SAVING ELECTRICITY IS KEY TO WATER CRISIS

Johannesburg’s water crisis raises urgent concern about the city’s and the country’s long term water security. Dr Andrew Dickson, engineering executive at CBI-Electric: Low Voltage, says that saving electricity is crucial to saving water, and that electricity disruptions hamper the city’s water supply, preventing water being pumped from reservoirs and damaging already decaying infrastructure. In some cases, this leads to power surges upon restoration, further jeopardising the system’s stability. It also impacts water treatment, storage and management, as reported by the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Green, Blue and No Drop Reports. These reports revealed that 46% of the country’s drinking water systems did not meet micro-biological standards and that 67. 6% of wastewater treatments failed to adequately process sewage and other wastes.

Dickson stresses that to mitigate this, electricity consumption must be reduced in order to reduce load shedding, and the following are steps that the public and private sectors can take to achieve this:

*conducting regular energy audits to identify areas for saving electricity;

*investing in energy-efficient technologies such as LED lighting, heat pumps and variable speed drives for appliances. Heat pumps are three times more energy-efficient than conventional geysers, and variable speed drives slow down motor speeds in equipment such as fans, lifts, ventilation systems and freezer rooms;

*embracing renewable energy which not only reduces strain on the grid but also uses a fraction of the water used by coal plants to produce electricity; and

*participating in load management initiatives by Eskom, which encourages industries to reduce peak hour electricity usage by clipping or shifting peak loads. Industries are required to manage this without contravening health and safety requirements.

Dickson says the country needs to act now before the situation worsens.

www.cbi-lowvoltage.co.za