00

REGISTRATION

19H00

MAYORAL FUNCTION: THE SERENGETI AT BIRCHWOOD

Wednesday 26th October 2011 07h00

REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS IN EXPO AREA

08h30

Master of Ceremonies: Mr Moses Maliba, Past President, IMESA SESSION ONE: WELCOME AND KEY NOTE ADDRESSES Session Chairperson: Mr Jannie Pietersen

08h40

Welcome: Mr Jannie Pietersen - President, IMESA

08h55

Keynote Address: Councilor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa - Executive Mayor, Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

09h20

Introduction to Hon. Trevor Manuel: (to be announced)

09h25

Keynote Address: Hon. Trevor Manuel, Minister in the South African Presidency, National Planning Commission. (invited)

09h50

REFRESHMENTS AND EXPO VISIT SESSION TWO: WATER ENGINEERING Session Chairperson: Mr Frank Stevens

10h30

Improving Municipal Water Services Provision through the National Benchmarking Initiative: Mr William Moraka - South African Local Government Association

11h00

Using Performance Measurement and Management Information to Improve Water Service Delivery - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Ms Sizani Moshidi,- Department of Water Affairs, South Africa

11h30

Sustainability through integrated Decision-making in WDM: Mr Kobus Du Plessis - University Stellenbosch

12h00

Questions from the Floor

12h15

Keynote Address “The Long White Night”: Mr Alex Harris

13h05

Lunch Sponsor’s Address

13h10

LUNCH IN EXPO AREA AND EXPO VISITS SESSION THREE: SANITATION Session Chairperson: Mr Ashley Pillay

14h00

Sustainable Low-cost Sanitation: Past, Present and Future: Dr Johan van der Walt & Max Pawandiwa - Ugu District Municipality

14h30

Innovative Procurement in a Municipal Environment to Achieve Elimination of Sanitation Backlogs: Mr Peter Allen - Peter Allen Inc. Professional Engineers.

15h00

Beaufort West: First Direct Water Reclamation (Toilet to Tap) Plant in South Africa: Mr Pierre Marais - Water and Waste Water Engineering. Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Beaufort West Water Reclamation: Mr Chris Swartz Chris Swartz Water Utilization Engineers.

15h30


15h45

REFRESHEMENTS IN EXPO AREA SESSION FOUR: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Session Chairperson: Mr Danie Nothnagel

16h10

An Integrated Solution to Solid Waste Handling and Service Delivery in Rustenburg: Mr Darryl van der Merwe - BKS (Pty) Ltd

16h35

Determination of Additional Resources to Manage Pollution in Stormwater and River Systems: Mrs Nicole Nel - PD Naidoo and Associates

17h00


17h15

IMESA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING EVENING AT LEISURE

Thursday 27th October 2011 07h30

REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS IN EXPO AREA

08h15

Master of Ceremonies: Mr Moses Maliba SESSION FIVE: ROADS Session Chairperson: Mr Johan Basson

08h30

Generally Acceptable Minimum Principles of Road Design and Maintenance Proceedures: Prof. Wynand Steyn - University of Pretoria

09h00

Job Creation Potential of Infrastructure Maintenance: Dr Kevin Wall - CSIR Built Environment

09h30J^[=Wkj[d]

10h15

REFRESHMENTS IN EXPO AREA : BEST LARGE AND SMALL STAND PRIZE PRESENTATION SESSION SIX: STORMWATER MANAGEMENT Session Chairperson: Mr Gerhard Fritz

10h45

The Proposed South African National Guidelines for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) : Prof Neil Armitage - University of Cape Town

11h15

Stormwater Systems Modelling, CCTV inspection and Data Capturing Project for eThekwini Municipalitiy’s Coastal Stormwater & Catchment Management: Mr 9eb_dM^_jj[ceh[ - 7kh[Yed=hekf

11h45

A Stormwater Management System for Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality: MiBekZ[d[He[be\ip - Aurecon Group

12h15


12h30

Keynote Address: ?iIekj^7\h_YW8[Yec_d]W
13h00

LUNCH IN EXPO AREA SESSION SEVEN: TRANSPORTATION / TRAFFIC ENGINEERING Session Chairperson: Mr Duncan Daries

13h45

The Application of Integrated Rapid Public Transport Networks (IRPTNS) in smaller cities: Ms Pauline Froschauer - Namela Consulting

14h15

The Gautrain - Past, Present and Future: Mr William DWchs - Gautrain Management Agency

14h45


15h00

TECHNICAL TOUR DEPARTS FROM BRICHWOOD RECEPTION

19H00

GALA FUNCTION IN OR TAMBO CENTRE, BIRCHWOOD

Friday 28th October 2011 07h30

REFRESHMENTS IN EXPO AREA

08H15

Master of Ceremonies: Mr Moses Maliba SESSION EIGHT: FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF PROVIDING INFRASTRUCTURE / SERVICES Session Chairperson: Mr Leon Naude

08h20

Financial Sustainability and Management of Public Infrastructure: Mr Chris Champion - International Federation of Municipal Engineers (IFME)

08h50

Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant: Technical Assistance to Emfuleni Local Municipality (via Sedibeng District Municipality) - Mr Richard KrugerWdZCiB[hWjeI[aeXeje - WorleyParsons

09h20

Challenges of Global Urbanisation - Advantages of Trenchless Microtunneling: Mr Udo GerstmannWdZIm[dM[_d[h - Herrenknecht AG

09h50

The Engineering Profession - Regulation and Strategy: Mr Christopher Campbell - Engineering Council of South Africa

10h20


10h30

REFRESHMENTS IN EXPO AREA SESSION NINE: PANEL DISCUSSION: ENGINEERING OF THE FUTURE Session Chairperson: Mr Jannie Pietersen

11h00

Panel Members: Mr Jannie Pietersen (Chairperson), Dr Kevin Wall, Mr Dawie Botha, Ms Allyson Lawless and Prof. Romano de Mistro

12h15

Presentations and Appreciations

12h30

CONFERENCE CLOSURE

12H45

LUNCH IN CLOVERS GREEN, BIRCHWOOD

To register visit www.IMESA.org.za or contact [email protected] Tel: 011 - 023 8001/8005

IMESA

Project and business management In accepting the challenges of engineering in Southern Africa, IMESA has restructured some of its executive council portfolios. One of the new technical portfolios is the Project and Business Management Portfolio. By Johan Basson, IMESA technical director

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ome old portfolios were done away with and new ones created at the 2010 conference. This particular portfolio gives IMESA the opportunity to focus attention on some technical matters outside of the traditional technical working groups on water and wastewater, roads and storm water, computers, etc. and includes national priorities such as job creation, asset management and project and business management. In thinking of what to focus on in the Project and Business Management Portfolio, it became clear that, besides the conventional technical skills of management and running projects, IMESA should also look at the wider environment and the issues we are facing. Although this will obviously be too much for our limited voluntary members to deal with, we are becoming involved with the priority issues placed on our table, so to speak, by members and other participants in the municipal environment. This includes, among others, the challenges with service delivery, procurement, asset management and job creation. Through consultation with different role players, IMESA is trying to find new solutions and best practices to inform and assist our members and the municipal engineering environment.

• Promote and support the interests of infrastructure engineering professionals and the engineering fraternity involved. • Operate over a broad infrastructure engineering membership base to increase individual membership and affiliation. • Seek local and international partnerships and recognition and market itself among broad target audiences to improve awareness levels, its image and reputation. • Promote and exchange views and ideas on all aspects of infrastructure engineering, whether among engineers in the infrastructure engineering environment or others associated with, or having an interest in, its field of operation. • Develop knowledge products and services to support members in their profession. • Grow the revenue base and source funding for development and research. • Develop strategic partnerships with government, semi-government and academic, research and other institutions to the benefit of the institute, its members and the profession in general. I believe we should always ask ourselves what our ultimate goal in government is, meaning that we should keep our goals in mind in discussing how, when, what and by which means

Common objectives Before focusing on some of the issues, we need to look at the common objectives I believe we should share in our discussions. When considering the objectives of the institute listed below, it becomes clearer how IMESA should interact with its members, the government, engineering and the social and economic environment, in order to: • Promote the knowledge, art, science and practice of infrastructure engineering in all its aspects.

We are sometimes too closely focused on short-term successes, with a maximum of three to five years' vision


we support and do whatever is needed to achieve these goals. This is probably summarised in serving the people by providing, maintaining and managing services and a healthy, sustainable economic and social environment, or as IMESA president Jannie Pietersen sometimes states, it is about services delivery, asset management and good governance.

Strategic planning The environments we operate in and do our projects and conduct our business within are filled with many different role players and this surely demands management and coordinating. Sometimes municipal engineers feel frustrated by other sectors losing focus or chasing other priorities by not understanding this bigger picture. To some it feels like some of these actions, rules and programmes are making it even harder for municipal engineers to fulfil their functions properly. We are sometimes too closely focused on short-term success, with a maximum of three to five years’ vision. This, together with five-year terms, does not give enough support to proper longterm planning. Yearly performance evaluations with the emphasis, for example, on percentage spending as main criteria should play a part, but seen in the context of longer-term sustainability it is not necessarily a criterion, as it could be that everyone gets short-term

performance bonuses, clean audits, etc. but meanwhile there is raw sewer running into a river or there are people remaining without healthy conditions and clean water. The lack of technically skilled professionals in the top two to three levels of municipalities and other spheres of government limits the role of engineers, who are principally trained

not only to find short-term answers and solutions, but are by nature also future-planning orientated to play a significant part in providing strategic vision to their employers. IMESA tries to promote the notion of ‘The customer is the next process’ in aligning the different parts of the municipal sectors to keep the public customer in mind in all our different projects and daily functions. Interaction IMESA can play more of an important role in trying to get the engineering perspective across within the government. We have limited time and resources in this country and especially in local government, and therefore cannot afford not to be successful and passionate in trying to work towards achieving the common goals of service delivery, asset management and good governance. Some of the actions IMESA is currently taking in playing pivotal roles in achieving our objectives are in running our business as municipal engineers. This includes getting involved in intergovernmental consultations with other role players such as the South African Local Government Association, the Construction Education and Training Authority’s treasury, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and various national and provincial departments. Procurement One of the dialogues that IMESA is required to participate in is around the issues involved with service delivery and procurement. With changing regulations, legal interpretations and the continued quest to quell corruption, municipal engineering is being pressured into finding new methods to provide and maintain services on time, to acceptable quality and sustainable standards. The evaluation of service providers and contracts with life cycle costs, sustainability, maintenance and operational risks of failure, technical and social acceptance and value for money are currently proving to be extremely difficult. Continued consultation with all role players is required for better understanding, changing perceptions and finding new solutions. IMESA will have to be part and parcel of this consultation and training process on best practices.

Kerbs Dry-casting means no exposed aggregate or blowholes on the surface of our kerbs.

The only SABS-approved dry-cast kerb in SA. At Bosun, our approach to resolving engineering challenges has always been to simplify and innovate.

Asset management IMESA has also embarked on providing a service to municipalities through IMESA’s Infrastructure Management System (IIMS) – an initiative to assist municipalities with GRAP 17 compliance and the management of their infrastructure assets. Free IIMS asset management software is provided to municipalities to assist with the prioritising of infrastructure maintenance, development of asset maintenance budgets and many other aspects of infrastructure asset management. IMESA is currently involved in a number of municipalities in the Free State with the IIMS, and is also becoming more involved in the training of municipal staff and others in asset management throughout the country. A project and business management focus gives IMESA the opportunity to get involved in the wider environment that affects our daily operations, project cycles and the business environment we are operating in.

That’s why we’ve taken the manufacturing of kerbs further with our revolutionary dry-casting process. This allows us to compact the kerb, making a stronger, more durable end product. And, making kerbs the Bosun way is kinder to the environment. No acids and chemicals are needed as mould release agents. Another great reason to specify Bosun kerbs on your next civil engineering project. Visit www.bosun.co.za for even more ideas.

Gauteng Tel (011) 310-1176 [email protected]

If you would like to bring any other burning issues or comments in this regard to our attention, you are most welcome to send an e-mail to the IMESA head office or to Johan Basson at [email protected].

E+I 15129


Eastern Cape Tel (041) 405-0100 [email protected] North West Province Tel (012) 250-1711 [email protected]

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INDUSTRY NEWS

CESA urges authorities to upgrade secondary road network CESA has urged authorities to budget for the upgrading of the secondary road network in Gauteng, which has not been adequately developed to serve as a viable alternative to the primary freeway system that will shortly be tolled.

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he Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) is the first urban toll road to be tolled on such a large scale. Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) understands the significant impact of toll fees on the Gauteng economy, and given Gauteng’s economic significance, even on the South African economy, and therefore considers it imperative that the secondary road network receives urgent attention. Without a toll this high-capacity freeway system will potentially become congested, which will negate the benefit to the users. If the government decides to pitch the quantum of the

toll at a level lower than that required to repay the borrowings in the required time period, in order not to harm the Gauteng economy unduly, the shortfall may have to be made up through a fuel levy or by making an allocation from the fiscus. The debate about a dedicated fuel level has to be held with the National Treasury and the government. CESA believes that the GFIP project is not only very necessary to prevent the smothering of the local economy, but that the road widening and interchange improvements are appropriate and commensurate with demand.

CESA believes that SANRAL had no alternative but to borrow money in the open market and opt for tolling. SANRAL does not have the power to impose a fuel levy, be it regional or national, be it ring-fenced or dedicated, be it to cover all capital cost, or be it to reduce toll fees to lower levels. The national Department of Transport and SANRAL has, over the years, constructed or upgraded a number of intercity toll roads. In contrast to these intercity freeways that carry long-distance traffic, the Gauteng freeway system is the first urban commuter route to be tolled in South Africa. IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 15

Since its inception at the beginning of July, the new IMIESA weekly e-newsletter is proving to be hugely popular, with a total of 5 640 subscribers already receiving their copy directly every week.

Su ubsscribe now to the weekly IMIESA e-new wsleƩer or the most up-to-daate news in the indu ustry! fo To subscribe e-mail [email protected] | Send your press releases & event information to [email protected]

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MEDIA

ADVERTORIAL

CESA 2011 CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION 13 to 15 November, ICC, East London ‘PARTNERING FOR GROWTH’ CESA will be hosting its annual conference this year in East London at the ICC from 13 to 15 November 2011. The primary goal of this year’s conference is to promote the theme adopted by CESA for 2011 of “Partnering for Growth” between the private and public sectors. Beside strategic inputs from both national and international speakers, the programme will include practical methods and examples for achieving partnerships. During the conference,

national and international engineering trends will be explored with a view to optimising the pace and scale of infrastructure service delivery. The conference offers excellent networking opportunities in the form of golf at the East London Golf Club, welcome cocktails and a formal gala dinner. Our Exhibition will ensure that you have access to the latest in product development. Two CPD points will be awarded for the full attendance of this conference.

NB: For those wishing to learn more about the `Procurement of Consulting Engineering Services´ and the `Road to Registration (Pr Eng)´, one-day workshops have been arranged for the day following the conference for the convenience of the delegates and to minimise travelling costs.

This is a `not to be missed´ event for clients and service providers in the Infrastructure Service Delivery sector.

GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE

Assessment of governance in traditional affairs The assessment of the state of governance within traditional affairs in the provinces by CoGTA constitutes a historic milestone in the efforts of government to place all matters pertinent to traditional affairs, including their institutions, at the centre of social, political and economic development. Acting minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nathi Mthethwa

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or many years, the affairs and institutions of traditional leadership remained in the periphery of development. That situation often led to marginalisation of traditional leaders and their institutions with regard to meaningfully influencing the critical policy and programmatic matters pertaining to development. The consequence thereof has been that the communities that live under traditional leadership, most of which reside in rural areas, have not had their development needs given the necessary attention. Through assessing governance in traditional affairs, CoGTA will also look at ensuring that, like any public representatives tasked with the mammoth responsibility of serving the public, the leaders and members of the houses nationally and provincially be guided by principles of good governance. The principles of good governance include: • promotion of service delivery • fostering unity and partnerships • accountability • clarification of roles • transparency. The assessment exercise also seeks to establish the status quo in the various provinces on issues such as the budget allocated to traditional leadership, resources allocated to houses, traditional leadership and local government structures, relationships among structures of traditional leadership and implementation of legislation on traditional leadership. The assessment process will help identify the discrepancies with regard to dealing with traditional leadership in the provinces, with a view to devising an effective traditional affairswide strategy to deal with identified challenges. The turnaround strategy will result in the

development of a partnership model between traditional leadership and local government. The discrepancies with regard to the salaries and resources of traditional leadership will also be addressed. At this juncture, we would like to commend the leadership of the national and provincial houses for being part of this assessment process. This gives credence to the stance that ‘nothing for traditional leaders without traditional leaders’. A report will be compiled after these assessments and this will help give a clear picture of the state of traditional affairs in the country. That, in turn, will help inform policy and the strategic interventions required to ensure the strengthening of traditional leadership and affairs in the provinces, and across the country as a whole. In order to effectively address the challenges facing traditional leaders and communities, including rural development, it is important to strengthen traditional institutions, especially with regard to governance With the establishment of the department of traditional leadership, matters of traditional leadership are being dealt with more broadly, systematically and in a focused and sustainable manner. One of the major responsibilities of this department is to reclaim the ground lost to other departments and structures. This includes issues of heritage, traditional medicine and healing and indigenous knowledge systems, to mention a few examples. The new department will, in a constructive manner, vigorously engage with other national departments and organs of state to ensure that it plays a leading coordinating role on all relevant matters. It is the role of the department of traditional affairs to ensure that traditional leaders are effectively and meaningfully involved on matters of rural development.

ABOVE The acting minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nathi Mthethwa

We are here to provide the necessary political leadership. Administratively, the director-general, Professor Nwaila and his team of capable officials, will play a coordinating role on matters of allocation of roles by national departments to traditional leadership and ensuring that the necessary legislation and policies are in place and implemented accordingly. One of the critical areas that the department of traditional affairs, with its expanded mandate, is also busy amending is legislation in order to create an enabling legislative and regulatory environment for dealing effectively and efficiently with traditional affairs. We aim to ensure that matters of traditional leaders are dealt with holistically and in a sustainable manner. Accordingly, the National Traditional Houses Act and Governance Framework Act have been consolidated into one. This will help simplify the governance processes.


INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Striving for quality plastic pipes This year marks the seventh anniversary of SAPPMA and I can look back with satisfaction over a period of activity and constructive interaction with the plastic pipe industry of Southern Africa. By Jan Venter, chief executive officer of SAPPMA

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he past year (financial period July 2010 to June 2011) was an exceptionally difficult one for the plastic pipe industry, with big decreases in volumes and increasing pressure on gross margins of manufacturers. It even resulted in the demise of one of the biggest pipe producers in South Africa. In spite of these and other difficulties, the

Southern African Plastic Pipe Manufacturers Association (SAPPMA) managed to operate normally and generally achieved all the objectives set for the year. Product quality is at the core of SAPPMA and much of our activities are therefore focused on it. It

became necessary to formalise the association’s position on quality, which led to the Position Paper on Quality of June 2011. Because of experience in the market relating to inferior product

Small-diameter plastic pipe is a popular choice for domestic applications


INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE LEFT Large-diameter plastic pipe

quality in spite of the SABS mark of approval, a small pilot survey was conducted on PVC pipe drawn at random in the market. The result was shocking, with 56% of SABS mark-bearing pipes (not SAPPMA members) failing the most basic tests in accordance with the relevant national standards. It was therefore decided to

“SAPPMA will continue to eliminate inferior quality within the plastic pipe industry,” says chief executive officer, Jan Venter launch another project with a much bigger sample size and that was more representative of available products on the market. At the time of writing, this project has just been started, with final results expected to be available soon. As with the first test, the results will again be made public. We are prepared to repeat this action until the market takes proper notice and the culprits are weeded out. During the year constructive interaction took place with the government in the form of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). As a result, we could manage some positive input in the department’s Strategy for the Development of the Plastics Industry. Another spin-off was contact with the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC). The centre provides (free) surveys of factories in terms of energy usage and other relevant matters. We have identified several challenges that require attention and resources. These include: • There is insufficient appreciation of the critical importance of pipes in the infrastructure of the country. We need to continually emphasise the message that a plastic pipe is not just another plastic product, but that it is a crucial element in the conveyance of water and sewage and that it needs to last at least 50 years. • We need to ensure that key decision makers in the industry are aware of the activities of SAPPMA and that there is a big difference between ‘good’ pipe and good pipe! • We will continue interaction with SABS and press for more and quicker action against transgressors. • Members need to resist all temptation to cut corners on quality, particularly in light of the pressure on gross margins. • The SAPPMA Technical Manual must be distributed to all large users of plastic pipe. The decision seven years ago to launch an association for the plastics piping industry has proven to be a wise one. SAPPMA was launched without any advice, guidance or blueprint from anywhere in the world, but with the enthusiasm and support of a couple of key players in the South African market. We now find ourselves with an established presence in the industry and with a lot of constructive achievements behind us. The SAPPMA brand is recognised and respected widely in the industry and has proven to have strong commercial value. We have a solid foundation to continue our work towards the well-being of this industry and as market leaders we have the responsibility to embrace it.


WATER AND WASTEWATER

Designing an innovative way to support WSAs Water services authorities such as the Cacadu and Siyanda district municipalities have a responsibility to ensure delivery in their area of jurisdiction, as mandated by the Municipal Water Services Act (No. 108 of 1997). By Khuthalile Mahlaba, Karen van der Merwe, Cobus Oosthuizen and Robyn Tompkins of Jeffares & Green

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owever, many of these municipalities, particularly those located in rural areas, are resource poor in terms of human capacity, their ability to attract and retain technical capacity in remote areas and their financial sustainability based on people’s ability to pay for services is important. In addition, there is a worldwide and national scarcity of technical expertise, including that of the water sector. Technical capacity in the form of engineers, planners and

Rural water supply projects often provide employment opportunities for local residents

22 - IMIESA 22 IM MIIE MIE IES SA A SEPTEMBER SEP SE S EP E PTEM PTEM TEM EM MBER BE BER B ER ER 2011 201111 20

technicians is very limited in the country as available capacity is made up of professionals who are either approaching retirement or are very young, with little or no experience. Water services delivery is increasingly coming under scrutiny by the general public and the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) as the national regulator, as new projects are commissioned while existing infrastructure requires effective operation and maintenance. Since South Africa is a semi-arid country, water

services require effective management and use to meet the increasing demand from the socio-economic and environmental sectors. Therefore, the concept of a shared services centre (SSC) in the context of water services delivery in the municipal sector is becoming an increasingly attractive option. What is an SSC? An SSC is regarded as a business unit that performs consolidated functions or services across municipalities or water services authority (WSA) boundaries. It brings together functions that are common to multiple business units under a single delivery organisation (Bergeron 2003; Schulman et al. 1999). These functions include human resources,

WATER AND WASTEWATER technical operation, procurement, financial management and equipment. In the context of local government and specifically water services functions, an SSC forms a unit in which scarce skills, capacity and services that are currently unaffordable to WSAs on their own can be made available. Skills and services such as engineering, strategic and project management, plant operators and financial and audit management can be made accessible to each of the participating WSAs, with clear key performance areas (KPAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). Therefore, the implementation of an SSC could be seen as one possible way to assist resource-poor municipalities with delivering on their mandate. Why should resource-poor municipalities implement an SSC? Resource-poor municipalities often require additional resources, such as human capacity and additional funding, to improve service delivery effectively. In a water services unit, an SSC could provide such additional resources on a shared or part-time basis to support municipalities.

SSCs are often established to improve services, manage costs and improve organisational efficiency (Searle 2006). The survey conducted by A.T. Kearny in 2005 revealed that 70% of senior executives have claimed success in the implementation of their shared services programmes. Further research conducted in New Jersey BEA (2006) and Deliotte (2005) has revealed an increased demand for shared services in the public sector. The participating government institutions responded that shared services support their strategic goals and that more than half of the government agencies have implemented or are in the process of implementing an SCC (A.T. Kearny 2005). This research is largely based in the United States. However, being business-sector orientated, the operational needs and challenges faced by both the private and public sector in South Africa are similar and cannot be ignored. Furthermore, with increasing encouragement from various spheres of government and the need for WSAs to manage water services as a business, while faced with capacity and affordability challenges, an SSC could be regarded as a possible solution. Therefore, there is

great potential for the establishment of an SSC to allow municipalities to access additional resources, which would provide various opportunities, such as cost reduction, process improvement, standardisation and consolidation of goods and services, increased efficiency and quality of service, improved system control, the creation of a service-orientated culture and better-trained employees. According to Bergeron (2003), the effective establishment and implementation of an SSC requires the consideration of various key factors and lessons learnt from other public sector organisations that support sustainability and the positive impact of shared services. Key factors for successful implementation of an SSC International research conducted by Bergeron (2003) has identified key factors that create the foundation for a successful SSC in the public sector. These include: • senior management support • strong project management skills • strong change management. Furthermore, local research conducted by IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 23

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WATER AND WASTEWATER Van der Linde et al. (2006) has revealed that another key success factor for an SSC is the adoption of a customer-driven focus, and that the success of a shared services unit is

implementation of free basic water (FBW) policies, which require review (free basic water and sanitation policies in relation to indigent communities).

The LMs face the common challenge of a lack of technical expertise to operate and maintain plants largely dependent on its ability to add value to the organisation. Conversely, South African research has identified challenges in the implementation of an SSC that are as follows: a. A lack of up-front investment, which may cause the project to be under-funded: • Most WSAs lack funds to contribute to the establishment of an SSC. • WSAs lack the required information to determine the type and level of technical and financial support needed. b. A lack of commitment to long-term change, which may result from election cycles and/ or shifting political agendas: • WSA change in both political and administration structures over a five-year period. This often contributes to poor long-term planning, where management such as municipal managers, technical or infrastructural directors, councillors and mayors (the decision makers) leave the organisation, so affecting continuity. c. The shift from a demand-driven philosophy to a supply-driven service culture proves to be difficult to implement in a government sector: • WSAs are often faced with a demanddriven society, where services are to be provided to consumers free of charge. However, this demand-driven philosophy has also been exacerbated by the

• Most WSAs have not implemented, or would find it difficult to implement, business principles as political will and buy-in are not there. So there is no support for the need to drive water services as a business. d. The implementation of a shared services business unit is in itself a daunting experience, as it requires the transformation of business and operational processes, people and technology: • Developing political buy-in and support from participating WSAs requires a great deal of time, particularly to introduce the SSC concept to ensure a common understanding and goal. • Additional resources, such as human capacity, management systems and leadership, require more funding, which affects time frames for implementation. The implementation of a successful SSC is highly dependent on the above-mentioned key success factors. The Siyanda District Municipality (DM) in the Northern Cape is one WSA that has managed to overcome some of these challenges in the establishment of an SSC. Cacadu DM in the Eastern Cape is another WSA which, through its S78(3) assessment, is in the process of establishing an SSC for its Karoo Cluster WSAs, namely the Blue Crane Route, Camdeboo and Ikwezi local municipalities (LMs).

Siyanda DM SSC case study Siyanda DM, located in Upington in the Northern Cape, is characterised by remote municipalities, with communities being predominantly rural and living in semi-arid areas. Currently there are four out of six LMs participating in the Siyanda SSC programme. These are the Kgatelopele, Kheis, Mier, and Tsantsabane local municipalities, all of which have WSA status. (Siyanda DM SSC Business Plan, 07). The establishment of the SSC resulted from constant requests to the DM by LMs to provide technical and financial support. The LMs face the common challenge of a lack of technical expertise to operate and maintain plants, limited financial resources, which makes it difficult to attract and retain appropriate technical skills and sparsely located rural communities with a low population, a proportion of which is highly indigent. Kheis LM has a 70% indigent population and this contributes significantly to increasing operations and maintenance costs. The establishment of the SSC is being managed and housed by the Siyanda DM, with the objective of providing support to local municipalities for water services operations. The Siyanda SSC is a joint initiative between the Northern Cape Local Government, the DWA, the Northern Cape Department of Housing, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the Swedish institutions SIDA and SIPU International and the Frances Baard DM. Funding was provided upfront over a three-year period, from 2007 to 2010. The funding amount declined each year, from R1 million to R750 000 and then to R500 000, with the difference expected to be made available by the DM (Siyanda DM SSS Business Plan, 07). Key components of this study are discussed below. Functions and opportunities Functions: The Siyanda SSC provides the following operations and maintenance functions to the LMs: • technical staff, including engineers, plant operators (for operations and maintenance), planning and supervision • a water quality management specialist for operations and capacity building of plant operators and on-site training. Opportunities: The support given through the SSC has provided various benefits to participating LMs: LEFT Laying pipes for a water supply system in rural areas can provide logistical challenges


• The DM has managed to access financial support to coordinate and support water services delivery to LMs effectively, which is its key role. • The DM has sourced human resources to support the LM, which include the procurement of an engineer, a technician and a water quality specialist, all of whom are available to all four LMs. • Formal arrangements have been developed with the four LMs for operational support through service level agreements. One WSA has signed it at this stage. • Opportunity has been provided for the DM to transfer skills to the LMs for financial management, technical services planning and human resources development. • The DM, as the supporting municipality, has been able to build better relations and understanding of the technical needs and challenges of the LMs. Although the Siyanda DM has benefited from establishing a shared services centre for operations and maintenance services, as outlined above, there are several challenges that have been encountered in the implementation processes. Siyanda SSC challenges The establishment of the Siyanda SSC involved challenges, which can be attributed to a lack of knowledge and/or poor consideration of the identified key success factors. These challenges include the following: • Poor co-operation and support from the LMs, which led to a lack of communication and participation. This could be linked to poor support from senior management, poor change management and a lack of commitment to long-term change, which may result from election cycles and/or shifting political agendas. • A limited project budget owing to LMs being unable to make a contribution, because of a lack of finance. Therefore, funding is limited to what is made available by project donors and this led to the programme being under-funded. • Non-existence of shared service payment plans for WSAs, which would identify resources and costs to be paid for and so assist the programme to sustain itself and improve ownership by participating municipalities. • Poor planning by LM technical units on their organograms and infrastructure maintenance. This could be attributed to a lack of project management skills, which led to poor coordination and support from the DM. • High travelling and accommodation costs, rather than actual operational and maintenance costs, owing to the widespread locations of the LMs (Kgatelopele Municipality is 300 km away from Siyanda District Municipality). • A lack of progress reports for submission to the council, which would facilitate decision-making and financial support and improve service delivery to communities. • A lack of programme monitoring and evaluation by the DM and LMs to assess the impact and value of the SSC. These challenges have provided lessons to the Siyanda SSC participants from which to improve their shared service implementation process with the rest of the LMs, as well as benefiting other municipalities that may be interested in establishing an SSC. Siyanda SSC lessons learnt The lessons learnt from the establishment of the Siyanda SSC have provided insight into the processes involved in implementing an SSC within local government. These lessons are as follows:


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• The establishment of an SSC requires more time for project/ concept introduction to LMs than the initially planned 12 months. This is a result of the fact that it took more than two years to get all four LMs to understand and support the SSC, and only one LM has managed to sign the services contract with the DM. Factors that contributed to the delayed establishment of the SSC include the following: • a lack of knowledge and understanding of the objective of establishing an SSC • political boundaries, where other WSAs would not be comfortable to share resources with neighbouring WSAs • a lack of understanding that the powers and functions of WSAs are not affected. Key factors that would contribute to the effective establishment of an SSC of local government water services delivery include: • sourcing political buy-in, including mayor and provincial officials, and council resolution that would promote decision-making by LMs • identifying the required services, support and training needs and budgeting for them as part of the operating and maintenance budget • developing clearly defined roles, responsibilities and expectations • developing an effective communication system to raise and resolve issues • establishing, implementing and monitoring service level agreements. Cacadu DM proposed SSC The Cacadu DM in Port Elizabeth is in the process of establishing an SSC, which has been recommended through S78(3) options assessment. An SSC is one of the options that have been identified as a potential solution for the Cacadu DM’s Karoo Cluster WSAs in supporting water services delivery and self-sufficiency going forward. The Cacadu DM Karoo Cluster of LMs comprises Baviaans LM, Blue Crane Route LM and Ikwezi LM. They all have WSA status, but with limited capacity. This cluster of municipalities faces challenges similar to those of Siyanda DM including remote and sparsely populated municipalities, the inability to afford payment for services and to attract and retain appropriate skills, a lack of planning and strategic management skills, a lack of water quality management expertise and a lack of operational backup (J&G S78(3) Options Assessment Report 2009)7. The proposed Cacadu – Karoo Cluster SSC would be a unit where water services scarce skills and capacity, currently unaffordable to each of the WSAs independently, can be made accessible to them, with clear KPAs and KPIs. The DM has an established District Information Management System (DIMS), to which all LMs have access. Therefore, centralisation of resources has already been introduced, which should add value to the proposed water services SSC for the Karoo Cluster. Why should the Cacadu – Karoo Cluster establish an SSC? The Cacadu – Karoo Cluster requires additional resources to improve its water services delivery. These include technical skills in the form of engineers, a water quality specialist, financial and planning management and plant operators. These WSAs are category B3 rural, low salary scale-level municipalities, which makes it difficult for them to attract and retain appropriate skills. The municipalities are located far from one another, which leads to high operational costs owing to travelling and accommodation. They have high water resources management issues and water and wastewater quality management resources are


WATER AND WASTEWATER FIGURE 1: Proposed SSC establishment process for local government (WSA)

critically required in order to ensure the delivery of water to appropriate standards. The establishment of an SSC at Siyanda District Municipality has produced positive outcomes. The DM has managed to achieve the following, which are some of the resources that the Cacadu DM – Karoo Cluster intends on obtaining: • sourced and coordinated funding to support LMs in their water services delivery needs • sourced human resources to support the LMs, which include the procurement of an engineer (made available by the DBSA Siyenzamanje Project), a technician and a water quality specialist, all of whom are available to the participating WSAs • developed formal arrangements with the four LMs for operational support through services level contracts • developed strategic systems to transfer skills to LMs for financial management, technical services planning and human

resources development • better relations and understanding of water services needs between the DM and the participating LMs.

Cacadu DM – Karoo Cluster proposed SSC Taking into account the identified key success factors and lessons learnt from the Siyanda IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 27

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ABOVE A reservoir nears completion in a rural area

DM SSC establishment, the Cacadu DM in the Eastern Cape is in the process of establishing an SSC for its Karoo-based WSAs. This Cacadu – Karoo Cluster SSC is being proposed with the aim of attracting and sharing the cost of skills to enhance the current operational capacity on the ground. However, the success and sustainable establishment of this cluster would need to take into account the key success factors identified above, as well as lessons learnt from the Siyanda SSC. A five-year strategic plan is proposed, which would guide and facilitate the establishment of its shared service from year one and beyond. The plan includes mandatory areas of support, human resource and capacity development (technical, financial, and administration), facilities and support unit costs. The areas of operational support are: • water and wastewater quality management • infrastructure inventory development • revenue enhancement • water demand management • coordinated planning for the Karoo Cluster with respect to water services • material standardisation and efficiency • monitoring and evaluation of service delivery. The proposed five-year plan has recommended a financial contribution from each participating WSA, which could be an upfront nominal fee sourced from equitable shared or grant funding into the programme. This nominal fee would increase each year based on an agreed operational contract for the first five-year period. After this, a membership fee is recommended from the participating WSAs. A drawdown list of services would be available to participating and non-participating WSAs at different costs. An SSC has a strong potential to address the

existing water services challenges within the Cacadu – Karoo Cluster as the process could be more positive and productive in relation to that of Siyanda DM. An SSC could promote a move towards the development and enhancement of sustainable water services practices by LMs. How could an SSC be established by resource-poor municipalities? Figure 1 below represents the process that could be followed by WSAs to establish a SSC. Starting from the bottom, council ownership of the project is key to the success and sustainability of the project. Then identification of water services needs would have to be conducted by a WSA, with agreed KPIs. An agreement would need to be in place (service level agreement) in order to clarify roles, responsibilities and expectations between the two parties. Reporting, monitoring and evaluation would then be required to assess the impact of the SSC. Conclusion Based on a review of international literature, there is strong evidence that an SSC could greatly improve water services delivery in resource-poor municipalities. This has been evident at Siyanda, where the four participating WSAs, namely Kgatelopele, Kheis,

Mier and Tsantsabane, have benefited and improved water services delivery through the establishment of the Siyanda DM SSC. The four participating municipalities have had challenges, including the lack of technical expertise for plant operation and maintenance, limited financial resources (which hinders the attraction of appropriate technical skills), sparsely located rural communities, which increases operations and maintenance costs, small populations with a high proportion of indigent communities unable to pay for services, and a lack of water and wastewater quality management expertise. The Siyanda SSC has provided resources to address the operational needs of the participating LMs, such as the sourcing of budget to enable LMs to deliver their water services functions, the provision of technical skills (such as an engineer and a water quality specialist) for operations and maintenance, planning and management and water quality management, as well as the acquisition of additional equipment for infrastructure repairs and maintenance. Furthermore, the SSC has provided opportunities for all stakeholders, particularly the DM and the participating LMs, to develop formal service level agreements rather than ad hoc local municipality support, to transfer skills to the LMs on financial management, technical services planning, and human resources development issues, and has allowed the DM to build better relations and understanding of the technical needs and challenges of the LMs as the supporting municipality. The incorporation of the identified key success factors and lessons learnt fromthe Siyanda SSC (such as the need for political buy-in for effective decision-making, clearly defined roles and responsibilities for stakeholders, the implementation of service level agreements and the development of an effective communication system to address water services issues), has provided clear evidence that the establishment of an SSC is a viable, practical and recommended option for resource-poor municipalities to improve water services delivery.

References • Bergeron, BP. Essentials of Shared Services. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons (2003) • Searle, P. Shared Services Implementation: Survey Results. SharedXpertise (2006) • A.T Kearny, Inc. Shared Services in Government: Turn private-sector lessons into publicsector practices (2005) • Van der Linde, TN, Boessenkool, AL and Jooste, CJ. Key success factors for the management of a shared services business unit. Acta Commercii Journal, p.198 (2006) • Siyanda DM Shared Services Centre for Operations and Maintenance Business Plan (2007) • Jeffares & Green Cacadu DM S78(3) Options Assessment Report (2009)



Helping to meet the demand for water Leading fluid conveyance solutions supplier Incledon has supplied more than 16 km of piping solutions to a new water supply line project in Colesberg, which is being constructed in order to deliver potable water to over 2 000 newly developed homes in the area.

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he company was commissioned by civil engineering construction company Entsha Henra in December 2010 to supply the pipeline products to the project, which include 11 455 m of 500 mm K9 Saint Gobain ductile iron pipe, 5 185 m of 500 mm CL9 uPVC pipe, numerous AVK gate valves, butterfly valves, air valves and Klamflex pipe couplings. Entsha Henra contracts manager, Bruce Blacklaws, explains that the water supply line is designed to pump water from the abstraction pumps at nearby Orange River to a water purification plant in Colesberg, before being transported directly to homes through an existing water supply network. “The increased infrastructural development of Colesberg has necessitated the need for an upgraded water supply network. After being commissioned to construct the supply line, Entsha Henra selected Incledon as its preferred supplier as it proved to be the most price-competitive option.” Incledon national product manager for civils, Kelly Wilson, notes that the ductile iron pipe being used on the Colesberg water supply line is imported from globally-based Saint Gobain Pipelines, the world’s leading manufacturer of ductile iron piping and fittings. He also points out that extensive on-site training was provided to the team from Entsha Henra by Gordon Olfin, technical manager at Saint Gobain South Africa. “Incledon has been an exclusive distributor for Saint Gobain Pipelines for the past four years, and the company’s ductile iron product has proven itself to be the best on the market, meeting with ISO 9001 and EN 545 quality standards. What’s more, the Saint Gobain Pipelines K9 ductile iron pipe offers increased durability and reliability, due to an internal

cement lining and an external zinc and bitumen coating. The product is also quick and easy to install, thanks to an innovative spigot socket system,” he explains. Entsha Henra began work on the project in February 2011, and has been supplied with the entire range of products through Incledon’s Bloemfontein branch. “Incledon provides distinct advantages over its competitors, as the company’s range of products are proven to be tried-and-trusted in the industry, and are backed by excellent after-sales service and technical support,” says Incledon Bloemfontein civil representative, Juan Taljaard. Wilson notes that the biggest project-related challenge facing Incledon to date has been the transportation of the products. “Ductile iron requires special handling as each pipe is

6 m in length and, in this case, weighs approximately 860 kg each. The internal cement lining and zinc coating of the pipe are sensitive to impact and, as a result, have to be handled with extra care while being transported from Durban harbour to Colesberg by means of super-link trucks,” he continues. Wilson notes that a number of municipalities are increasing their investment in water infrastructure and he believes that Incledon is strongly positioned for growth. “Numerous municipalities are experiencing rapid growth and development and, as a result, the demand for water supply is increasing. Incledon has a number of major contracts lined up for 2011 and I am confident that this can lead to measurable growth in the future,” he maintains. BELOW Extensive on-site pipe laying



Expertise for services and growth in KZN Planning for sufficient clean water and providing better services to KwaZuluNatal is among the range of technical inputs ploughed into the province’s development each day by consulting engineers and scientists.

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s local and provincial government pursue their plans for maintaining or extending infrastructure, SRK has been involved in the technical side of urban renewal projects and the asset management of urban drainage systems that allow local government to prioritise its public works. “In these projects, we study and measure the status of infrastructure assets – such as storm water drains – to find out what needs attention, and by when,” says Vis Reddy, principal scientist and partner in the KwaZulu Natal (KZN) office of SRK. This work constitutes a vital part of the urban renewal projects being undertaken in various cities and towns around KZN. The range of skills in the KZN offices also allows them to take the planning work through to the design and construction monitoring phases of a project. Reddy says SRK is also often called upon to help provide high-level environmental planning – for instance, through strategic environmental assessments and developing environmental management frameworks for municipalities – which various levels of government are required to do. The company is currently developing a provincial hazardous waste management plan for KZN and has developed integrated waste management plans for various municipalities in the past. Working from offices in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, that together house 35 staff members, SRK Consulting tackles projects around KZN by providing expertise in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental management, hydrology, hydrogeology and air quality management and monitoring. In KZN, SRK’s strong geotechnical services are now also increasingly reaching into a growing stream of public sector projects, such as housing developments, schools, hospitals and general construction. “This has been a growing sector for us due to our offices’ specialist skills in tailings management, engineering geology and geotechnical areas,” says Reddy. “We also do a lot of air and water quality work for mining operations and are called upon more

ABOVE Vis Reddy, principal scientist and partner in the KwaZulu-Natal office of SRK

and more to assist clients with their capacity to monitor air and water quality on their sites.” “Our hydrogeology skills base has traditionally been applied in land contamination work in the petrochemical sector primarily, where retail petrol stations need to characterise, decon-

expenditure on providing water services to the region. It would not make sense to pipe water long distances to a rural area that needs it, he says, if it was possible to use local groundwater. The law requires certain listed activities, including those undertaken by parastatal agencies in expanding the province’s infrastructure, to be assessed in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation, says Reddy. Although SRK has been active in numerous large-scale industrial projects in the province over the past 10 years, changes in environmental legislation and development demands have resulted in SRK undertaking numerous additional EIA studies in infrastructure-related projects for electricity network and port expansions, low cost housing developments and road projects. As global warming and carbon emissions become more of an issue for business, the company has also been requested by clients to determine the greenhouse gas footprint of projects; if the impact is significant, strategies to off-set that impact can then be explored.

The company has also been requested by clients to determine the greenhouse gas footprint of projects taminate and remediate their sites to comply with the law,’ says Reddy. “We are currently involved in a ground water reserve determination project for the Umvoti to Umzimkhulu Water Management Area. This is vital for the assessment of current and future water use licence applications where ground water use is required. “We don’t know how much water is available until we quantify both the surface water and groundwater,” says Reddy. “While we generally have information on the quantity of surface water available, the scale of groundwater resources is still largely unknown, so this needs more extensive and thorough research within catchments.” More information on what groundwater is available in a particular rural area, for instance, would improve the quality of decisions and

There is also huge opportunity in renewable energy projects, according to Reddy; the company is currently providing engineering services to one such project, and has an increasing number of queries in the field of renewable energy. An area that a number of SRK’s clients are already exploring is substituting grid power for their own energy solutions, thereby gradually reducing their dependence on Eskom. A project that the company recently completed involved the use of heat from furnace off-gas to generate electricity or power other processes. “Companies benefit in a number of ways from these innovations,” says Reddy. “Their electricity costs can be reduced, their carbon emissions and general environmental impact is cut, and often these new ideas can help optimise their business processes.”


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Did you know less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use? Of all water on earth, 97.5% is salt water and of the remaining 2.5% fresh water some 70% is frozen in the polar icecaps. The other 30% is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in underground aquifers. In the end, less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.

As the world’s leader in transport and treatment of water and wastewater, ITT Water & Wastewater offers a wide range of mechanical and pumping solutions for wastewater treatment plants, dewatering applications, sewage systems, reverse osmosis, aqua-agriculture and the process industry, among others.

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Rapid gravity media filtration made simple Innovative and cost-effective rapid gravity media filtration and clarification solutions are now available from Leopold, which has pioneered and acquired a number of unique technologies used for improving water quality.

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he range of solutions is available from ITT Water & Wastewater and includes underdrain systems, submerged sludge collectors (Leopold CT 2) and floating sludge collectors (Leopold Clari-Vac). The Leopold Type S underdrain is ideal for designs requiring longer laterals, while the Type SL features a lower profile, making it well suited to shallow filters, where greater media depth is desired. Both are madee of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for strength and corrosion resistance stance and are lightweight

for easy handling. dling. The underdrain erdrain systemss are quick to install, saving both time and manpower. Thee underdrain system is suitable for operating in conjunction onjunction with existing filter controls trols and backwash systems and is ideal deal for installation when refurbishing existing ting filter beds and structures. Both the S and SL underdrain technologies are developed eloped for superior air sourcing and water er backwash performance, per formance, making them trulyy ‘universal’. Thee Leopold CT2 is a submerged sludge collector ector that uses a simple differential headd to remove sludge from the basin. It iss automatic, simple and cost-effective, dealing with residuals, offering low

power consumption, lower capital and maintenance costs, variable sludge remov-

maintenance. Energy-efficient, with up to 80% less power required than in other

The underdrain system is suitable for operating in conjunction with existing filter controls and backwash systems able rates and low sludge disturbance on withdrawal. The Leopold Clari-Vac is a floating sludge collector that offers powerful sludge removal. It removes material, produces a high

systems, it also features a simple mechanical skimming system and quick, simple valve priming. Adding the Leopold CT2 or Clari-Vac sludge collection system upstream of your water treatment process could increase the water treatment efficiency and reduces both maintenance time and total system operational costs.

solids content, lowers sludge disposal costs, drastically reduces power costs and vir tually eliminates A diagram illustrating the flat-bottom flume filter

IMIESA SE SEPTEMBER EPTEMBER 2011 - 35


Health and integrity of rivers within eThekwini eThekwini Municipality has undertaken an extensive aquatic biomonitoring study of all the rivers within its area of jurisdiction. Approximately 200 sites were sampled during both the wet and dry seasons.

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he main aim of the study was to determine the state of the health and integrity of rivers within the eThekwini Municipality area and to provide a management implementation plan for an aquatic bio-monitoring programme. In an operational context, the term biomonitoring is used to refer to the gathering of biological data in both the laboratory and

the field, for the purpose of making some sort of assessment or determining whether regulatory standards and criteria are being met in aquatic ecosystems. The water-quality-based approach to pollution assessment requires different types of data. Bio-monitoring techniques such as rapid bio-assessment protocols (e.g. SASS) are best used for detecting aquatic impairments

and assessing their relative severity. Once impairment has been detected, however much additional chemical and biological toxicity is the source of it, appropriate remedial action is implemented to mitigate the impact. Following mitigation or management actions, bio-monitoring is important to evaluate the effectiveness of such control measures. Biomonitoring may be used within a planning


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and management framework to prioritise water quality problems for more stringent assessments and to record and document environmental recovery following management action and rehabilitation activities. In terms of the National Water Act (No. 36 of 1998), all water users are required to register their water use and make application for a water use licence. One of the requirements of any water use licence, whether it is for water storage, water abstraction, water discharge, etc., is that the water user must implement a monitoring programme, which is defined as: “A programme for taking regular measurements of the quantity and/or quality of a resource, waste or wastewater discharge, at specific intervals and at specific locations to determine the chemical, physical and biological nature of the water resource, waste or wastewater discharge”. Municipal agencies have a social responsibility to ensure that resources are preserved and used responsibly to ensure sustainability. The public is no longer ignorant of environmental issues and information sharing concerning problem areas allows for the sharing of responsibility and buy-in from the public. The cost-effective collection of important environmental information, which is easily understood by the layman, can best be done through a scientifically designed, long-term bio-monitoring programme. The purpose of the National Water Act (No. 36 of 1998) is to ensure that the national water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and

controlled. The act provides for the protection of aquatic and associated ecosystems and their biological diversity and the reduction and prevention of pollution and degradation of water resources. Furthermore, the National Environmental Management Act (No. 107 of 1998) requires that the environmental principles as set out in Section 2 of the act be applied in decision-making. These principles include, for example, the actions required to achieve sustainable development (socially, environmentally and economically) and guide stakeholders in the integrated management of the environment. The results of the study, using the five-class classification system described in the report, are as follows: • Six sites were classified as in near-natural condition. • Five sites were near natural – good. • 44 sites were classified as in good condition. • 12 sites were good – fair. • 23 sites were classified as in fair condition. • 14 sites were fair – poor. • 42 sites were classified as in poor condition. • 13 sites were poor – very poor. • 16 sites were classified as in very poor condition. The plan now is to continue this programme, addressing the more critical rivers first, before moving onto the others. It is intended to have both 50 sampling points in the dry season and 50 sampling points in the wet season.

ABOVE Neil Dennis and David Gallagher of eThekwini Water and Sanitation collecting samples from the Umlazi River for the eThekwini Aquatic Bio-monitoring Report


WWT project marks a decade of achievement A wastewater treatment project in Durban that was designed, supplied and commissioned by Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies South Africa celebrates its 10th successful year of operation this year.

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he Durban Water Recycling (DWR) plant treats domestic and industrial sewage and wastewater to near potable standards for use in industrial processes by high-volume customers, such as Mondi Paper and SAPREF. “As a water-stressed country, we need initiatives that can assist in preserving our natural water resources. This public-private partnership project is a prime example of how innovative approaches to water resource and environmental management, wastewater treatment technology and institutional arrangements can yield exceptional results. It harnesses the energies of the partners and highlights the potential role that the private sector can play in water management, treatment and distribution,” says Arnaud Gisclon, managing director, DWR, and deputy managing director, Veolia Water Solutions (VWS) South Africa. The various stakeholders of this


public-private partnership include municipal utilities eThekwini Water Services (EWS) and Umgeni Water, the Marubeni Corporation, Khulani Holdings and Zetachem, part of the Omnia Group. Located in the south of Durban, on the grounds of the EWS sewage water treatment works (SWTW), the 47.5 Mℓ/day capacity plant is not only environmentally friendly, but brings significant advantages to all its stakeholders. The potable water that industrial consumers previously drew from the municipal system is now redistributed to previously disadvantaged peri-urban communities, without needing to invest in major bulk water supply and treatment infrastructure. The pollution load on the marine environment caused by recycling water that was previously discharged into the sea is also reduced significantly. The plant employs state-of-the-art water treatment processes and technologies.

Wastewater enters the SWTW, where the EWS carries out various treatment steps. These steps include screening, degritting and primary settling. The effluent from the primary settling tanks, termed feed water, is fed into the activated sludge plant that is operated by VWS South Africa. The feed water undergoes lamella settling in the first of three stages of the Veolia-patented Multiflo® treatment process. To coagulate solids in the feed water, a metal salt is dosed before polymers are added to enhance flocculation. Thereafter, the flocculated water is fed into lamella settling tanks. As the water leaves this area, it is dosed with polyaluminium chloride to remove residual iron and enhance the filtration process. The dosed water is sent to the dual media filtration stage, where ozonising occurs to break-down remaining non-biodegradable organic compounds. The water is then polished using activated carbon filters, chlorinated and transported to a storage tank

WATER AND WASTEWATER for distribution to industrial customers. “The production of potable-quality recycled water from domestic and industrial wastewater to a guaranteed standard is a showcase for advanced water process technology and process engineering,” maintains Gisclon. VWS has also been awarded a R187 million contract by the City of Cape Town’s Department of Water and Sanitation to upgrade and extend the treatment capacity at Bellville’s wastewater treatment works (WWTW). With this upgrade, the Bellville plant will feature the largest membrane bio-reactor (MBR) in the country to date; and its capacity will increase by 20 Mℓ/day to 70 Mℓ/ day average dry weather flow (ADWF). The 20 Mℓ/ lday MBR will be separate from the existing activated sludge plant. So, during the construction period, the existing plant will not be impacted upon. In addition, the design and build contract, including all mechanical and electrical works, will see VWS supply a new inlet works for the MBR plant, new biological reactors and six membrane trains. A new sludge dewatering facility will also be supplied, as well as an upgrade of the existing electrical and control systems infrastructure at the Bellville WWTW. “The water produced has to meet strict

quality requirements with regard to organic matter, virus and bacteria removal and ammonia and suspended solids content. The submerged ultra-filtration membrane technology will increase capacity while producing excellent quality treated water, which will be reused as process water to industrial and commercial clients in the area,” explains Abrie Wessels, regional general manager, VWS South Africa. The raw wastewater to the new plant will pass through coarse screens for degritting,

before passing through fine screens and undergoing anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic treatment and ultra-filtration and dewatering of sludge. OTV France, another subsidiary of VWS, will be providing design and commissioning support. Currently in the basic engineering design phase, the plant is due for commissioning in 2013. VWS South Africa will provide training and maintenance support for the first year of operation.

RIGHT A membrane bioreactor plant at an installation in Europe BELOW RIGHT An aerial view of the Durban Water Recycling plant BELOW An artist’s impression of the planned new membrane bioreactor plant at the Bellville WWTW


AQUA DIRT TRAP/STRAINER Patent No. RSA 95/9706 Unit 2, Zone 5, Murrayfield, 4 Prospecton Road, 4115 . P.O. Box 357, Umbogintwini, 4120 Tel: +27 (0)31-902 6550 Fax: +27 (0)31-902 1349 Email: [email protected]

Web address: www.aquastrainer.com MAKE THE INTELLIGENT CHOICE Install before every water meter and every pressure relief valve (PRV) The Aqua Dirt Trap/Strainer was designed for the protection of turbine-type flow meters and pressure relief valves. In order to eliminate the issue of damage and blockages, the Aqua Strainer was developed using mild steel pipes and flanges. The main feature of this strainer is the sight glass, situated on the top flange. The sight glass enables one to see directly into the pipeline. Blockages can be identified by merely looking into the sight glass. Consequently, the water flow can be observed and monitored. Blockages can be observed and removed by simply unbolting the top flange and cleaning the stainless steel grid, thereby reducing the downtime and make troubleshooting and fault finding, easier.

x x x

The Aqua Strainer is used and stocked at several Municipalities and water authorities. The water departments have specified the Aqua Strainer for all its projects and installations. The Strainer/Dirt Trap is an essential protection for all water meters in order for it to operate efficiently.

A TYPICAL INSTALLATION ESSENTIAL PROTECTION FOR ALL WATER METERS AND PRESSURE RELIEF VALVES.


Environmentally friendly wastewater filter press Multotec has developed an environmentally friendly filter press believed to be a world first, in response to the increasingly critical need to recycle wastewater from mining operations in SA; specifically acid mine drainage.

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raditionally hydraulically operated filter presses are used in metallurgical processes and water reclamation plants, but these conventional products are associated with a high risk of contamination from oil and other lubricants during operation. It has become essential to overcome this challenge to protect the environment and assist mining companies with complying with the ever-tightening environmental legislation confronting the industry.

Multotec’s state-of-the-art, fully automatic filter press, based on the successful Seprotech Rapid Filter Press, eliminates the risk of any contamination in this application. This new product has been developed using patented technology. RIGHT The cloth wash system in the Seprotech Rapid Filter Press features spray bars that are permanently installed at the top of every plate IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 41

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Big demand for advanced training Delegates who have attended programmes at Dynamic Fluid Control’s advanced valve training facility now number over 500.

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aving been instructed in optimal valve operation, installation and maintenance, the delegates have passed through what is believed to be the most advanced training room of its kind outside of the United States of America. The facility was commissioned in July 2009 to support theory with practical demonstration of valve operation and its effects on flow. End users make up some 65% of delegates to date, with consulting engineers totalling 30%. Resellers make up the balance. At the heart of the facility lies a reticulate set of closed pipe loops fitted with the full range of DFC valves. Flow and pressure throughout this network can be varied at will, and the loops either isolated or inter-connected to allow demonstration of valve operation. Delegates are shown the operation of air release and vacuum break valves, as well as control valves during in-line operation. The performances of air valve accumulators and non-accumulators are compared, and delegates are taught how to operate and set pressure-reducing valves, electronic control valves, pressure relief valves, level control valves and isolating valves. Instruction includes demonstrations of typical non-return valve slam.

DFC marketing manager, Charl Myburgh, says that delegates from municipalities had found demonstrations of demand management particularly instructive because of their need to reduce water pressure during periods of low demand. “If you can reduce the water pressure in reticulation systems when demand diminishes, you are able to minimise water losses caused by leaking pipes,” explains Myburgh. “Our facility allows simulation of three alternative methods of demand management using variants in the Cla-Val range of control valves: dual-stage pressure reducing, electronic full range pressure reducing and the flow-modulated fully hydraulically controlled pressure-reducing valve,” he continues. Besides exhibiting the various valves in operation, DFC’s new facility is able to demonstrate hydraulic phenomena such as cavitation and water-hammer, which delegates can see occurring under controlled conditions within sections of transparent pipe. Delegates can also see how air enters the air valves. “The digital flow indicators and pressure gauges in the loops create a feel for how hydraulic conditions change in pipelines according to varying demand – in other

words, what happens to the pressure in a water network when the flow changes,” explains Myburgh. “During a typical training session, we first cover the theoretical operation of the valves and then move across the room to see a live demonstration. In the case of demand management, we induce high flow and observe the pressure; we then reduce the flow to simulate the lower demand which occurs at night and let students see how the valve modulates based on this lower flow to physically seal the loop, all while actually noting read-outs of flow and pressure. “We can run a typical day’s cycle in five minutes and watch the valve change the flow according to the pressure within the loop.” Myburgh emphasises that expertise in valve operation and maintenance is as important as knowledge of the products available for any particular application. “Our new facility can be used for both. It’s a comprehensive capability which we expect to use with increasing frequency,” he maintains. BELOW DFC’s advanced valve training facility


BLUE AND GREEN DROP

59% of water supply systems score more than 50% on Blue Drop evaluation Water services delivery is performed by a number of stakeholders, water services authorities, water boards and service providers across the country. Water is the life-blood of our country - without it there is no life, no economic growth and no development. By Edna Molewa, minister of Water and Environmental Affairs

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he Department of Water Affairs takes its role as custodian of water resources very seriously and is always exploring ways in which it can facilitate the conservation and protection of this precious resource. The regulation of wastewater services and drinking water quality is done with the core objective of protecting the environment and public health respectively. The Blue and Green Drop certification programmes are flagship innovations of the department of Water Affairs. In 2008, as water sector regulator, we introduced this incentive-based

regulation system, the Blue Drop and Green Drop Certification Programmes, to improve municipal drinking water quality and wastewater management and I am happy to say that our municipalities are embracing this approach more and more. Our standards for drinking water quality are aligned with the best international practice. The latest South African standards currently being revised by a team from the SABS follows international guidelines as set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO). A team of international water regulators met last week with officials from my department to share best practice information.

Edna Molewa, minister of Water and Environmental Affairs IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 45

BLUE AND GREEN DROP PROFILE

TLOKWE

Cleanest water supply and Tlokwe City Council has, for the third successive year, retained its Blue Drop status and received a Green Drop Award.

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he country’s municipalities have a responsibility to ensure that they provide clean and safe drinking water to their residents. To ensure that municipalities continue to comply with drinking water and wastewater legislation, the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) in 2008 launched the Blue Drop (for water quality management) and the Green Drop (for waste management) Certification Programme for wastewater care works. This year’s awards were presented at the 3rd Municipal Water Quality Conference, held in Cape Town from 27 June to 1 July 2011. Tlokwe City Council occupies the first position in the country’s top 10 best performing municipalities under the Green Drop category. The municipality also obtained the first place in the Blue Drop category in the North West province and the sixth in the top 10 list of the country. Tlokwe City Council’s score of 97% for the Green Drop Award saw the municipality beating the metros and all other municipalities to occupy the first spot. Plettenberg Bay’s Bitou Municipality came second with 96.4%.

The two municipalities of Tlokwe and Bitou were earlier this year selected as pockets of excellence in the municipal sector and invited by the Water Information Network – South Africa (WIN-SA) to share critical success factors, good practices and challenges with other municipalities at a workshop the former had hosted. The outcomes of this workshop culminated in the

all other municipalities in the district that need such engagement. Tlokwe City Council has also improved its Blue Drop score from 95.11% last year to 96.87% this year. The minimum scores required to obtain the Blue and Green Drops are 95% and 85% respectively. The Blue Drop system itself has stringent conditions that are annually reviewed to

The two municipalities of Tlokwe and Bitou were earlier this year selected as pockets of excellence in the municipal sector release and launch of a booklet on the lessons from Tlokwe and Bitou at the awards conference in Cape Town. Ben Nell, the chief chemist at Tlokwe City Council, again made a presentation on good practice in wastewater treatment and shared practical lessons with participants during the conference in Cape Town. According to Nell, the municipality will continue to make itself available to share its experiences and success factors with

upgrade the standard on an ongoing basis and municipalities are expected to keep on improving ever y year. The daily analyses done by municipalities are audited by the DWA on a monthly basis to ensure strict compliance to the set criteria. Apart from the quality of drinking water, various other factors are also assessed, such as the credibility of sample analyses, process control, maintenance and management

What are the Blue and Green Drop requirements? Green Drop status implies excellent wastewater management and a respect for the environment and the health of the community at large. In late 2008, the DWA launched a Green Drop Certification Programme for wastewater care works. This initiative is an effort to ensure that municipalities progressively improve their operations so as not to impact negatively on the water bodies into which they discharge their product. The proposed system aims at awarding water services authorities with Blue and/or Green Drop status if they comply with drinking water and wastewater legislation and other best practices required by the DWA. This incentive-based regulatory approach is a first for South Africa and is internationally regarded as unique in the drinking water regulatory domain. Green Drop status is given to municipalities that comply with good wastewater discharge standards 90% of the time for the following criteria: • operational staff • wastewater quality monitoring


• wastewater sample analysis • submission of wastewater quality results • wastewater quality compliance • management of wastewater quality failures • storm water management • by-laws • wastewater treatment capacity • publication of wastewater quality performance • wastewater asset management. The Blue Drop Certification Programme aims to see qualifying municipalities receive what is known as Blue Drop status. This status will signal that the town's drinking water is excellent and consumers will be secure in the knowledge that wastewater is managed and discharged in a sustainable, environmentally-acceptable manner. The status will reflect the water regulator and water services authority's level of confidence in the town's drinking water quality management levels per service system in towns and cities.


sewer systems in SA skills, as well as water safety planning process and incident response management. A total of 164 municipalities and 914 water supply systems took part in the Blue Drop 2011 assessments, compared to 153 municipalities and 787 systems in 2010. In addition, 156 municipalities and 821 wastewater systems took part in the assessment for the current Green Drop Award results. RIGHT PC Labuschagne, manager of community services; JF Kleinhans; K E Mogoemang, MMC for Infrastructure; I Stoltz, MMC for Community Services; B Nell, chief chemist; L Mafojane; C de Jager; Mathebe Mokae and L Carson at the Blue and Green Drop Awards



City of Cape Town receives Platinum Award in Blue Drop Awards In this year’s Blue Drop Awards, the City of Cape Town was rewarded for achieving Blue Drop status for three consecutive years. Richard Jansen van Vuuren speaks to the city’s director of Water and Sanitation, Philemon Mashoko, about this remarkable achievement. Please provide a background to the City of Cape Town’s record and history of Blue and Green Drop certification, stating when certifications were first achieved, how they are maintained and the work and initiatives that take place to maintain the good effort being made in this regard. The City of Cape Town is the water services authority (WSA) in the area and performs the functions of a water services provider (WSP) itself. It also provides bulk drinking water to adjacent local authorities, namely the Drakenstein and Stellenbosch municipalities. The entire water supply system (including the city-owned catchments, dams, 10 water treatment plants, bulk conveyance system and entire distribution system) was assessed for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Blue Drop performance ratings by the Department of Water Affairs (DWA). The city achieved 100% in the first assessment in 2009 (one of only three municipalities) and scored a 98.2% in the more stringent 2010 assessment. This was the second-highest score achieved by a municipality in the country. The regulator (DWA) in 2010 commented as follows: “The City of Cape Town once again impressed with a remarkable performance, scoring second highest to the City of Johannesburg by a slight fraction of a percentage point. [It is] certainly a world-class drinking water quality management outfit and therefore thoroughly deserves the Blue Drop certification for a second year in succession”. The WSP constantly strives to improve its performance with respect to water quality management and a Water Safety Plan, including risk assessments, etc., is integrated into its management processes. No major corrective interventions are currently required in terms of this plan, but provision is made in the normal budget allocations to maintain the set standards already achieved.

4 - IMIESA 48 IMIE I SA SEPTEMBER SEPTEM SEP TEMBER EM MBER B 2011 2011

In 2011, the City of Cape Town once again excelled in the DWA’s now well-established Blue Drop drinking water quality assessment of all municipalities in South Africa. The city received a Platinum Award for having achieved Blue Drop Awards three years in succession for the drinking water quality of its complete water supply system to the metropolitan area. Importantly, the city scored 97.61%, the second-highest score in the countrywide assessment for the second successive year, behind the City of Johannesburg (WSA), Johannesburg Water (WSP) and Rand Water (bulk WSP). Notably, the margin has reduced from 0.2% to only 0.08%. In addition, the city received four other Blue Drop Awards as the bulk provider to areas in the Stellenbosch and Drakenstein local municipalities. The Blue Drop incentive-based regulation programme endeavours to facilitate and drive continual and sustainable improvement in service delivery and drinking water quality and ensure steadfast coverage of un-serviced areas. The Blue Drop process measures and compares the results of the performance of WSAs and their providers and subsequently rewards (or penalises) the municipality upon evidence of its excellence (or failures) according to the minimum standards and requirements that have been defined in the assessment process. It was noted in the 2011 Blue Drop Certification Report: “The Department wishes to congratulate the City for achieving Blue Drop certification for the third year in a row. This in itself is a remarkable achievement”. The lead inspector also noted, inter alia: “Cape Town has again impressed with their commitment to water quality. The systems presented for assessment have generally improved since the last certification cycle and promise to show further improvement in years to come.”

What are the significant water and sanitation service projects currently underway in the City of Cape Town? The city has developed 10-year wastewater, water demand management and bulk water master plans, which are currently under implementation. To enhance the security of water supply, the city has embarked on a Bulk Water Augmentation Scheme, estimated at R1.7 billion, which is currently in the design stage. The project seeks to increase the storage, bulk conveyance and treatment capacities of the water supply system. The project comprises the construction of the Spes Bona and Muldersvlei reservoirs with a capacity of 300 Mℓ each, the Muldersvlei Water Treatment Plant (500 Mℓ/d), pump station, 30 km of pipeline from Berg River Dam to the Muldersvlei treatment works, 13 km of pipeline from the Muldersvlei treatment works to the Spes Bona Reservoir and a 13 km pipeline from the Spes Bona Reservoir to the Glen Garry pipeline. Construction of the De Grendel Reservoir and the related pipe links at an estimated cost of R57 million will commence during this financial year. An estimated R99.8 million will be spent on a water pipe replacement and upgrading programme in the 2011/12 financial year. Environmental sustainability, capacity enhancement and compliance with the DWA wastewater treatment works licence conditions are a priority to the city and as such an estimated R201 million will be spent on upgrading the Bellville Wastewater Treatments Works in the next three years. The design and construction tenders for this project have recently been awarded. R86 million will be spent on the extension of the Zandvliet wastewater works in the next three financial years and R80 million will be spent on the upgrade of various wastewater treatment works in this financial year alone, to improve compliance with the licence conditions. A total of

BLUE AND GREEN DROP PROFILE R57 million will be spent on the Potsdam wastewater treatment capacity upgrade in the next three years. How important is asset management in your field – is enough attention and finance steered towards this? Please elaborate. Asset management is central to the city’s water and sanitation business in that it provides a well-thought-out process for the planning, creation, management and decommissioning of an asset, with the sole objective of ensuring cost-effective, equitable and efficient service provision to all residents of Cape Town. Water and sanitation assets must at all times provide services at the required standard, quality and level of service. Besides, in making an effort to meet the requirements of the Blue and Green Drop certification, the city views asset management as imperative and to this end substantial financial resources have been ploughed into asset maintenance and creation. The Water and Sanitation Department has embraced the importance of asset management by creating a branch called Engineering Asset Management, which advocates best practice across the business and establishes and monitors asset management processes. The Water and Sanitation Department has adopted the SALGA, IMESA and National Treasury-approved Best Practice Infrastructure Management Manual as its asset management framework and is currently developing a linkage with the asset module of the SAP system. What water quality standards does the City of Cape Town adhere to? The quality of water of the city complies with SANS 241, a national SABS standard. In terms of the discharge of domestic and industrial wastewater into the resources, the city designs its wastewater treatment works to comply with the licence conditions imposed by the DWA, as informed by the general authorisation in terms of Section 39 of The National Water Act (No. 36 of 1998). What are the consequences of noncompliance? Non-compliance means the city has failed to perform its stewardship function and, besides the possible legal prosecution that the DWA can initiate against it, failure to comply tarnishes the image of the city and this must be avoided. The city believes in sound governance and makes every effort to manage any

risk that might lead to non-compliance with the regulator’s (DWA’s) requirements. What measures does the City of Cape Town take to ensure the efficient use of water? The city has two fundamental approaches to the efficient use of water. Firstly, the Bulk Water Branch optimises the use of raw water from the Western Cape system of dams (comprising dams owned and operated by both the city and the DWA) through its bulk distribution system interlinking the major components of the system to maximise storage and minimise overflows during winter by putting more demand on the sub-systems that are filling faster in winter or reducing the demand on those that are falling faster in summer. The operation of the dams as an integrated system increases the level of assurance of supply to all stakeholders in the region. Secondly,

A drop of water into the ground means money buried in the ground the city has adopted a comprehensive Water Demand Management and Conservation Strategy, aimed at significantly reducing the city’s water demand on the system. The strategy includes water education awareness programmes, technical interventions such as pressure management, a fixing of leaks programme, installation of water management devices on household meters, substitution of potable water for irrigation with treated effluent and pipe replacement. The city is currently replacing about 50 km of water pipes per annum and this is complemented with pressure reduction, which has the benefit of deferring the need to replace pipes. What are the roles of consumers in the use of water – how can they be better educated to respect the resource in your opinion? The Blue Drop status certification means the potable water supplied to the citizens of Cape Town has satisfied the DWA auditors that it is of excellent quality and complies with SANS241; excellent quality monitoring systems are in place; the credibility of water sampling and testing is excellent; the operational, maintenance and management staff are adequately skilled; appropriate and adequate risk management and water incident response mechanisms are in place; adequate asset

management is taking place; and the city complies with the regulatory performance reporting. In simple terms, the consumers of water in the City of Cape Town must take pride in the quality of drinking water supplied to them as this is a collective responsibility. There is no need for bottled water in the City of Cape Town. The requirements of the Blue Drop certification are becoming increasingly stringent each year, and the city has matched the change with continual improvement of its water management. Continual improvement means more investment into technology, human resources, systems and asset management, which ultimately means that the water has high economic value and must be conserved. All consumers have a duty to pay for the services rendered to enable the city to fulfil its obligations. Consumers are urged not to pollute water sources, to assist the city in fighting the vandalism of water and sanitation assets and to report any malfunctioning assets, pipe bursts and leaks. It is every consumer’s responsibility to save water and stop wastage. A drop of water into the ground means money buried in the ground. What other measures (apart from the Blue and Green Drop) could in your opinion be taken by the government to assist local and municipal authorities to treat and supply water to exacting standards? Many WSAs inherited huge water and sanitation backlogs upon their establishment that are compromising their ability to balance equity and efficiency owing to financial resource constraints and political pressures. It is high time that the national government creates a fund ring-fenced for water and sanitation maintenance and service extension to assist WSAs financially, so making it possible for them to invest their own resources into quality initiatives. The national government must implement a system that establishes the qualification and experience requirements of management and technical staff (and not process controllers only) managing WSAs and audit this as part of the Blue Drop, after which a report should be provided to the respective council. If you think of 20 years from now, how do you see the supply and distribution of water evolving? The increasing scarcity of clean water and the spiralling costs of treating it caused by industrial pollution and climate change will define the connectivity texture of the water business with economic development variables.

IM IMI IMIESA MIESA ES S SE SEPTE SEPTEMBER PTE TEM MBE MBE ER 2011 201 011 - 49

BLOEMFONTEIN

Increasing capacity at Sterkwater WWTW In 2008, inflow to the Sterkwater WWTW increased steadily and, as a result, the quality of the effluent deteriorated. Garth Flores, civil engineer at BIGEN AFRICA, takes us through the expansion project.

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ituated southeast of Bloemfontein and serving the city’s south-eastern drainage region, Sterkwater WWTW receives and treats mainly sewage of domestic origin. The works is owned and operated by Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (then Mangaung Local Municipality). The WWTW was constructed in 1998, with a design capacity of 10.5 Mℓ/d. The current treatment process is based on the pond enhanced treatment and operation (PETRO) process. The PETRO process integrates oxidation ponds with more sophisticated secondary treatment (e.g. biological filters or activated sludge) to produce a high-quality final effluent at reduced operating costs. At Sterkwater, the secondary treatment happens to be by means of an activated sludge plant. Capacity increase Inflow in the works increased steadily since 2008 as the area it served developed with a significant rise in flow after 2005. By 2008, the flow had increased to approximately 16 Mℓ/d. This was partly due to an earlier project, which was conducted between 2003 and 2006, to eradicate water and sanitation backlogs in the south-eastern quadrant of Bloemfontein. As a result, many houses received water yard connections and waterborne sanitation – so the flow into the works increased steadily since then. There are also significant leaks on the consumer plumbing and groundwater infiltration into the sewers and this is reflected through measurements of the night flow. The night flow was within 10% of the peak morning flow. As a result of the increased flow, the quality of the effluent deteriorated and the plant did not perform according to standard. Mangaung Metro appointed BIGEN AFRICA in association with Aurecon for the extension of the works. The scope of works includes the

usual project phases, namely: • completion of a conceptual design • detailed design • tender documentation • contract administration • construction monitoring during implementation phase of the project. During the conceptual design phase, it was clear that the new infrastructure would be

ABOVE Clarifier BELOW Bioreactor

based on the PETRO process as this was the most cost-efficient solution for the municipality. The final design is based on a duplication of the existing work and will ultimately increase the treatment capacity by 10 Mℓ/d. The estimated construction cost of the entire


BLOEMFONTEIN

ABOVE LEFT Outflow measurement ABOVE RIGHT Outflow to Renoster Spruit

project is R41 million, with an estimated contract duration of 16 months. Future projections There are significant developments planned over the next five to 10 years, which will see the addition of approximately 10 000 to 15 000 new stands and accompanying top structures to the catchment area of Sterkwater. While the development is being implemented, Mangaung will need to address the water leaks situation in order to extend the operating conditions before the works requires a further upgrade. The 15-year predicted maximum annual dry weather flow (ADWF) expected to enter the WWTW is 30 Mℓ/d. Grootvlei Prison will also be diverting its sewage to Sterkwater because it is not able to treat its own waste anymore.

Project phases Mangaung decided to split the project into two contracts: phase I focuses on the civil and structural works and phase II will focus on the mechanical and electrical works. The detailed design and tenders for the civil works were compiled by BIGEN AFRICA. Aurecon will be responsible for the structural design as well as the design and compilation of tenders for the electrical and mechanical contract. In addition, Aurecon will be responsible for the construction monitoring and contract administration of both contracts. The civil and structural works went out to tender in December 2010 and was based on the FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction – For Building and Engineering Works Designed by the Employer (1st Edition, 1999). Tenders closed in February 2011. Of the 45-odd contractors who attended the compulsory briefing sessions, only 12 submitted tenders. By July

Extension of Sterkwater Sewage Treatment Plant general layout plan with testpit positions

2011, the tender had still not been awarded but it is expected that the award of the tender to a successful contractor will have occurred by the time this article appears in print. The estimate for the civil and structural component of the works rings in at R31 million, while the mechanical and electrical component is estimated at R10 million. Tenders for the civil and structural work came in at around R25 million and the difference in price is probably owing to contractors competing aggressively for new work as a result of the recession. Operation of the WWTW Operating issues that have been reported by Mangaung include: • A lack of overflow facility on the ponds leads to submerged aerators and spillages. • During cold weather (June to August) there is excessive scum on the biological reactor and secondary clarifier. To counteract this, Mangaung has developed different operating procedures for summer and winter, but even so, the treatment and disposal of the excessive scum is still an issue. • Theft and operator safety is a problem at the plant and this was pointed out to potential contractors who would be working on site. • The handling and disposal of rags at the works is also a cause for concern. • Accommodating approximately 1 500 buckets per week is another issue. New works: civil and structural contract Intake works: The structural layout of the intake works was designed for a future 20 Mℓ/d and so no major structural work is required at the intake works. The works will be modified slightly to accommodate a third Archimedian screw pump. New anaerobic pond: A new anaerobic pond, 5 m deep, will be constructed. The new pond will be constructed by excavation to a general


BLOEMFONTEIN

invert depth of 3 m below the existing natural ground level and by constructing 2 m-high (plus an additional allowance for safe freeboard) embankments around the pond. The geotechnical report indicates that the area is underlain by a clay layer 4 to 7 m thick, but that groundwater above the clay layer will be a construction challenge. The pond will have a volume of 25 000 m³. At this stage the design makes allowance for a future pond that will only be constructed once the inflow increases (between five and 10 years). Inlet to and outlet from the pond: New inlet and outlet works to the pond system will be constructed. The inlet and outlet works were designed to accommodate both the new pond and the future pond. The outlet will be an adjustable weir at a fixed outlet box. The outlet box will discharge into a 600 mm Ø concrete pipe. The adjustable weir will be useful in controlling the water level in the pond to make allowance for differences between low inflow and high inflow at the works. New activated sludge bio-reactor: The bioreactor was designed to achieve nitrification and biological de-nitrification to the required standards. Should phosphorous removal become necessary at a future stage, this can be achieved by means of chemical precipitation. UCTPHO and BIOWIN were used for the modelling of the new reactor and determining the component's size/capacity. • Bio-reactor size: 41.5 m x 25 m x 4 m rectangular reinforced concrete structure, which will cater for dedicated anoxic and aerobic zones. A dividing wall and positive overflow will be used to keep the two zones separate. • Aeration requirements: The following surface aerators are proposed: 1 x 75 kW, 1 x 55 kW and 2 x 37 kW. These aerators will be used to supply 60 g O2/m³.hr. • Aeration control: Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the aerobic zone will be

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monitored by two static DO probes. DO measurements will be recorded on PLC and aerators will be switched on/off in response to the measured concentrations. Depending on the budget versus construction cost, variable speed drives may be installed on the aerators. This will be a significant increase in capital outlay but will reduce electrical consumption, decreasing operating costs over the long term. Mixed liquor recycle (a-recycle): An a-recycle pump station will be located in the bio-reactor and mixed liquor will be pumped over the dividing wall between the anoxic and aerobic zones. Two duty and one standby axial flow pumps are proposed, the capacity of each pump being 290 ℓ/s. Recycling of activated sludge (RAS-cycle): Sludge from the secondary clarification tank will be pumped back to the bio-reactor by means of three self-priming centrifugal pumps (two duty and one standby). The capacity of the pumps is 85 ℓ/s. Flow will be measured by means of an electromagnetic flow meter. Waste activated sludge (WAS): 173 to 211 m³ of sludge (mass of approximately 790 kg DS) must be harvested each day. Activated sludge will be harvested from the aerobic zone via a submerged pipe fitted with an actuated isolating valve that is controlled by a downstream electromagnetic flow meter. WAS will be pumped (via the existing pumps) to the screw pump station intake and will be routed to the new and existing anaerobic ponds for storage and digestion. Scum removal: Free surface flow will be provided between all zones and scum will flow unhindered to the outlet works of the bio-reactor. Scum will be collected by means of a downward opening channel sluice and scum collection chamber. The scum will be pumped (via the existing pumps) to the existing sludge lagoons.

ABOVE LEFT Outflow measurement ABOVE RIGHT Outflow to Renoster Spruit

Secondary clarification: Two 30 m diameter secondary clarifiers will be constructed. The clarifiers will have an 8 degree slope and will be fitted with peripheral driven half bridges and an integrated scraper mechanism. Final disinfection: A new 250 m³ chlorine contact basin has been included for the disinfection of the clarifier effluent. There is a bypass facility and flow will be measured by means of a rectangular weir. The chlorine dosing will be 60 kg/d for the entire works and the dosing and storage facility is housed in the existing 5 m x 5 m building. Refurbishment of the existing works The following items at the existing works will need to be refurbished: • supernatant recycle pipeline from sludge lagoon to inlet works (290 m of 160 mm Ø uPVC pipeline) • overflow structure of existing (and new) pond – this will be the same structure • prefabricated wall in anaerobic pond • refurbishment of clarifier 1’s outlet pipe. As mentioned earlier, the entire site is underlain by a thick clay layer. For the bio-reactor, clarifier and chlorine contact structures, allowance has been made to remove the clay layer and construct these structures on an engineered soil raft foundation using imported material. The clay is deemed to be a suitable liner for the new ponds, so no allowance was made for synthetic liners. The main operation cost associated with the extension is electrical consumption. The estimated motor sizes total 4 000 kWh/d. Tecroveer, the current legal patent holder for the PETRO process, has indicated that the cost for using the process is 3% of the construction value. This still needs to be verified and confirmed by Mangaung Metro. The contract is expected to start in September 2011 and end by December 2012.


BLOEMFONTEIN

Service delivery excellence in Bloemfontein There was an urgent need to rehabilitate and construct roads within and around Bloemfontein, as an improvement in infrastructure would improve the quality of the streets and therefore the quality of life for residents.

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aving commenced on 6 September 2010, the upgrade of roads and storm water was commissioned by Mangaung Local Municipality to improve access for residents and road users, and forms part of a three-year contract between the municipality and Aurecon. The project is divided into two contracts, namely Contract T0915A and Contract T0915B, and is broken down into specific areas, as follows: • Contract T0915B consists of the construction of Mathambo, Phale and Mojatau streets. An additional street, Makhonofane Street, was made available by the municipality and the tender was awarded to Razzmatazz Trading and Investments in 2011.

• Contract T0915A consists of the construction of Man Rd 797 as well as Man Rd 1079, which comprises Tsuene, Sejake and Thera Lekota streets. Scope of works The initial cost of the project was R3 723 862.14 (incl. VAT) for Contract A and R9 512 224.96 for Contract B, but due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the groundwater problem on Man Rd 1079 and the extensions of time granted, the cost of the project escalated to R4 494 197.43 for Contract A and R11 774 177.98 for Contract B. The scope of works executed on the project is as follows: • The removal of existing gravel/road

CONTRACT T0915B WARD Ward 3 Ward 14 Ward 13

LOCATION Bochabela Rocklands Rocklands

STREET Mathambo Street Mojatau Street/Phale Street Makhonofane Street

CONTRACT T0915A WARD LOCATION STREET Ward 12 JB Mafora Man Road 797 Ward 15 Kagisanong Tsuene Street/Man Road 1079

material to various depths below the existing road level, the stockpiling of selected material to be reused at an approved stockpile area and disposal of the spoil material in an appropriate manner. • The construction of pavement layers, namely roadbed preparation, selected fill, sub-base and base layers 150 mm thick, at specifications varying from G7 to C4 classification – compacted from 93 to 98% modified AASHTO density. • Application of a single-seal Cape slurry road 7 m wide with kerbs and concrete channels on either side of the road. LEFT Man Rd 1079 Thera Lekota Street BELOW Man Rd 797 before construction


BLOEMFONTEIN PROJECT FAST FACTS CLIENT CONSULTANTS CONTRACTOR: T0915A CONTRACTOR: T0915B SUPPLIERS: T0915A

• Construction of storm water drainage structures. • Application of sur facing to road intersections. • Cleaning up of the road and road reserve and installation of road markings and traffic signalling. • Cleaning up of existing (silted up) storm water structures. • Relocation of some existing services. • Remedial work, such as road patches. • Application of surfacing to some road intersections. Construction delays Initially, the project duration was set at six months. The commencement date for the two contracts was 9 September 2010 and the estimated completion date was set for

BELOW LEFT Makhonofane StreetStormwater BELOW RIGHT Man Rd 797- Base Layer RIGHT Mathambo Street

29 March 2011. However, owing to the heavy rains that were experienced in Bloemfontein late last year and early this year, construc-

On 6 September 2010, the upgrade of roads and storm water was commissioned by Mangaung Local Municipality

Mangaung Local Municipality Aurecon Umvezi Contractors

Razzmatazz Trading and Investment 19 • Q Civils: Cape seal works • ROCLA: storm water pipes • Incledon: sewer pipes • 3Sixty: storm water pipes • LaFarge: gravel SUPPLIERS: T0915B • ROCLA: storm water pipes • 3Sixty: storm water pipes and kerbs • Corobrick: bricks • RSC: steel reinforcing • Perfect Pipes • Blitz Beton: ready-mix concrete and kerbs MATERIALS USED IN • Gravel (approved from in THE CONSTRUCTION situ source or quarry) • Cement/lime • Bricks • Reinforced steel (mesh) • Prefabricated storm water structures • Conduit pipe • Manhole and catch pit covers • Concrete pipe culverts • In situ concrete kerbs and channels

tion could not commence as planned and some delay was experienced. As a result of this and other minor delays, the contractual completion dates have been changed to 3 August 2011 for Contract A and 19 August 2011 for Contract B.


BLOEMFONTEIN

IMPROVING ACCESS, EASING TRAFFIC FLOW

The Mangaung intermodal public transport facility Approximately 50 000 passengers move through the greater Mangaung area on the south-eastern part of the Bloemfontein CBD area on a daily basis. To address the problem of congestion, an intermodal transport facility was proposed.

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he existing minibus taxi facilities in the Bloemfontein CDB make provision for approximately 200 taxis, but there is a need for more than 700 taxi bays. This resulted in the establishment of a number of informal ranking areas, which are overcrowded, unhygienic and unsafe, with taxis queuing on the main streets to gain access to the facilities and seriously restricting traffic flow and mobility. There is also limited integration among

the different public transport modes within the area. The lack of a proper integrated approach results in passengers having to cross several busy streets and negotiate areas without proper pedestrian facilities. To address these problems, a R380 million intermodal transport facility was proposed, which makes provision for sufficient capacity, and involves the linking/integrating of the main public transport termini (Central

Park Bus Station, Russell Square minibus taxi terminus and the Bloemfontein Railway Station) through improved pedestrian connections. This 50 000 m² multi-storey concrete building will include ranking and holding facilities for local transport, formal and informal retail as well as management offices. A formal holding area for minibus taxis will be provided at Bastion Square to accommodate the over flow of minibus taxis.

INTERMODAL TRANSPORT FACILITY: LOCATION AND BUDGET Location: The intermodal public transport facility is situated within the south-eastern part of the Bloemfontein CBD, with the heart of the facility bordered by St Andrew Street to the north, Hanger Street to the west, Harvey Road to the east and St George Street to the south. Budget: The total budget for the intermodal public transport facility (excluding the retail component) is R 48.2 million. This includes site investigations, land expropriations, professional fees, civil works, escalations and supervision during construction. Preliminary studies, investigations and conceptual designs have been completed at a cost of R3 963 573. Source: 2010 Business Plan: Mangaung Local Municipality


BLOEMFONTEIN PROJECT TEAM Engineers

Quantity surveyors Main contractor Architects

Difficulties during construction Owing to practical and operational constraints during the major concrete work, two tower cranes with a reach of 60 m had to be positioned inside the building footprint and construction had to take place around the cranes. Once the work was completed, the cranes were dismantled and removed and the remaining openings closed up. This difficult operation was performed within a tight time constraint using a 450 t mobile crane, which certainly caught the public’s

Vela VKE Consulting Engineers KV3 Consulting Engineers WSP Africa Michael Moore and Associates Rubiquant Quantity Surveyors and Limco Quantity Surveyors (JV) RSI Intermodal Construction (comprising Ruwacon, Sanyati Engineering Central and Ikaheng) Incline Architects

attention. The two tower cranes were dismantled and on their way back to Gauteng within four days. The Mangaung intermodal public transport facility – one of the biggest projects undertaken by Bloemfontein’s local municipality in recent years – has already become a well-known landmark and both the public and those involved in the construction look forward to the final completion of the project. The project, which commenced in May 2009, will be completed during 2011. IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 57

Liveable cities, resilient communities

Aurecon provides engineering, management and specialist technical services for government and private sector clients globally. The group has been involved in projects WKDWVSDQPXOWLSOHPDUNHWVDFURVV$IULFD$VLD3DFLoFDQGWKH0LGGOH(DVW The group’s broad-based resource pool enables it to provide both core engineering services ranging from civil, electrical and mechanical, structural and transportation engineering through to infrastructure asset management and programme and project management.

Expertise: Integrated planning 0XQLFLSDOLQIUDVWUXFWXUH development Roads and transport Water and electricity Solid waste Asset management Advisory and management

Aurecon’s commitment to invest and allocate resources and skills aims to improve the quality of life of the communities in which we operate. This ranges from sophisticated, high-tech solutions to the provision of basic services in rural areas. The group also fosters job creation by focusing on core infrastructure development such as water, roads, electricity, sanitation, and housing, which are aimed at revitalising and sustaining cities and towns. 0DNH$XUHFRQ\RXUSDUWQHULQPHHWLQJWRGD\ VPRVWFULWLFDOVHUYLFHGHOLYHU\FKDOOHQJHV For more information contact us at tel: +27 12 427 2000 or email: [email protected]

(QYLURQPHQWDOVWXGLHV Disaster management

BLOEMFONTEIN

Upgrade of Mangaung sewage systems Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality recently commissioned the upgrade of bulk sewage systems in Bloemfontein, including the North-Eastern WWTW (Sunnyside), the Bloemspruit Sewer Mains and Collector, the Estoire Sewer Mains and the Grassland Sewer Mains. IMIESA takes a closer look at these projects.

O

wing to the significant growth in property development, the northeastern sanitation upgrade in Bloemfontein was essential. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in the areas surrounding the eastern suburbs of Bloemfontein, where there are various developments currently being planned. The bulk sewer mains are absolutely critical owing to the growth in development on the north-eastern side of Bloemfontein and will relieve some of the capacity from the currently overloaded Bloemspruit WWTW. The sewer mains will be connected to the proposed new North-Eastern WWTW (N-E WWTW). The existing Bloemspruit WWTW is overloaded and needs upgrading in order to cater for the treatment of present and future

The position of the new N-E WWTW allows for the diversion of sewage from the existing Bloemspruit works to the new works

ABOVE Areas covered by this project


wastewater from the city. The position of the new N-E WWTW allows for the diversion of sewage from the existing Bloemspruit works to the new works, which would further allow the required refurbishment and maintenance at the present Bloemspruit WWTW. Engineering, management and specialist technical services group Aurecon, in association with Phethogo Consulting Engineers, was appointed by the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality as consultant for the upgrade of bulk sewage systems in Bloemfontein.

BLOEMFONTEIN TABLE 1: SUB-AREA A: DRAINAGE AREAS

Sub-area A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A10a A9a A9c A9b A9d A11 A12 A13 -

SINGLE RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF Description ℓ/day/unit Remainder of Noordstad 0 900 Hillside 2830 Phase 3 37 900 Hillside 2830 Phase 1 & 2 39 900 Remainder of Hillside 2830 136 900 Roderick Park 2032 33 900 Douglas Valley 260 230 900 North of Normandie Avenue 174 900 Douglas Valley Plots 9 & 10 0 900 Portion of Douglas Valley 57 900 Roderick Park Plots 2 & 5 236 900 Portion of Roderick Park 78 900 Roderick Park 2834 34 900 Area in De Bloem smallholdings 30 900 Estoire north of Tibbie Visser 527 900 Noordhoek pump station -

Total kℓ/day 0 33 35 122 30 207 157 0 51 212 70 31 27 474 -

GENERAL RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF ℓ/day/unit 138 600 183 600 734 600 678 600 167 600 285 600 737 600 240 600 283 600 150 600 388 600 168 600 151 600 2636 600 -

TOTAL ADWF Total kℓ/day kℓ/day 83 82.8 110 143.1 440 475.5 407 529.2 100 129.9 171 378.0 442 598.8 144 144.0 170 221.1 90 302.4 233 303.0 101 131.4 91 117.6 1 582 2 055.6 458

DRAINS TO NODE

A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A3 A3 B2 C2 C2 B1

TABLE 2: SUB-AREA B: ESTOIRE DRAINAGE AREA

Sub-area A14

Description Estoire

SINGLE RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF ℓ/day/unit 1 238 900

Total kℓ/day 1 114

GENERAL RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF ℓ/day/unit 6 282 600

TOTAL ADWF Total kℓ/day kℓ/day 3 769 4 883

DRAINS TO NODE

C6

TABLE 3: SUB-AREA C: GRASSLANDS PHASE 1 DRAINAGE AREA SINGLE RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF Sub-area A16

Description Portion of Shannon

1 225

ℓ/day/unit 900

GENERAL RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF Total kℓ/day 1 103

6 218

ℓ/day/unit 600

TOTAL ADWF Total kℓ/day kℓ/day 3 731 4 834

DRAINS TO NODE

D2

TABLE 4: BLOEMSPRUIT WWTW OVERFLOW SINGLE RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF Sub-area A15

Description Racecourse 347 Bloemspruit overflow -

ℓ/day/unit 900 -

The preliminary design of the project was completed through a desktop study, taking all the areas earmarked for development in the drainage area of the new N-E WWTW into consideration. Where the actual number of residential units of developments was not available, an estimate was done based on previous experience and realistic development densities that could be achieved in the relevant areas. Phased implementation of outfall sewer mains A phased implementation of the provision of sanitation services to the areas as described below is proposed. This consists of a first phase of bulk outfall sewer pipes to the new

GENERAL RESIDENTIAL Units ADWF Total kℓ/day 312 -

1 758 -

ℓ/day/unit 600 -

N-E WWTW. The proposed pipes should be sufficient to cater for the drainage of the areas adjacent to Andries Pretorius Street where development has been approved, as well as full drainage of the Estoire area and of Grasslands Phase 1. An overflow bulk pipe to cater for a maximum flow of 15 Mℓ/d from the overloaded Bloemspruit WWTW to the new N-E WWTW is also proposed. The second phase consists of the drainage of the remaining areas north of Andries Pretorius Street and the Grasslands Phase 2 outfall sewer. A third phase (long term) could consist of a bulk outfall pipe to cater for the complete removal/decommissioning of the Bloemspruit WWTW to be rerouted to the new N-E WWTW.

TOTAL ADWF Total kℓ/day kℓ/day 1 055 1 367 15 000

DRAINS TO NODE

D1 BS

Development of phase 1 Drainage areas This phase will consist of two main areas: sub-areas A and B and the drainage areas are indicated in the tables above: The outfall pipe from the existing Noordhoek pump station is required to drain all effluent reaching the pump station towards the new N-E WWTW, eliminating the need for a pump station and relieving some pressure on the existing Bloemspruit WWTW. The current average flow from the Noordhoek pump station is 0.458 Mℓ/d. The pipeline from A1 to C3 varies in diameter from 300 to 350 mm and the capacity of this pipeline is 135 ℓ/s. The capacity of the pipe is sufficient to drain the total section


BLOEMFONTEIN of sub-area A, including the area between Andries Pretorius Street and the railway line. The pipeline from C3 to C8 is proposed eventually to convey effluent from the full development of area A14 (Estoire). The pipe from C3 to

The capacity of the first phase of the new N-E WWTW will be designed for an average flow of 15 Mℓ/ d C4 has a capacity of 64 ℓ/s and is sufficient to convey effluent from the Noordhoek pump station, as well as approximately 40% of the total flow from areas A1 to A13. It is proposed that for the second phase the connection between C3 and C4 be terminated and node C3 be connected with node E6, draining with a new 450 mm pipe and eventually draining to the new N-E WWTW. The capacity of pipe C3 to C4 will have to be monitored to determine when this phase will be necessary. The capacity of the first phase of the new N-E WWTW will be designed for an average flow of 15 Mℓ/d. The construction of the bulk outfall pipes is currently taking place. The approval of the N-E WWTW is currently in the EIA phase. It is expected that the outcome of the EIA process will be known by the end of August 2011. Second phase Further phases will be constructed as the need arises, probably in around five to 10 years. The work required is as follows: • Construction of pipelines E1 to E2 serving

Pipe route


BLOEMFONTEIN area A7, E3-E4-C13 serving area A8, C3 to E4 (termination of connection between C3 and C4 discharging effluent upstream from C3 when pipeline C3 to C4 has reached its full capacity); pipe sizes range between 200 mm to 525 mm. • Construction of additional outfalls from Grasslands Phase 2 (F1 to W1). Pipe sizes range between 200 and 600 mm diameter. • Extending the capacity of the WWTW as required (approximately an additional 37.5 Mℓ/d). This will provide capacity to treat all effluent from phase 1 and phase 2, which will be the remaining portions of Dealesgift and Grasslands Phase 2. The total capacity of the WWTW will then be 52.5 Mℓ/d. Possible third phase The third phase will consist of the conveyance of the remaining effluent from the Bloemspruit WWTW to the new N-E WWTW. This can be a complete long-term scenario should the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality decide to decommission the existing Bloemspruit WWTW. The pipeline BS to W1 will consist of pipe diameters ranging from 750 to 825 mm. The N-E WWTW will be upgraded with an additional 37.5 Mℓ/d (approximately), bringing the total treatment capacity to 90 Mℓ/d. Taking all the anticipated phases into consideration, it is important that the servitudes registered at the beginning of the project make provision for all the future phases. The servitudes for the pipeline BS to W1 should be wide enough to accommodate three pipes to cater for all the possible future phases.

North & North Eastern Development areas IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 61

BLOEMFONTEIN

‘Blue’ gold The continuation of effective service delivery at Bloem Water is dependent on sound asset management and timely investment in infrastructure development in the proactive anticipation of future water demands and expectations.

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ne such development is the De Hoek rising main, which forms part of the Caledon-Bloemfontein bulk water scheme that augments potable water, mainly to Bloemfontein, Edenburg, Reddersburg, De Wetsdorp and Wepener, and in extreme events to Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu. This rising main is the only rising main connecting the water purification works at Welbedacht Dam to this bulk water scheme, so failure on this line will result in water shortages throughout its service areas. Corrosion damage had caused severe damage in the upper section of the pipeline.


Inadequate air intake also posed a problem in the event of a pump or power failure. A R16.3 million upgrade of the rising main will improve air removal and provide air intake in the event of a pump failure. The structural integrity of the pipeline will be reinstated in the damaged sections in order to extend the life of the pipeline. The project consists of the following works on the 1.2 m diameter De Hoek rising main: • installation of 23 air valves and related pipe specials in new and existing chambers • construction of 10 new air valve chambers

• installation of a new check valve and related pipe specials and a new check valve chamber • installation of two new surge anticipation valves • internal pipeline assessment of the bitumen lining and corrosion on the exposed steel sections • repair of the internal bitumen lining • repair and reinstatement of the structural integrity of the corrosion-affected areas. Construction on the upgrade project commenced on 17 May 2011 and is expected to be completed on 20 March 2012.

WASTE

Concrete masonry housing Concrete masonry housing has immense environmental benefits, writes Adéle de Lange, human settlements technical marketing consultant at the Cement & Concrete Institute.

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he increasing focus on green practices and energy-efficiency has resulted in the emergence of global ‘green washing’ with its inherent unsubstantiated, or misleading, claims about the environmental benefits of products or materials. As a result, it has become necessary to delve deeper into the manufacturing processes of materials to distinguish the truth from fiction in this regard. The ability to incorporate recycled and industrial by-products into the concrete masonry manufacturing process not only reduces the embodied energy of the units significantly, but also has immense environmental benefits. It decreases the demand for non-renewable resources by reducing the amount of virgin aggregates to be sourced. Secondary energy consumption generated by long-distance transport of aggregates from quarries to manufacturing plants can be reduced by using locally available building rubble. It also eases the pressure on landfill sites by decreasing the amount of rubble and waste material to be transported to, and dumped at, landfill sites. Concrete masonry manufacturing plants also have the unique ability to become zero-waste manufacturing

ABOVE Recycled concrete can be incorporated into the concrete masonry manufacturing process

sites by recycling their own manufacturing waste back into the process. In addition, any so-called ‘green’ material should be evaluated against its ability to contribute towards the overall sustainable future of South Africa. In order to do that, one needs to consider that true sustainability is the result of a balance between environmental, economic and social factors. The inherent cost-effective, durable and lowmaintenance qualities of concrete masonry have long since rendered it the material of choice for the South African context. The labour-intensive nature of concrete blocklaying provides the opportunity to create numerous jobs in the unskilled labour market – all of which contribute towards social and economic sustainability. The thermal mass quality of concrete further provides it with the ability to improve environmental sustainability by aiding passive climate control design. From this perspective, it is clear that concrete masonry is an inherently ‘green’ material and ideally suited to improving sustainability in South Africa.


Duane Morton Image credits

We shape a better world

Hleziphi Mtshizana: Most Promising Engineer 2011 (WiEBE Awards) www.arup.com

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WOMEN IN ENGINEERING PROFILE

Making a contribution to people’s lives IMIESA profiles a select few women who are making a difference in the world of engineering. In this profile, Rochelle Rajasakran, a traffic and transportation engineer at Goba, discusses her career and aspirations for the future. What prompted you to study engineering? I wish I had discovered a unique gift or talent at the age of 17 that would have allowed me to choose a life-absorbing career, but the truth is, my decision to become a civil engineer was more a gamble, based on an inkling that I had an affinity for construction and buildings. This feeling could have come from a deep-seated love of playing with Lego and building unstable structures to see how long they would stand. It was my older sister who helped me shape this idea by putting me in contact with a varsity friend studying civil engineering. What did you study at a tertiary level prior to your first position as an engineer? I studied a BSc. Eng. (Civil) at the University of Durban-Westville. I was fortunate to have received an award from the United Nations Educational and Training Programme for South Africa (UNETPSA) for two years and a USSAS scholarship for a further two years. What was your first industryspecific position? I started my career as an engineer in training in the Traffic Department of Keeve Steyn Consulting Engineers (now Goba) in Gauteng. At the time of my joining the company, the traffic department was involved in many toll road projects throughout the country. This involved modelling the road network using SATURN, a meso-level modelling programme. I gained different levels of exposure to the modelling process while working on projects such as the Bakwena N1/N4 Platinum Toll Highway, N2 George to Knysna Model and the R300 Cape Metropolitan Model. Have you worked as an engineer internationally? In May 2002, I moved to Ireland with my husband and worked for the National

Roads Authority, Cork County Council for two years. I happened to be the only traffic engineer in the office located in Glanmire. I became involved in micro-simulation modelling, which was a relatively new, innovative modelling procedure. I used the PARAMICS software package which uses car following, lane changing and gap acceptance algorithms to model the individual behaviour of vehicles on the road network. I used the software to evaluate complex network geometry that could not otherwise be analysed using traditional software packages. The main focus of my studies was the phased upgrading of the N25 South Ring Road, a dual carriageway carrying and distributing the majority of Cork County’s local and regional traffic, while bypassing the city centre. I evaluated design proposals for the Kinsale Road Roundabout (a signalised, five-lane, five-legged roundabout), Dunkettle Interchange and other major roundabouts/ junctions on the Ring Road. As a traffic engineer at Goba, please outline your job specification. I am currently a senior traffic and transportation engineer at Goba, specialising in micro-simulation modelling – still a relatively new technique in South Africa. I used the AIMSUN micro simulation software to model the N1 Rivonia Road Interchange to 14th Avenue, part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project. I was able to conclusively test complex network geometry and interchange configurations, generally difficult to assess using traditional analysis tools. The modelling aided significantly in the refinement of interchange designs and in the identification of bottlenecks generated through design inadequacies. Besides traffic modelling and other investigative studies, my duties include project management, procurement of work and management of staff.

ABOVE Rochelle Rajasakran with a happy train commuter

What projects are you currently involved with? With government spending focussed on improving public transport infrastructure, I have found myself working on more public transport projects over the last three to four years. What drives you to be an engineer? By the very nature of our profession, we are given the opportunity to make a contribution to people’s lives, to shape the world around us and to improve living conditions on our planet. Providing a safe, affordable and efficient public transport system, such as the IRPTN, affects the way in which people travel and ultimately live. If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be? I would love to be involved in organic farming or teaching women the basics of sustainable community farming. I quite love growing things, something that I inherited from my mother. What aspirations do you have for your future in the engineering fraternity? Working hard in the present moment means that the future takes care of itself. But, for the engineering fraternity as a whole, I hope that we learn to be proud of who we are and are inspired to greater action by the words contained in The Credo of the African Engineer.



The dynamic dynamos of Eskom In this profile, three women from Eskom reveal their ambitions and achievements in a male-dominated industry. basically every day. But I enjoyed every minute of it! It set the base of the knowledge that I have today on power plants. What is your current position with Eskom? Discipline manager: Low Pressure Services Engineering.

MARLIZE ANDRE What prompted you to study engineering? I was fascinated by aeroplanes and, on doing some research, I found that there is a height restriction on pilots. As I am only 1.56 m tall, I did not qualify. I resolved then that if I could not fly them, I would build them. I applied for bursaries in mechanical engineering and was successful in securing a bursary from Eskom – and have been working for them ever since. What did you study at a tertiary level prior to your first position as an engineer? B Eng Mechanical. What was your first industry-specific position? A milling plant system engineer at Arnot Power Station. What memories do you have from the beginning of your career? When stationed at a power station in the middle of nowhere you get a real feel of community. In the first year of working I worked 12-hour shifts operating the plant. When I left Arnot Power Station to go to the head office, by boss told me that everybody thought he was mad to appoint a girl to be the system engineer of the milling plant because, to put it bluntly, it is a very dirty job. You get full of pulverised coal or grease or lubrication oil


What projects are you currently involved with? • Medupi Power Station and Kusile Power Station: The two new coal-fired power stations that we are building. We face many challenges every day as these are currently the largest construction projects in South Africa. • Ingula Power Station: This is the new hydro power plant that we are building (the biggest one in the Eskom fleet). • Sere Wind Farm: a commercial 100 MW wind farm that will be constructed in the Western Cape. • Concentrated Solar Plant: The first concentrated solar plant in South Africa. If you weren’t an engineer you would be…. Nothing else?! I have asked myself that question many times and the only thing I can say is that if I could not practise in the field then I would teach people about the profession.

NALINI MOODLEY

What prompted you to study engineering? During my primary and secondary schooling I enjoyed the maths and science subjects more than any others and after discussions with my secondary school guidance counsellor and fellow engineers in my family, I knew I would pursue a career in engineering. What did you study at a tertiary level prior to your first position as an engineer? Bachelor of Technology: Chemical Engineering. What was your first industry-specific position? Chemical engineer at Eskom. Have you worked as an engineer internationally? Yes. In 2007 I was seconded to Black & Veatch, an American engineering company that was awarded the project and construction management contract by Eskom for Kusile Power Station. During my period in the USA I worked with senior and specialist chemical engineers on projects that were based in the USA. The projects included designs of water and wastewater treatment plants, including chemical handling systems. Further to design work, I also visited operating and new-build power stations. What was the first major project you were involved with? In 2005, I was involved in the conceptual designs for the water treatment plants for the open cycle gas turbine plants at Mossel Bay and Atlantis. These were two new-build gas stations that required demineralised water for their processes. The design comprised the used of reverse osmosis membranes for the production of demineralised water using potable water. Apart from the completion of the concept design, my responsibilities further involved the completion of the station’s water balance, compilation of the technical evaluation criteria required for the evaluation of tenders received, tender evaluation, contract award, and finally, the monitoring of

WOMEN IN ENGINEERING PROFILE contractor deliverables. I was also involved during the commissioning stage of the water treatment plants. What memories do you have from the beginning of your career? I think one of my early memories was when I was employed as an in-service trainee at Umgeni Water. There I met two senior female engineers who were excelling in their careers. As a young female engineer I often questioned whether the engineering environment, which was predominantly occupied by men, was the right field to be in. This question slowly dissipated after exposure to the senior female engineers. I was motivated by the fact that they worked hard, found their space in the organisation and were recognised for their professional and valuable input. They were definitely good role models for me.

only about the lack of wealth in monetary terms, but also the denial of various choices and opportunities that are basic to human development. Climate change is going to push us into thinking out of the box and being more innovative. If you weren’t an engineer you would be… A journalist for a travel television channel.

TUMISANG PENELOPE MAPHUMULO

What is your current position with Eskom? Currently, I am employed as discipline manager: Chemical Engineering in an acting capacity. What projects are you currently involved with? In 2006, I was appointed as the lead engineer for Kusile Power Station Package 17: Water Treatment Plant. This position was really a stepping stone in my career and helped me grow as an engineer. I have been involved in the project from the conceptual design stage, through the contract award and now in the execution. What qualifications do you currently hold? Bachelor of Technology: Chemical Engineering (ML Sultan Technikon); Bachelor of Science (Honours): Water Utilisation (University of Pretoria); Practical Project Management (University of South Africa); and I am currently completing my master’s in business administration at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Describe the role engineers play in social development and how this role will evolve over the next 50 years. Engineers have an essential role to play in social development in South Africa, but more so worldwide. With close to half of the world’s 6 billion people living on less than US$2 a day, one of the biggest challenges our planet faces is poverty alleviation. Poverty is not

What prompted you to study engineering? When I was in standard 9 (grade 11), my mom researched career paths that were in demand in the 90s and she found that there were very few women in the engineering sector. She fell in love with profession and convinced me to study engineering instead of accounting. What did you study at a tertiary level prior to your first position as an engineer? When I started my studies post matric, I was studying engineering at the Wits Technicon. In 2000, I was awarded a scholarship to do a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours): Electrical and Electronic at the Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) in Malaysia. I completed my studies in June 2004. What was your first industry-specific position? I was appointed as an engineer in training in the Eskom department then called Transmission Technology. I was training on all high-voltage substation equipment but my main focus was on high-voltage overhead

transmission lines. Have you worked as an engineer internationally? In October 2010, I was selected to be part of a team that conducted technical evaluations of Korean and Thai companies that had applied to build high-voltage transmission lines for Eskom. The work done in Korea was a unique experience for me because there are still no women engineers in that country. What was the first major project you were involved with? The 765 kV backbones scheme is critical for the strengthening of the Eskom transmission network. To incorporate the 765 kV lines at the existing substation, designs were required to relocate the existing 400 kV lines, to make space for the 765 kV substations. I was the design leader for three such projects where transmission lines were to be deviated to accommodate the implementation of the various 765 kV lines. Three transmission lines were relocated to free up space for the construction of the Zeus 765 kV substation and one transmission line was relocated to free up space for the construction of the Mercury 765 kV substation. Two lines were deviated to make space for the termination of the Majuba – Umfolozi 765 kV lines at the Majuba Power Station. What is your current position with Eskom? I am currently the only young black female senior registered professional engineer. I am responsible for the design and optimisation of high-voltage transmission lines. What projects are you currently involved with? I am currently the design leader for a number of projects. The design leader’s role is to lead and co-ordinate all aspects of design across all engineering disciplines (electrical, mechanical and civil). The design leader is involved with the project at all stages (preliminary studies, detailed design and specifications, tender compilation and adjudication and construction and commission). Below is a list of the projects I am responsible for: Hendrina – Prairie 400 kV line; Prairie – Marathon 400 kV lines; Sigma – Venus 765 kV line; 2 x Hector – Sigma 400 kV lines; route selection for Venus-Sigma-Hector lines and a substation site selection for the Sigma 765/400 kV substation.


WBHO has over 35 years of experience and service to offer in the Roads and Earthworks, Civil Engineering and Building industries. Our commitment, reliability and consistency has led us to be successful on many high profile projects throughout Southern Africa. (T) +27 11 321 7200 (F) +27 887 4364 (W) www.wbho.co.za


WiEBE award category winner Ingrid Campbell*, group scorecard manager at WBHO, discusses her career in Mozambique and South Africa.

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ampbell joined De Leuw Cather, an international firm of consulting engineers, while studying for a diploma in civil engineering – and ended up becoming a shareholder. She won the Civil Engineering Contractors Award for the most outstanding student on graduating. Following this, she began studying at Wits University for a B. Tech in structural engineering. Campbell was the first woman in South Africa to be awarded professional status as a professional technologist in structural engineering in 1990. Campbell started a branch in Johannesburg for a Durban firm of consulting engineers, Howells Erskine, and became the managing partner of this practice, which she managed for nearly three years. She then started her own consulting engineering practice, Ingrid Campbell and Associates. In 1998, Campbell joined the Protech Group and in December 1998 moved to Mozambique to start Protech Construções de Moçambique. In 2001 Campbell joined the WBHO Group after working for them as a sub-contractor on their first major project in Mozambique. In 2007, Campbell was deployed to the King Shaka Airport Project where she was responsible for procurement and achieving the BBBEE requirements for the project. After the completion of these tasks, she was assigned to managing the group’s scorecard and the employment equity DG review for the WBHO Group. This is the position she currently holds.

What was the first major project you were involved in? I designed and carried out supervision on the Chartwell shopping centre in Umhlanga, the Natal Sharks board, and the Victoria bus station between the bridges in Warwick Triangle, all in Durban. I also designed the bridge at Salt Rock and did design work for the Health & Racquet Club in Chatsworth. In Johannesburg, I did the design for the MSC head office on Grayston Drive. What other memories do you have from the beginning of your career? I loved working for consultants, having the balance of office design and also being heavily involved onsite. The best and most exciting part of every project was working with different teams of contractors, architects, etc. No construction job is ever achieved by any one person or company – it is a joint compilation of skills and personalities; and the final product is there for a very long time and a constant

reminder of associated problems and triumphs. Every person, from a shutter hand or painter to the architect or engineer, will pass by after project completion and reflect on ‘their building.” What has been the most significant project challenge to date and how did you overcome this? Every project has a different set of challenges, which makes engineering so enjoyable, although gender issues still feature after 33 years! I think that my biggest achievement was moving on my own, with two small boys and two dogs, to Mozambique and starting a

No construction job is ever achieved by any one person or company – it is a joint compilation of skills and personalities construction company. It was a tough country in 1998, the language was an issue and, when I think back to those days, driving to the Mozal site in an old bakkie looking for work in 45 degree heat, with the risk of contracting malaria and driving across landmines a worry in most areas, I realise how deep I had to dig. Describe the role engineers play in social development and how this role will evolve over the next 50 years. Engineers are shaping our future on this planet and, as such, have an enormous responsibility. * Campbell has been registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa for the last 20 years and is also a member of the SA Institute of Civil Engineers. She is also professionally registered in Mozambique.



Technically and socially aware Liezel Johnson, a director at Nyeleti Consulting and an avid golfer, discusses her involvement in providing power to the country. What prompted you to study engineering? I was uncertain about what to do as a career and began by eliminating careers I did not wish to do. As I completed science subjects at school I then looked at the science field. What was your first industry-specific position? I began my career in the position of junior technician. What was the first major project you were involved with? The company I was working for at the time provided intersection access and related external intersection and road upgrades, as well as providing external storm water drainage for an office park. Although the project was not very big, it was exciting as I was involved in all the aspects of the execution and running of the project from the consulting side from beginning to end. I did everything from organising topographical surveys, detailed drawings, designs and specifications, to scheduling of quantities, inviting tenders, tender evaluation and partial site supervision during construction. BELOW Medupi Power Station under construction

As a director at Nyeleti Consulting, please outline your job specification. I am responsible for the management of the water division, client liaison, staff guidance and training and the technical execution of design work. I am also currently investigating the option of opening a branch office in Cape Town. What projects are you currently involved with? • Eskom Medupi Power Station: Provision of all civil services for Package 8 and Package 35 contractors. • Eskom Kusile Power Station: Provision of all civil services for Package 16 contractors. • Alliance x9: Design and construct of water reticulation, sewer reticulation and toilet top structures for 640 stands. • Mandela Village Unit 12: Provision of roads and storm water drainage. What has been the most significant project challenge to date and how did you overcome this? The construction of portal culverts, which entailed storm water drainage of which a certain portion crossed six railway lines through a pipe jacking method, i.e. trenchless method. During pipe jacking the soil collapsed, making

a gaping hole below the first railway track. The soil material was found to be ash, which had no cohesive properties. A conventional open trenching method could not be used as the railway tracks had to be kept operational for Transnet to generate income. Railway strapping was installed, which entailed the removal of the existing tracks and replacing them with longer tracks with longer sleepers. In essence, the railway track would be kept in tack should the soil collapse below the track. What inspires you to be an engineer? Engineering is all about finding solutions. At Nyeleti Consulting I provide input on both management and technical, which still exposes me to the technical side of projects. This in turn makes me part of the solution process. Describe the role engineers play in social development and how this role will evolve over the next 50 years. The engineer of today wears many hats. In providing infrastructure, the engineer assists the local municipality with fast-tracking projects, thereby assisting the spending of budgets. This ensures the communities benefit as soon as possible from infrastructure upgrades. The engineer also assists with social development in communities, i.e. ensuring local labour and/or plant is used. During the design process certain of the works are allocated for labour-intensive methods of construction and the specifications further allow for the training of local labour by certified trainers. One can see that the engineer should not only be technically aware but should have an awareness of social development as well. If you weren’t an engineer you would be… A pilot! What aspirations do you have for your future in the engineering fraternity? I would like to do a master’s course in business administration. Most consulting firms in South Africa are run by engineers, yet the engineer is not trained to be a business administrator.


BEAUTIFICATION

CANDICE LANDIE TAKES A TRIP TO THE EAST COAST TO SEE THE WORK OF THIS R133 MILLION AWARD-WINNING PROJECT

Revitalisation of Durban’s inner city “We had 10 months to complete this project and the passion around the World Cup could be felt by everyone – from management to labourers. The commitment to teamwork was amazing.” - Brian Cadle, project engineer: eThekwini Roads Provision, on the Durban Beautification Project.

A

s eThekwini city engineers Dave Thomas and Brian Cadle and SSI principal engineer Brian Downie played the SAICE awards Durban Beautification Project video submission for me, I watched as the excitement and passion of a project that was completed more than a year ago came flooding back. “We had a good contractor and the most effective team,” reiterates Cadle. “The deadline was 2010 and with only 10 months to go, no one said it was achievable. The quality of management under pressure was absolutely amazing.” One of the highlights of the project was the construction of an underpass, linking the Moses Mabhida Stadium to the beachfront. After chatting to the engineers, I took their advice and hired a bicycle at the beachfront, and took the cycle route through the underpass. Adorned on the interior with decorative panels of the indigenous coastal dune plant, and laid out in polished porcelain tiles, it was obvious that the end result of

the underpass (and the rest of the project) matched the exceptional quality of the team. Project overview All project management and design of the Durban Beautification Project was carried out in-house at eThekweni Municipality. The multimillion rand project undertook the widescale revitalisation of Durban’s ageing inner city public realm, as well as the construction of an underpass linking tourism hotspots,

with the aim of increasing foot traffic, activating streetscapes and contributing to a safer city experience. About a decade before undertaking this project, eThekweni Municipality had identified corridors of excellence – key routes linking inner city attractions. An important aim of these corridors was to ensure that the Moses Mabhida Stadium becomes integrated into the essence of the city. The Roads Provision Department took on the challenge


serving as a solid platform for future investment in Durban.

ROADS AND BRIDGES Roads that were upgraded include:

Masabalala Yengwa Avenue (NMR Avenue) KE Masinga Road (Old Fort Road) Stalwart Simelane Road (Stanger Street) Florence Nzama Street (Prince Albert Street) Battery Beach Road Sandile Thusi Road (Brickfield Road) Somtseu Road Umgeni Road Florida Road Bridge Tollgate Bridge Argyle Road Bridge enhancements (including lighting Goble Road Bridge Stiebel Road/M4 Bridge on selected bridges) were Riverside/M4 Bridge Athlone Bridge carried out on: Gateways into the city centre were also accentuated with decorative LED lighting

of upgrading the 30 km of pavement along these routes (including the construction of the underpass). The pavements range from conventional asphalt to modern and attractive paving utilising conventional materials in an innovative manner. Routes that formed part of the project were also upgraded, with new street lighting –

Another exciting aspect of the project was engineering infrastructure for People Mover SA’s first LED street lighting, to be precise, indigenous landscaping, street furniture, new public transport infrastructure and a clever way-finding signage system. Another exciting aspect of the project was the implementation of engineering infrastructure for the People Mover project. The People Mover is Durban’s latest public transport system, currently covering two routes within the city and linking the beachfront to the CBD as far as Victoria Street Market. The Florida Road, Blue Lagoon Park and Kings Park Pool entertainment and recreational precincts were also refurbished,

The underpass The R25 million reconstruction of an old 100 m-long tunnel into a wider, shorter and more inviting underpass opened up the stadium venue via a landscaped walkway directly to the beach – encouraging cycling and activity along this previously underutilised section of coast. The new 5.5 m wide by 3.8 m high 50-m long underpass was constructed adjacent to the existing underpass under the Ruth First/M4 highway. Skylights were constructed in the centre median to improve natural lighting and visibility for pedestrian traffic. Once the old Walter Gilbert Road had been realigned, the old road was removed to make way for the new brick-paved, landscaped walkway that leads directly to the Moses Mabhida Stadium. The new underpass floor received a micro-concrete polished screed, while the walls and support columns boast low-maintenance porcelain tiles. Angled windows of 30 cm were cored through the support columns to create a visual connection between the structures. Local empowerment One of the successes of this project was the labour component, which peaked at 500 during the final stages, bringing the BEE procurement expenditure to R49.083 million. The contract relied on exceptional project management skills and budgetary controls to bring together the hundreds of local labour jobs created, authorities across multiple departments, a vast range of interventions and payment certificates topping R25 million in each of its last three months. PROJECT TEAM CLIENT

eThekweni Municipality: Engineering Unit: Roads Provision Department and the Strategic Projects Unit. The team consisted of: Brian Cadle Ken Saddington Peter Fenton Gary Kimber Laura Hunt Nina Saunders CONTRACTORS Devtech Civils Asphalt Construction SUBCONTRACTORS Kaycrete Afristruct SUBCONSULTANTS SSI Engineers and Environmental Consultants

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SASTT contact details: Web: www.sastt.org.za President: Andries Lötz Tel: (011) 688 1483 Fax: (011) 688 1524 E-mail: [email protected] Honorary director: Joop van Wamelen Tel: (012) 567 4026 Fax: 086 668 4026 E-mail: [email protected]


Challenging slip lining of trunk sewer in Chatsworth In April 2009, SSI Engineers and Environmental Consultants were appointed by eThekwini Water and Sanitation to undertake a condition assessment of the downstream end of the Silver Glen trunk sewer where this ties into the Umlaas outfall sewer.

T

his was part of the investigation, design and construction supervision of the Silver Glen Trunk Sewer Relay Project. The section of sewer under investigation comprised 1 800 m of DN600 and 600 m of DN1000 concrete pipe, which over the years had started experiencing high reports of leaks and regular overtopping of manholes. In order to eliminate high over-pumping costs, the

investigation was carried out under normal flow conditions using a combination of laser imagery and sonar technology for the condition assessment of the pipe conditions above and below the water level respectively. The data was processed and integrated to provide a full ‘360 degree view’ of the condition along the entire pipe length. It was the first time this technology had been successfully used in this application in South Africa.

ABOVE Insertion of the HDPE liner through the side of a manhole

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instance, however, reports from the maintenance crews were that the existing pipeline, while only some 30 years old, had started failing along the invert. This normally happens where there are high velocities in largediameter sewers with steep gradients, and heavier solids, such as stones and pebbles, in the bed-load can cause erosion of the concrete pipe invert. The outcome of the condition assessment was that the DN1000 pipe, generally having much flatter gradients with lower velocities and minimal turbulence, was in a good condition and did not require any rehabilitation. However, the DN600 pipe was extensively damaged on the invert, although not the soffit, and required rehabilitation. Damage on the invert was so severe in places that the concrete wall was non-existent and the pipe was being held in place by the surrounding bedding material. The lack of corrosion on the overt was attributed to the high alumina cement used in the manufacture of the pipes.

Project participants Client: eThekwini Water and Sanitation Consulting engineer: SSI Engineers and Environmental Consultants Contractor: WKSA

Construction stage In July 2010, WKSA was awarded the very challenging contract to refurbish the 1 800 m of DN600 by relining the existing pipe with a new continuously welded HDPE pipe. Although access proved to be difficult where the existing sewer ran parallel to and crossed over the Riversdale stream, the real challenge was coping with the heavy volumes of raw sewage. Four 150 mm skid-mounted diesel pumps were used, each with a 300 m-long HDPE discharge pipeline, to provide dry working sections of the sewer between selected manholes. At times of peak flow, generally between 07:00 and 11:00 on weekdays following periods of very


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TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY heavy rainfall, all of the 150 mm diesel pumps were required for bypass pumping. Under the heaviest conditions experienced during the contract, this equipment was only just able to cope when it was estimated that the flow peaked at about 480 ℓ/s. The sliplining process required careful planning to select appropriate manholes as launching and receiving pits to enable the maximum length of continuously welded pipe to be installed within the limits of the bypass pumping system. On straight pipe runs, lining was carried straight through the intermediate manholes to eliminate unnecessary intermediate launching pits. Once launch pits had been prepared adjacent to selected manholes, sections of HPDE pipe with an outside diameter of 560 mm were welded together to the required length for that portion of sewer to be lined and the process of sliplining commenced. A 20 t tracked excavator fitted with canvas slings was used to lift the HDPE pipe that had been laid out upstream of the launching pit and to walk this progressively into the sewer host pipe. All sewers were cleaned by high-pressure jetting immediately prior to sliplining to ensure that the invert would be free of silt, stones, etc. that could foul and jam the liner pipe. With the new liner in place in the host pipe, a 24-hour relaxation period was necessary for the HDPE pipe to regain any integrity and shape that may have been lost owing to the stresses generated in the installation process. Subsequently, new benching and structural repairs to manholes were effected and grouting up of the annulus between the host pipe and the liner was completed, so guaranteeing the structural integrity of the new relined sewer.

One 23 m-long section of the sewer presented the contractor with a particularly difficult access problem, as not only were the manholes at both ends about 4 m deep, but they were also located in the southbound lane of the heavily trafficked Silverglen Drive. The depth of the manholes meant that any launching pit would have needed to extend some 30 m along the busy road and excavation would in all probability have been in hard sandstone. In consultation with the client and engineer, it was agreed that the liner would comprise 700 mm-long jointed segments, with a spigot and socket-type sliding joint, incorporating a rubber O-ring, being precisely machined onto the end of each pipe segment. The liner would be installed by working from inside one manhole and incrementally launching individual sections from this manhole to the other. Using a purpose-built hydraulic winch, the segments were assembled piece by piece in the downstream manhole and then pulled progressively into position. This method was truly trenchless and ensured that traffic disruption was minimised. The final activity involved the grouting of the annulus between the segmented liner and the host pipe. In spite of over-pumping challenges that included procuring additional pumps and a delay in having to substitute lay-flat discharge hose with HDPE pipe, the contract was completed on time. The final construction value was approximately R9 500 000. WKSA has invested heavily in modern trenchless equipment, including a fleet of 10 Grundomat moles, a Ditch Witch JD250 HDD, a Vermeer PB30 and a Grundoburst 800G (for pipe bursting) and several pipe jacking rigs. The jacking equipment was acquired when Jacked Pipelines was incorporated into the WK Group in 1999.


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CAPSA 2011

CAPSA 2011 seeks to advance sustainable practice Since its inception in 1969, the Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa has established itself as a world-class showcase for local and international best practice in the construction, preservation, maintenance and management of asphalt pavement infrastructure industries.

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tructured initially to identify industry needs and as a conduit for the transfer and implementation of innovative technologies, the Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa (CAPSA), in the new millennium and in line with global trends, changed focus to concentrate more specifically on issues of health, occupational safety and preservation of the environment, sustainability and the conservation of finite resources. In line with this trend, the 10th CAPSA will be staged under the theme ‘Roads of the Future’, with the sub-theme ‘Living within the carrying capacity of our planet’.

The conference will focus on sustainable practice within the flexible pavement sector through a programme based on three pillars: • industry commitment • environmental stewardship • human wellbeing. CAPSA 2011 has invited two guest speakers who will deliver keynote addresses in the opening session. Jonathon Hanks will discuss the topic of ‘Commercial rationale of environmental practice’. Hanks is managing director of Incite, maintains an interest in academia and is a visiting, senior lecturer at the UCT Graduate School of Business, as well

as a regular contributor to executive and practitioner courses run by the University of Cambridge’s Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Steve Muench is an associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. He will address CAPSA on the Green Roads Rating System. With more than 60 reviewed papers and 10 bulletin papers to be presented in plenary sessions, interspersed with workshops and seminars, the CAPSA 2011 technical programme has been divided into five focus areas. These include: • Focus area 1 – Reduced energy consumption in the construction of bituminous layers • Focus area 2 – Reducing the impact of road building activities on the environment • Focus area 3 – Designing for extended performance of bituminous layers • Focus area 4 – Flexible pavement systems for extended life • Focus area 5 – Asset management. IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 81

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INSIGHT

South Africa, a dammed country Despite the popular expression ‘no limits’, nature unfortunately has set limits. Exceeding these limits invokes the law of cause and effect, which will have disastrous results. Water is a case in point. By Tony Stone

T

he view of our blue and white planet, Earth, from outer space is simply stunning. It is absolutely breathtaking, to say the least. Out there in the dark nothingness of space, but warmed by the sun, it is our home, the place where we live and survive. It is a biosphere. It sustains life – ours. The water that covers the Earth, and that which is in the clouds, gives the planet its blue and white colour. This water, in all its forms, appears to be abundant. It is, however, limited. In fact, if it were put into a sphere it would be about 1 385 km in diameter, a little more than the flight distance from Johannesburg to Cape Town, as

ABOVE Picture of Earth showing how, if all of Earth’s water (ice, freshwater, saline and water vapour) were put into a sphere, its diameter would be a little bit more than the flight distance from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Credit: Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

DIAGRAM 1A


the crow flies. Compared in size to Earth, that is small – very small. To be exact, it is 0.016% in volume. A search on Google lists 3 180 000 articles about future wars between nations being fought over water. South Africa, one of the 30 most arid countries in the world, could well become a warmonger: a not impossible prospect. In the greater scheme of things, South Africa’s total renewable freshwater supply constitutes 0.87% of Africa’s total and 0.09% of the world’s total. To place this in context, consider diagrams 1A, 1B and 1C. According to the World Commission on Dams report, South Africa, with 539 major dams and approximately 4 000 dams in total, is the 11th most dammed country in the world. It is also the seventh in size in water supply dams and ninth in size in irrigation dams. Besides the odd flood control dam, South Africa has 10 hydropower dams. These include:

DIAGRAM 1B

INSIGHT

DIAGRAM 1C • • • • • • • • • •

Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme Driekloof Dam Gariep Dam Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme Kouga Dam Palmiet Pumped Storage Scheme Steenbras Dam Sterkfontein Dam Vanderkloof Dam Woodstock Dam In their book, Adaptation to Climate Change in Southern Africa: New Boundaries for Development, Steffen Bauer and Imme Scholz point out that adverse climate effects are already evident across Southern Africa. Climate change poses a serious threat to the economic wellbeing and prospects of the southern African region. Sustainable development will depend on national governments and multilateral agencies developing strategies to offset the effects of climate change and to support countries in adapting to climate change. The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), in looking at water security, which has been defined as ‘the reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks’, asks two key questions: • Is there enough water of adequate quality and with sufficient

reliability available to sustain the well-being of society in general? • Is society adequately protected from the extremes of floods and droughts – the variability that characterises the natural water cycle? Their study shows that there is no reason why South Africa should experience a water crisis soon. While the country faces many challenges as a result of the limited and variable nature of its water resources, these challenges, for example pollution, a lack of or poor bulk and articulatory infrastructure in some areas, etc., need not constrain sustainable growth and development, with the proviso that water management is sound – but could and will if water management is not. In reference to this, the DBSA goes on to say that these challenges should be addressed as a matter of urgency. It acknowledges that in parts of the country, development choices are already being determined by water resource constraints. In many others, poor management of municipal infrastructure and other sources of pollution are causing a worrying decline in water quality. There is also

Is there enough water available of adequate quality to sustain the well-being of society in general? growing competition for and potential conflict over South Africa’s limited water resources, both within the country and with its neighbours. One characteristic of the water sector is that the challenges are very different in different parts of the country, and therefore cannot be addressed through simple, generic prescriptions. These challenges require dedicated, ongoing action, informed and supported by the best possible science and engineering, and working with effective local and regional institutions. Immediate action should include supporting the broader dialogue on water and its use and management. Working together, South Africans can make water a leading sector, using water management’s language of cooperation and shared benefits to help the country to reach its development goals. However, in evaluating South Africa’s water management capacities and capabilities, the highly-regarded South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) recently published its biannual Infrastructure Report Card (findings are reflected in table 2).

TABLE 1: PROVINCIAL DATA: DAM WATER TO LAND AREA AND POPULATION RATIOS Province

168 966

Free State

129 825

3 094 970

Gauteng

16 548

10 138 696

115

101

101

6 949

11

KwaZulu-Natal

94 361

10 565 588

4 530

84

83

48 007

429

125 755

5 976 494

1 159

85

83

9 216

194

76 495

3 735 309

2 527

96

98

33 035

677

North West

106 512

1 067 231

808

94

82

7 586

757

Northern Cape

372 889

3 628 586

143

104

94

383

39

Western Cape

129 462

5 015 986

1 841

76

77

14 220

367

1 220 813

50 586 755

28 851

92

85

23 633

570

Total

Level (%) July 2010

Water m3/capita

Eastern Cape

Mpumalanga

Population

Water m3/km2

Dam capacity Level (%) million m3 July 2011 7 363 895 1 789

Limpopo

Land area (km2)

90

57

10 588

243

15 939

99

92

122 773

5 150


INSIGHT TABLE 2: THE SAICE 2011 INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT CARD Score A D-minus for the Department of Water Affairs infrastructure

SAICE’s comments There has been further deterioration in the ageing bulk water infrastructure portfolio as a result of insufficient maintenance and neglect of ongoing capital renewal. Persistent, serious salination of key river systems and eutrophication in many dams and rivers continues. These problems increase the cost of water treatment infrastructure and damage the environment. Acid mine drainage is a cause for concern in the vicinity of gold and coal mines. Large dams are developing capacity problems and require urgent refurbishment. Farm dams are deteriorating rapidly because of a lack of maintenance, threatening accelerated sedimentation of bulk storage infrastructure. The level of water supply in certain systems has fallen far below the 98% assurance of supply as recommended in the National Water Resources Strategy. Owing to the long lead times required for the development of new supply schemes, the situation is likely to become worse before it becomes better.

A C-plus for major urban areas A D-minus for all other areas

Serious concerns remain about funding for maintenance. There have been major and ongoing strides in the provision of water since 1994, but a focus on quantity and not quality makes water services unsustainable. Water quality is a serious problem, especially outside metros. Seeking Blue Drop status might assist with improving water quality in municipalities. Water wastage (through leaks) is still too high. There is a serious shortage of skilled personnel and officials; governance failures are increasing. An increase in protests in urban and rural areas points to efforts to force improvement in services.

What do the grades mean? [C] SATISFACTORY FOR NOW: Infrastructure condition is acceptable


although stressed at peak periods. It will need investment in the current Mediumterm Expenditure Framework period to avoid

serious deficiencies. • [D] AT RISK: Infrastructure is not coping with demand and is poorly maintained. It is likely that the public will be subjected to severe inconvenience and even danger without prompt attention. Much of this was confirmed during Parliament’s water affairs portfolio committee January 2011 briefing by deputy director general for water resources infrastructure within the Department of Water Affairs (DWA), Cornelius Ruiters, when tabling his 2011 Dam Report. Ruiters said that of the 359 dams owned by the department, 161 were in need of rehabilitation. Repair work had been completed on 22 dams, with 36 currently in various stages of rehabilitation. A total of 45 dams had been classified as high-priority rehabilitation projects. Rehabilitation work required on 96 (60%) of the 161 dams was a direct result of inadequate maintenance, which has since resulted in dam safety problems. A total of 153 (80%) of the 161 dams had insufficient spillway capacity, which meant that water could end up spilling over the wall and damaging the structure in the event of a major flood. A similar number had inadequate

INSIGHT outlet systems. About 16 (10%) of the dams had geological/foundation problems and the same number had slope stability problems. Ruiters, whose depar tment manages some of the largest dams in the country, including the Gariep and the Vaal dams, did not name the dams he said were in need of repair. According to a document tabled at the briefing, the 359 dams owned by the department have a replacement value of more than R72 billion. “In recent years, the DWA had increased its spending on its dam safety rehabilitation programme. The total expenditure up to September last year was R1.2 billion,” Ruiters said. Data tables contained in the document show that most of South Africa’s ageing water infrastructure, including big dams, was built during the 1970s and 1980s. Capital replacement costs over the next 20 years are forecast to exceed R40 billion. According to Ruiters, there are approximately 4 000 dams registered with the department’s dam safety authority. Those not owned by the DWA (91%) are either municipal dams or privately owned. Of the department’s 359 dams, 218 are listed in the International Commission on Large Dams register. SAICE, in qualifying its findings, stated that a serious problem with regard to bulk infrastructure is the uncontrolled, high level of pollution, especially in dams. Mingling pollutants near urban areas make identification and penalisation of the many offenders extremely difficult. Commencement of the

as Durban Water Recycling, a private plant commissioned by the eThekwini Municipality in 2001, which currently supplies 40 million litres of recycled water daily, should be highlighted. The water infrastructure – with a weighted average age of 39 years – is subject to ageing effects associated with internal and external stresses and other impacts. Insufficient maintenance and capital renewal have resulted in further deterioration. According to the DWA, there is substantial maintenance non-compliance with regard to the National Water Resources Strategy (NWRS) of September 2009. There is also an urgent need to review the NWRS. The DWA is struggling with serious capacity and funding problems, which cannot be overstressed. It has estimated that a reinvestment of R1.4 billion annually is required to maintain current infrastructure; however, the DWA is also suffering from a lack of skilled personnel to implement and supervise maintenance. This problem is compounded by fading institutional memory as individuals retire or are lost to the private sector. Despite long lead times for new projects and the above problems, the DWA has been proactive in planning new supply schemes, which is a positive step. Impact of dams on river systems The decision to site and build a dam is a complex one, especially when considering its environmental impact. Downstream, the reduction of a river’s water flow changes the landscape through which it flows because it

SAICE stated that a serious problem with regard to bulk infrastructure is the uncontrolled, high level of pollution uncontrolled decanting of acid mine drainage north of the Witwatersrand is indicative of the pollution factor and the long-anticipated decant from the western and central Witwatersrand basins is also imminent. The long delay in investigating and providing appropriate infrastructure has revealed serious management shortfalls. In wrapping up its water sector findings, SAICE concluded that a culture of complacency has developed in South Africa regarding water resources and use. The country needs to do much more in terms of instituting appropriate water conservation technology and a water conservation culture, e.g. use of grey water for gardens. Projects such

affects the ecosystem of flora and fauna. A dam, which holds back sediments, especially heavy gravel and boulders, deprives the river below the dam of sediment. This results in downstream river erosion. Channels, river banks, bridges and other structures are gradually and usually undermined. Riverbeds are often eroded by several metres within a decade of a dam being commissioned. The damage may extend to tens or even hundreds of kilometres. Riverbed deepening will also lower the water table along a river, threatening vegetation and local wells in the floodplain, which will require irrigation in places where previously there was no need. The depletion of gravel

Professor Kader Asmal, (19342011)

Chairman: World Commission on Dams The key decisions are not about dams as such, but about options for water and energy development. They relate to one of the greatest challenges facing the world in this new century – the need to rethink the management of freshwater resources. Today’s demands are too complex, our technology too advanced, our constituency too diverse and our options too numerous to allow only one solution – the building of dams. Water is for sharing. Instead of conflict, water can be a catalyst for peace.

beds reduces the habitat of many fish and invertebrates such as insects, molluscs and crustaceans. And, in the end, this negatively affects the ability of fish to spawn and breed successfully. As small an issue as this may seem, it is not. The negative effects of damming make it all the way up the food chain – to humans, especially those displaced by the dam and those downriver. In South Africa this is especially true of the Vaal and the Orange rivers, and will be an issue with regard to the Limpopo River. Water management The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa has for some years been raising and speaking about the need to implement best practices when it comes to water management. Given the critical importance of effective water management, it is time the politicians listened to and implemented the recommendations of our municipal engineers. Failing to do so will have serious repercussions for all in the not-too-distant future. Leaking water pipes At the beginning of 2010, eThekwini


INSIGHT Municipality was brave enough to announce that its ageing water pipe infrastructure was losing, on average, 90 000 kℓ/day (32 850 m3/year). This prompted the city to invest in a multimillion rand replacement programme. So, crucial to leak prevention and/or resolution, and the prevention of the unnecessary loss of water, every municipality needs to have a proactive, high-speed response team ready 24/7 to sort out any water leaks. And, when a repair is carried out, it must be done right the first time – unlike in Johannesburg where this is not the case. In the first example, water pipe leaks at the intersection of Maritzburg and Durban streets in downtown Jeppe have burst, been repaired, burst and repaired again, with weeks passing before repairs are carried out. The problem is not only the loss of water, but the damage to roads and the possibility of a sinkhole occurring – with the possible loss of life that goes with such an incidence. In the second example, contractors laying a new pipe in 5th Avenue, Rivonia left a gushing water pipe spewing water all over the road for three days before it was repaired. Calls to Johannesburg Water proved fruitless. Eventually a call to Radio 702 finally invoked some action. Incidences like these must be prevented. Municipal and contract workers need to be sensitised to the fact that water is precious and costly. Unfortunately this confirms the complacent attitude that prevails among South Africans

with regard to the country’s water resources – an attitude that must change! Illegal water connections Buffalo City is just one of the towns in South Africa that suffers from unaccounted-for water losses. A programme that was devised to respond to the problem looked at different aspects of water loss, such as illegal water connections. Through its programme, the city

enormous amount of water would be saved. This in turn would moderate the need to build dams. Wastewater reuse In the meantime, and as much as it is psychologically repulsive to consider reusing wastewater, with the right technology, processes and management (herein is the crux), wastewater can be more than adequately

The problem is not only the loss of water, but the damage to roads and the possibility of a sinkhole occurring now saves approximately 12.5 ℓ/day, at an average cost of R4.56 /kℓ. This equates to an annual saving of R20.83 million. eThekwini Municipality estimates that more than a third of the city’s water is lost either to illegal connections or leaks – and with this is the implication for ratepayers. At 34% for 2011, this is down slightly from 36% last year. They say as many as 28 000 people are illegally connected to the city’s water system, which costs eThekwini in the region of R100 million every year. Without a doubt, every other city and town in South Africa has a similar problem. By inference, we can estimate the total loss of potable water to South Africa at – a number that will boggle the mind, not to mention the costs involved – 1.5 million kilolitres per day, across the country. Clearly, if every municipality put similar programmes in place an

purified, directly or indirectly, for human consumption. And, from Germany to Namibia, recycled wastewater as final effluent is used by local municipalities in horticulture and for public fountains. This in itself reduces the demand for potable water. Grey water, particularly in a domestic setting, can be used to flush toilets, instead of using precious potable drinking water. If the 30 million South Africans (60%) who use flush toilets flushed just once a day with grey water from the bath, this would save 9 ℓ/day per person, or 270 million litres per day, or 98.55 billion litres per year. Wrapping up In closing, we quote India’s Medha Patkar, of ‘Save the Narmada River’ fame, who said, “The frequent failure of large dams to provide their claimed benefits and their poor performance needs to be recognised and accepted. The problems of dams are a symptom of the larger failure of the unjust and destructive dominant development model. It is essential to reach an adequate analysis of the basic systemic changes needed to achieve equitable and sustainable development and to give a pointer towards challenging the forces that lead to the marginalisation of a majority through the imposition of unjust technologies like large dams.” Quite clearly, we have shown how vast amounts of water can be conserved and what steps should be taken to achieve these numbers. All it requires is political will, and leadership.

LEFT The Omdurman Water Supply Scheme treats water from the Nile River in quantities sufficient enough to supply 1.5 million people with drinking water


EDUCATION AND TRAINING

First CDIs for Africa Globally there are 188 Caterpillar dealer instructors (CDIs). This is an especially select group when you consider that some 55 are Caterpillar personnel and the balance are employed from within the worldwide dealer network, which did not include Africa until very recently.

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here are now three CDIs on this continent, and all of them work for Barloworld Equipment, Caterpillar’s Southern African distributor. “Qualifying as a CDI, whether in one or several Cat machine categories, requires the highest levels of theoretical and technical competency and meeting the standards, as the small numbers indicate, is far from easy,” says Willie Haasbroek, head of Barloworld Equipment’s Operator Academy. In an average year, Barloworld Equipment’s academy, as an accredited training provider, certifies approximately 600 operators on behalf of the construction and mining industries. These courses include ‘train the trainer’ programmes that enable companies to reinforce best practices internally in maximising machine utilisation.

ABOVE Joining a select group are newly qualified CDI instructors (left to right) Enock Kqwale, Sam Magabane and David Motitswe

Corobrik partners with Gauteng municipality As part of the factory’s social and labour plan, Corobrik Driefontein has embarked on a certified local economic development project in collaboration with the Merafong Municipality.

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he company has donated 100 000 Wild Wheat bricks to the local municipality in Driefontein to build industrial hives in Khutsong, near Carltonville. Industrial hives are formal structures where various informal businesses can operate from. Roadside traders including shoemakers, mechanics and hairstylists will now have a place to offer their services from, instead of the street. “This is an initiative to rid the pavements of informal traders and we are delighted to be part of such an inspiring project. Most significant, though, is that the project could be creating 300 jobs,” says Heinrich von Wielligh, Corobrik’s factory manager at Driefontein. In addition to the company donating the face bricks, Corobrik’s Paulus Tolman, a qualified bricklayer at the Driefontein plant, assisted with training the local labourers employed for this project. “The training was a challenge as many of the workers had no prior experience in building or construction; however, Paulus’s

knowledge and skill contributed to a successful training program. Being involved in this project has afforded us two opportunities to positively contribute to and uplift the community. While donating our bricks was essential, training was equally vital. It is rewarding to be part of a project

where each worker has been equipped with a valuable skill that can be used after the project to find employment,” explains Von Wielligh. BELOW Wendy Machema with Corobrik’s Paulus Tolman and members of the local community who have been employed to construct industrial hives


PEOPLE AND EVENTS

No-Dig Live 2012 Bookings are already being snapped up for next year’s biennial No-Dig Live exhibition, taking place at Stoneleigh Park in the United Kingdom from 2 to 4 October 2012.

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o-Dig Live is the UK’s only specialised event showcasing equipment and ser vices used for the installation and refurbishment of underground utilities with minimum disruption to the sur face. Complementing the indoor exhibition, the outdoor displays and demonstrations are hugely popular with visitors who are able to see a range of machiner y and equipment in action and have the oppor tunity of questioning the representatives and operators on the applications and capabilities of products on display. The 2010 show featured the largest number of outdoor exhibitors in the event’s histor y and the organisers are repor ting brisk business and many repeat bookings for 2012, with an ever-rising demand for prime outdoor areas. Overseas visitor


numbers are also on the increase and for 2012 the organisers are working with the international community to attract organised delegations, par ticularly from nearby European countries. The successful ‘Breakfast Briefing’ seminars will once again feature on the daily programme. Held within the indoor exhibition area and organised by the UK Society for Trenchless Technology, visitors can par ticipate in the topical debates held early each morning before the exhibition opens, offering them the added benefit of attending a seminar before spending time in the exhibition. Entrance to the exhibition and seminars is free of charge to all industr y visitors. For more, visit www.nodiglive.co.uk

ABOVE The demonstrations at No-Dig Live are popular with delegates BELOW A general view of the exhibition area

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

IPCC reviewer appointment

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ndrew Mather, project executive for Coastal Policy at eThekwini Municipality, has been appointed as an expert reviewer on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Mather’s coastal management responsibilities include the development of a coastal management programme, the development of coastal and catchment policies, providing input into national and provincial legislation and projects, coastal setback line development, shoreline management and other coastal-related issues. He is completing a PhD in environmental science at UKZN on sea-level rise, beach response and adaptation along the Southern and Eastern African coastline. Mather was the main technical author of ‘Sea-level rise: trends, impacts and mitigation for South Africa’, in the IPCC: South Africa Countr y Report, 2009. As a result of his work Mather was nominated by the minister of the environment as one of four South African scientists to ser ve on the IPCC. The IPCC has confirmed his appointment as an expert reviewer for Working Group II. Mather will be working on ‘Chapter 5: Coastal systems and low lying areas’ in the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Repor t (AR5): Climate Change 2013: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Mather is a registered professional engineer, a fellow of the South African Institute of Civil Engineers and a member of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa.

Appointment at Thuthuka

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raeme Kilfoil has been appointed by Thuthuka Group Limited to manage its water treatment and reclamation division. In his previous positions, Kilfoil has led teams involved in the ground-breaking Sasol Landlord Project, which took cooling system blow-down water that was previously discarded to the river and treated it for industrial reuse. He was also involved in the recently signed Eskom Kusile water treatment project, where ultra-pure water is produced for boiler feed and potentially hazardous flue gas desulphuriser brine is turned into a dry salt for landfill disposal. “It is generally acknowledged that South Africa, and indeed the whole area of subSaharan Africa, is deemed to be seriously water stressed. Increasingly there is a lot more emphasis being placed on recyclingmunicipal as well as industrial wastewater,” states Kilfoil. “Hopefully, the future is that both industrial and municipal water will be recycled on site and municipal water recycled to achieve potable water status. Other countries at the forefront of desalination water treatment with successfully operational plants are Namibia and Singapore. Australia, with most of its population based

Thuthuka Group Limited has appointed Graeme Kilfoil to manage its water treatment and reclamation division

on the coast and a fairly barren interior, has similar water issues to South Africa. It has completed many major successful sea water desalination projects. In South Africa, where both the east and west coasts are water stressed, the only viable solution would be seawater desalination.”

Aurecon appoints new manager for South African offices

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Andrew Mather, project executive for Coastal Policy at eThekwini Municipality

lobal engineering, management and specialist technical ser vices group Aurecon has appointed Ronnie Khoza as its manager: South Africa Offices. Khoza is no stranger to Aurecon, having served as a director at one of Aurecon’s heritage companies between 1999 and 2003. Khoza was the chief executive officer of the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb), which is part of the national Department of Public Works. As a public entity, the cidb was established to provide strategic leadership to the construction industr y, as well as regulate it.

Ronnie Khoza


COMPETITION

Quest for SA’s oldest concrete pipe installations

Concrete is one of the most durable materials known to man and its success as a medium for water and sewer piping is legendary. To highlight this achievement, the PIPES division of the Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA) and IMIESA are running a joint campaign to identify concrete piping installations that are 75 years and over. The intention is to write articles on some of the more interesting projects, illustrating that the faith placed in concrete piping by civil engineers during the early part of the 20th century was by no means misplaced. “We are hoping to find at least one installation which has been operational for 100 years or more,” says CMA director Hamish Laing.

“No other material comes close to concrete piping’s track record for the conveyance of water using pipes with diameters greater than 150 mm and identifying specific installations will prove the point.” “One of the reasons for the success of concrete piping is that it is both a conduit and a self-supporting structure as opposed to flexible plastic piping, which as a conduit only requires an on-site supporting structure to be built around it,” explains Laing. If any IMIESA readers are aware of piping installations that fall into the above category and can substantiate them with some form of documentary evidence, the CMA would be delighted to hear from you. The first 10 submissions that qualify will be rewarded with a case of vintage wine; however, preference will be given to the oldest projects.

All submissions should be sent to [email protected] by 31 October. 92 - IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

The sky is the limit Height Wise officially opened its upgraded training academy in June 2011, to provide essential safety training to workers in SA who carry out tasks more than 2 m above the ground.

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eight Wise director Penny Fabricius points out that the academy has invested more than R60 000 into the infrastructure and equipment of its Midrand-based training facility, which specialises in fall arrest and rope access training. Height Wise has to date trained more than 1 200 people from numerous industries,

including mining, telecommunications and the energy sectors of Africa, in the basic principles of fall arrest systems, which are all compliant with the Institute for Work at Height (IWH) and National Qualifications Framework (NFQ) standards. RIGHT The academy has trained more than 1 200 people from several industries IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2011 - 93

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Sewage in, water out

WORKING AT HEIGHT MADE Safe•Productive•Cost-Effective Work at height solutions from 4 to 47 metres

Ozone Services Industries has commercially launched its Biozone NoKak sewage treatment plant, a compact and affordable alternative to septic tanks and French drain sewers.

Diesel or electric booms and scissors for outdoor and indoor applications

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he Biozone NoKak sewage treatment plant is designed to recycle sewage effluent into water that can be reused in toilet flushing systems, irrigation systems and even as drinking water for livestock. Ozone Ser vices Industries (OSI) says that it is targeting the estimated R1.26 billion South African water treatment and wastewater treatment market (2008), which, according to business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, is forecast to grow by 69% to R2.13 billion by 2014. This growth comes as a result of increased legislative and environmental pressures, a historical lack of investment in water treatment and the fact that the demand for clean water is outweighing its supply in South Africa. According to Ian Wright, managing director at OSI, the Biozone NoKak sewage treatment plant is a 100% South Africandesigned and developed product, utilising a completely natural process that requires no chemicals or regular emptying to treat sewage.

Call us now for your customised access solution!

ABOVE The plant is designed to recycle sewage effluent into water that can be reused in toilet flushing systems

Sole distributor of INSTITUTE FOR WORK AT HEIGHT


[email protected]•www.eazisales.co.za•086 100 5540


A water treatment solution for remote locations Rand Technical Services is pleased to announce that it is now the sole distributor for US-based company EEC Global Operation LLC in South Africa.

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shwane-based Rand Technical Services (RTS) is known for supplying globally sourced quality products in order to offer innovative solutions to industrial problems. The company will now also focus on distributing the EEC Bio Tec Effluent Treatment Plant in Southern Africa, which has many applications in, among others, rural areas, schools, clinics and municipalities. This is according to Ian Fraser, managing director of RTS, who says that the EEC Bio Tec offers numerous benefits in Southern Africa, where there is a desperate need for properly treated, clean drinking and irrigation water, particularly in the rural areas. “Not only does the EEC system occupy less space than other mobile effluent treatment plants, but it also requires a minimum amount of maintenance and a very

affordable capital investment, and operating costs are exceptionally low,” says Fraser. He points out that the system has 10 times the loading capacity in less than one fifth of the space of conventional plants. “The system is pre-fabricated and mounted in ISO freight containers, and being

containerised and fully mobile, is easily transported to any location – unlike conventional treatment plants,” he adds. In addition, the system has fully automatic operation, is reliable and robust and has one central control panel for easy operation.

RIGHT The system is pre-fabricated, and being containerised and fully mobile, is easily transported to any location

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS ABS Arup ASH Resources Aurecon Bell Equipment Bosun Brick Camjet Cement & Concrete CESA Conference 2011 CHI Control City of Cape Town Degremont Devtech Civils DPI Plastics Durban Instruments Specialists Eazi Sales and Service ERWAT


28 64 4 57 63 13 78 93 16 21 48 41 72 18 40 95 44

Eskom Esorfranki Fibrepipe Goba Grundfos Husqvarna IMESA Conference Programme Incledon Infropex Igneous ITT Water & Waste Water Jetvac Khrone SA Mercedes Benz National Asphalt Nyeleti Administration Trust Preconference Workshop

66-67 77 20 65 23 25 10-11 30 27 73 34 75 26 OFC 81 70 9

Robor SBS Water Systems Sembcorp Spraypave Tecroveer Thusanang Gast Tlokwe City Council Trenchless Technologies TT Innovations Turf Ag Water & Sanitation Verder Pumps Vermeer VNA Consulting WBHO Construction Worley Parsons Zest WEG Group

32 IBC 42 80 50 2 46-47 IFC 76 45 OBC 37 79 82 & 83 68-69 62 36

IMIESA September 2011 Low Res

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