STATUS OF WATER RESOURCES
Water quality produced (relative to SANS 241)
Overberg Water Board has continually maintained good water quality results over the past year as shown in Table 19. As a bulk water service provider, all of the Overberg Water Board’s water treatment plants comply with the standards set out in SANS 241: 2015. Water quality is rigorously managed, and stringent systems and controls are in place to make sure this is met. The water did not achieve on the Operational Water Quality Standard as we obtained 87.74% vs a target of 95%. This was caused by the ageing sand filters that required refurbishment at the Duivenhoks Scheme. As at year end the sand filters have been refurbished and the benefits should be evident in the next financial year. Overberg Water has set KPIs that are in line with Blue Drop certification requirements and its monitoring and testing processes far outweigh the minimum required by SANS 214: 2015. Sampling and analyses are carried out using accredited laboratory techniques (ISO 9001) as far as possible. Table 20 provides an explanation of the results.
Reliability of supply
During the year under review Overberg Water Board experienced 12 instances of interruptions in supply and 4 days without water. These interruption were mainly caused by load shedding which caused reservoir levels to decline at an accelerated rate due to pump stations shutting down with power. In addition to the load shedding the Entity experienced higher than an anticipated pipe bursts during the year with some being caused by changes in pressure in the pipeline network as and when power returns. There was also one third party damage to one of our pipes.
Manage avoidable water losses
Overberg Water (OW) has over the past years successfully maintained non-revenue water below 10%, although for the past few years the Entity had a challenge of several pipe bursts due to the ageing infrastructure resulting in higher water loses than anticipated. This target was not achieved. For the 2022/23 financial year the non-revenue water was reported at 25.1%. This is still acceptable compared to national standards. The effects of the ageing infrastructure, prevalence in water theft activities and the lack of telemetry contract are some of the reasons for the non- achievement of this target.
Increase access services
There is no actual spending as the Department of Water and Sanitation did not issue any directives to Overberg Water to implement projects.