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NEWS RELEASE

DATE  :           18 JANUARY 2010

TENDER FOR PROJECT TO SUPPLEMENT WATER SUPPLY TO BE AWARDED

A tender for a the establishment of a reverse osmosis facility at a cost of approximately R49 million to purify municipal effluent to a standard that would render it suitable for production purposes at PetroSA’s synthetic fuels plant and save water for Mossel Bay, has closed on Friday, 15 January 2010, and is expected to be awarded within the next week.

The facility, which will yield approximately 5 megalitres of water suitable for industrial purposes daily, is expected to be commissioned in May 2010.

The facility will enable a reduced intake by PetroSA from the Department of Water Affairs’ Wolwedans Dam, which supplies water to both the Municipality and the PetroSA plant. This therefore means that more of the dam’s water will be available for municipal use and the Municipality’s water supply will last longer.

This method of alleviating the present water crisis has been selected from several others, including the desalination of seawater, because it can be implemented quickly and is cheaper and more cost effective than any of the other methods considered.

The project will be funded jointly by PetroSA (R22,5 million), the Government (R16,5 million) and the Municipality (R10 million). The Municipality has reprioritised its spending so that its share can be funded from its own funds and not burden the ratepayers. The current project is the first phase of a planned longer term project to purify effluent from the Municipality’s waste water treatment plant for specialised industrial and other purposes.

The yield is equal to approximately a third of the daily water requirements of both PetroSA and the Municipality and will therefore extend the Municipality’s water supply beyond June 2010, the date at which the dam is now expected to run empty if it does not rain enough before then. The dam was initially expected to run empty by March 2010 but as a result of water savings following the imposition of water restrictions by the Municipality and the fact that it now appears that more of the dam’s bottom water can be purified than anticipated initially, the date at which the dam is expected to be empty is now later.

“The Municipality has investigated several options to stretch the Municipality’s water supply, including the building of a seawater desalination plant, but the effluent treatment option has proved to be the most economical and meeting our current requirements best. The effluent treatment facility is, for example, not only cheaper than a desalination plant but also a more energy efficient and robust operation. It also does not have the type of harmful by-products associated with a desalination plant.

“The Municipality has already applied to the National Treasury for funds to double the facility’s capacity. Apart from the requirements of PetroSA and other local industries the treated effluent can in future also be used to irrigate sports fields and parks,” said Dr Michele Gratz, the Municipal Manager of Mossel Bay.

Dr Gratz said that the Municipality is pulling out all stops to save water as well as to augment  the water supply available to the people of Mossel Bay. She said credit must also be given to the majority of Mossel Bay’s consumers who are really supporting the water-saving drive well. The majority of the people also adhere to the water restrictions.

In order to increase the availability of water from one of rivers from which water is pumped in to the Klipheuwel Dam, the Department of Water Affairs is due to start a project to eradicate Black Wattle trees in river beds and catchment areas. Alien vegetation is known to be much thirstier than indigenous vegetation and therefore consumes more water from river beds than the indigenous vegetation.

Other methods to increase the municipal water supply, such as the drilling of boreholes and enlarging the Klipheuwel Dam, are also being investigated. The Municipality has already implemented measures to reduce water losses which occur during the normal course of water distribution.

Ends

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