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How to save over 1.5 million litres of water a day

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Nelson Mandela Bay businesses have so far saved more than 1.3 million litres a day of the metro’s clean water from going down the drain over the past four months by volunteering to plug household leaks.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s Adopt-a-Leak intervention has now been extended by another month into a further two “leak hotspot” suburbs, with over 1 600 households being surveyed for leaks, and on track to hit its target of over 1.5 million daily litres saved before the end of November.

To date, 3 716 households in an initial six areas have had their leaking taps, toilets and pipes repaired by local businesses that offered their time and resources to help turn the tide on the Bay’s water management crisis.

The 1.348 million-litre (1 348 kl) daily saving to date represents 50l of water per day available for an additional 26 960 people, instead of being “lost” to leaks that consume 30% of the metro’s treated water.

The project also created temporary employment for 90 people in the targeted areas, who were recruited to assist and now have the basic skills to identify and repair water leaks in their areas or find employment with plumbing contractors.

Focusing progress on litres of water saved rather than number of leaks repaired is a more effective means of water management, says Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen.

She said the best practices and solutions to improve water management and curb losses of treated water identified through Adopt-A-Leak were being shared with the municipality so that business and local government can learn from each other and drive collective solutions to shared problems.

“The more we reduce the amount of treated water that is lost to leaks and unauthorised consumption, the more likely it is that water from the Nooitgedacht treatment works, coming from the Gariep Dam via the Orange-Fish-Sundays scheme, will be sufficient for the metro’s needs and reduce our reliance on the drought-stricken western dams.

“Putting ‘lost’ water back into the system reduces the risk of taps running dry and also increases water revenue for the municipality – amounting to more effective water management,” Van Huyssteen said.

She said that by focusing on households, on both internal and “mains” connection leaks, the Adopt-A-Leak project had shown that fixing many small leaks could have a substantial impact in a short space of time.

Leaks on the demand, or customer, side of the system account for a large portion of water losses. The project focused specifically on lower-income areas, where household customers generally don’t have the resources for home maintenance such as repairing leaky plumbing.

The “leak hotspot” areas were identified by the municipality by their high rates of water and sewerage night-flow (at a time when very low water usage is expected), suggesting that leaks were causing high overnight demand.

The daily average saving of 1 348 kl/day recorded to date represents demand reduction of between 6% and 48% in the different areas, with leaks in one area representing almost half of their daily water consumption.

Van Huyssteen said the major best practice identified was the project’s focus on measuring performance by litres of water saved rather than the number of leaks repaired.

“The number of leaks is always going to be a moving target. At any one time there are over 3 000 logged leaks, with new leaks reported almost as fast as existing leaks are repaired.

“Measuring performance by the number of leaks reported and repaired tells you about service delivery response rates but nothing about the scale and severity of water losses due to leaks, nor the impact of repairing them. Targeting and tracking savings gives a better indicator of how reducing wastage increases the water that is available for use and also billable by the municipality,” Van Huyssteen said.

She said the Adopt-A-Leak experience had shown the need for a home maintenance support system for residents in low-income or social housing developments.

It also demonstrated the potential of public-private partnerships for job creation and skills transfer, creating opportunities for entrepreneurship or more permanent employment.

“The project has also highlighted the value of a collective effort – working on their own, the businesses that volunteered their services to Adopt-a-Leak would not have been able to make the impact that we have done by working as a collective in a focused, results-driven way,” she said.

Van Huyssteen urged business and industry to ramp up water re-use and recycling efforts to conserve treated water and use grey water for processes and operations where potable water is not required.

Implementing water re-use and recycling from operational processes as well as facilities such as ablutions and laundry should go hand-in-hand with finding and repairing leaks, rainwater harvesting and reducing water use through improved efficiencies.

“We live in a water-scarce region, even without the current drought. We need to accept this fact and make water conservation a permanent way of life in business. There are Chamber members on our water task team, and other local specialists, who are able to assist with optimising water use and savings,” she said

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.