High-tech EC water project unveiled

Tag : clean drinking water
2008/07/05

A HIGH-TECH water management project, unique in South Africa, wasunveiled in the Eastern Cape yesterday .


A joint project between Germany and South Africa, it is aimed atimproving water quality in rural areas , said Deputy Science andTechnology (DST) Minister Derrick Hanekom.
The facility is located at the Ikwezi Municipality of Jansenville,in the Karoo heartland just north of the Addo National Park.
It is a demonstration unit of a Communal Water House (CWH), whichuses low water consumption sanitation methods.
The CWH uses clean water for drinking and cooking, and re-uses therunoff water (called grey water) for laundry, sanitation,irrigation or other domestic purposes.
This is done through a grey water treatment device housed in theCWH.
Solar panels will be used for heating water.
The CWH is designed to service between 200 and 800 people.
The German federal ministry has invested R21million in the project,and the CWH demonstrator is the first of its kind in South Africa.
“It is hoped that such initiatives will be rolled out toother municipalities in South Africa in the future,” Hanekomsaid.
“This project clearly demonstrates how, through science andtechnology, we can meet the needs of the poor.
“We are confident that this cutting-edge technology willenable us to reach the last 12 percent of our people who have noaccess to water,” he added .
German ambassador to South Africa Dieter Haller said: “Ourpartnering with the DST and its project team aims to benefit thepoor and to contribute jointly to better livelihoods in SouthAfrica.”
The key partners in this project are the DST, the Department ofWater Affairs and Forestry, the Ikwezi Municipality and theUniversity of Potsdam in Germany.
South Africa and Germany have long collaborated in scientificfields.
There are about 80 projects in which they are jointly involved, inareas such as energy, biodiversity, geoscience and advancedmanufacturing.
It is hoped that thehigh-tech water project will further intensifyco- operation.
Other areas of joint co- operation between the two countriesinclude sustainability research (land use, energy and climatechange); advanced manufacturing (in materials and robotics);information and communications technologies; biotechnology; humanand social dynamics and astronomy. — Sapa