KOUGA Municipality has taken great strides to be totally independent in providing its own water and electricity needs. Four ground-breaking water purification plants were constructed and upgraded across the region at Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay and Hankey. Drawing on increasing volumes of borehole water, the municipality is processing this water to remove iron and manganese.
Although the treatment process is used in mining and agriculture, the municipality believes that it is the first to set up these processing plants at municipal scale. “This process is fairly new and these plants are the largest in Africa to make use of this process for municipal supply.” Eliminating the use of chemicals, the new process also presents major cost-saving potential.
Water is oxidised in the pipelines (at the boreholes) through which water is pumped from the boreholes to the water treatment works. At the treatment works, the water is filtrated in filters with glass media on top (to remove most of the oxidised iron and manganese). Synthol media below acts as a filter to remove the remaining iron and manganese as well as the metallic taste and smell. After filtration, water is pumped into the reservoirs to mix with chlorinated water from existing sources.
The volume of borehole water that can now be used has drastically increased, thereby reducing the demand on the existing water supply from dams. The target is to switch the ratio of surface water received from dams, and underground water from fountains and boreholes from approximately 80:20 to 30:70%
At full capacity, an estimated 15 Megalitres per day (ML/day) can be treated by the four plants. Kouga’s average water consumption stands at 18 ML/day. If the borehole water is managed correctly, Kouga will not run totally dry in the eventuality that the dams cannot supply the water demand.
Mayor Hattingh Bornman is also in the process of finalising a plan to ensure Kouga’s independence from Eskom.
An ongoing feasibility study is underway to determine the viability of alternative means of renewable energy and power generation by independent power producers. The study is investigating the construction of a 20 MW plant – supplying a third of Kouga’s average electricity demand. The goal is to generate 60 MW of electricity, which will ensure the municipality’s independence from Eskom.
