President's Letter

New WISA Branch

I am delighted to welcome the Mpumalanga branch of WISA that was launched on 7 June 2011 in Mbombela (Nelspruit), welcome to the WISA family. Thank you to the volunteers, particularly Ms Susan Van Heerden and her team, who had worked tirelessly to make our dream of increasing WISA membership and branches a reality. During this launch I was delighted with the broad representation from Municipalities including officials and Councillors, Department of Water Affairs, Human Settlements, SALGA, Consulting firms, Water Utilities, Education and Research Institutions, Suppliers, and youth. For sure in June you will have youth participation, I am looking forward to witnessing the establishment of the Young Water Professionals Chapter. All representatives committed themselves to provide the necessary support to ensure that WISA becomes active in the Mpumalanga Province. Working together as a team we can do more in addressing the service delivery issues.

3rd Municipal Water Quality Conference

Hopefully all of those who had attended this conference had their batteries charged and are ready to tackle the challenges facing the water sector. The theme of the conference was “Reshaping the South African Municipal Water Quality Landscape”. The results of the Blue and Green Drop assessment were announced at a prestigious gala dinner. We can be proud that the regulator has confirmed that for the first time it has a complete database of exact strengths and gaps per municipality and per water supply system from where gradual as well as sustainable improvement can be monitored.

A total of 66 water supply systems were awarded the prestigious Blue Drop Certificates for 2010/11 assessment period compared to 38 systems for the 2009/10 year. This equates to an increase of 74%.
In terms of the Green Drop assessment, the number of systems that scored more than 50% increased from 216 in 2009 to 460 in 2011. The number of systems awarded with the Green Drop Certificates increased from 33 to 40, and this equates to 21% increase.

This is a positive increase considering the fact that the Green Drop program is a year behind the Blue Drop. I am concerned with the misinterpretation of results for these awards. There has been a public perception that municipalities who did not receive a Blue and Green Drop Certification are performing badly. It must be remembered that the Blue and Green Drop Certificate are awards of excellence, 95% and 90% respectively. Average performance is from 50% and there is an ample room for improvement.

We cannot relax whilst there are still systems which attained less than 50%. What caused these municipalities to score very low? Is it a skills capacity issue, finance, etc.? We need to investigate the cause of this and provide the necessary interventions. The Water Science Division of WISA runs short courses every year to demonstrate basic knowledge of the water and wastewater treatment process. I recommend that municipalities must consider this as it will benefit their Process Controllers, improve municipalities’ assessment record and ultimately improve the quality of life for the consumers.

The excitement and joy displayed by the Process Controllers whilst receiving these awards was amazing. At least this is the beginning of their recognition for their commitment in operating the water care works which are in most cases out of sight. Congratulations to all those who received these awards of excellence as well as those that have improved their performance from the previous score. Let us continue to improve our sector as we all want the water sector to the one of winners.

The participation by the youth during the conference proceedings was great. The future of the sector will be in good hands for as long as we invest in our youth.

Finally, I would like to extend my special thank you to the DWA and WISA team for preparing a conference with such great success. Thank you also to the councilors from various municipalities who participated in the conference, your contribution and involvement is much appreciated.

Anderson Mluleki Mancotywa

WISA President

WISA values your input

WISA invites members to provide feedback on the WISA Newsletter. Please send your comments or suggestions to the Editor: Debbie Besseling


                               

Patron News
 
At the recently held Blue and Green Drop awards ceremony, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Mrs Edna Molewa received honorary membership to the Water Institute of Southern Africa. Pictured here is WISA President Anderson Mancotywa presenting the honorary membership certificate to Minister Edna Molewa.

                                                                          

Request for contributions

WISA Patron Members are welcome to send their latest news stories and pictures to the Editor for publishing in the Patron Member’s section of the WISA Newsletter.

News

WISA Mpumalanga Branch launch

The Mpumalanga Branch of WISA was officially launched over a two day event. A number of specialised presentations were given by industry professionals including: a keynote address by WISA president Anderson Mancotywa; the Management of Complex Wastewater Discharges by Hesmarie Pearson and Anna Loots; the use of the Municipal Assistant System to improve operation, maintenance and compliance; Water Quality Significance and the Need for Sustainability by Dudu Sifunda; the re-use of nutrients energy and water - the urine diversion or urine separation toilet; Sincobile water food and sanitation project sponsored by the Royal Dutch Embassy. Here are some snap shots of the event.

Municipal Water Quality conference

The very successful Municipal Water Quality conference took place in Cape Town from 27 June to 1 July 2011. More than 800 delegates attend the conference. Here are some pictures of the event.

WISA 2012
The call for Abstracts for the WISA 2012 Biennial Conference has opened. Submissions close on 1 August 2011.

                                                             
Please submit your abstracts online by clicking here
Visit the conference website for further details.

eWISA News

The eWISA team reports the following from Stellenbosch:

www.ewisa.co.za – World of Water Information
The eWISA team reports the following from Stellenbosch:
Visits to the eWISA website as at 07 July 2011 exceeded 771978.

eWISA Photo Gallery: The eWisa photo gallery already contains more than 31 260 photos. We are steadily adding more photos to the photo gallery. You are very welcome to submit photos to us and we will host it on the eWisa website free of charge. All photos are fully reference and credited to the contributor. Use the following link to view our photos.
Below: Photos of heavy rains during June 2011. Click this link to view more

Groot Bak

Nahoon River



Cape Town



Eastern Cape- Bridge next to VW

eWISA Water History: 1975: The Orange-Fish tunnel is the longest continuous water tunnel in the world. Its purpose is the inter-basin transfer of water from the Orange River to the Fish River valleys. By any standards this is a major project. The tunnel has a lined diameter of 5.35 m and in 82.5 km long. The tunnel was officially opened by the Hon. BJ Vorster, the Prime Minister on August 22, 1975.

Please take note that all the Blue Drop and Green Drop information as well as the presentations (as soon as we receive them) will be uploaded on the eWISA website during the coming weeks.




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