ETD Collection

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Water use--South Africa

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    The effect of water scarcity on health and development: the case of Lomanyaneng and Majemantsho villages in Ngaka Modiri Molema district, North West
    (2017) Lolwana, Nonkululeko Felicia
    Water is one of the key and most fundamental and indispensable natural resource. Without it nothing on the universe will function. Water scarcity is a global reality threatening economic and societal development. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of community members in Lomanyaneng and Majemantsho villages in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District about water scarcity and its effect on health and development. A qualitative research approach and a case study design were employed during the study. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. The study comprised of thirteen participants: ten community members (five participants from each village; both male and female), the municipality manager (particularly from water and sanitation sector) and two ward councilors (one per ward: Lomanyaneng ward 5 and Majemantsho ward 21). A semi structured interview schedule was used during the in-depth interviews with the municipality manager and two ward councilors, and a focus group guide was used to facilitate the focus group discussions with participants from the two villages. The interviews and the two focus groups were voice recorded during the process of data collection. The collected data was transcribed and analyzed through thematic content analysis. Key findings revealed that water scarcity have detrimental effects on the health and development of the communities in Lomanyaneng and Majemantsho villages. The Ngaka Modiri Molema District water service delivery was perceived as very poor and is attributed to poor planning, poor water supply, and poor water infrastructure. Recommendations made were the need; to increase communal taps, need for drainage system to recycle water, needs assessment for identification of needs, proper planning and outreach programmes to disseminate knowledge on how to conserve and use water, and constant monitoring of Jojo tanks and inspection of drinking water.
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    Water management at a base metals refinery
    (2016) Osman, Ayesha
    Most mineral processing plants have high water requirements for their operational activities. These plants often function in an environment where water is becoming increasingly scarce. An increase in population will result in an increased demand for water, potentially beyond the limits of supply, and hence increased competition for the resource. In South Africa, Gauteng and the North West Province are likely to be first to experience a shortage of potable water. The key to a sustainable future lies in understanding and utilising resources more efficiently. This holds especially for industries who seek to minimise water usage through better management of resources. The two tools used in this study are the Water Accounting Framework (WAF) and Water Footprinting (WF) method. This research assisted a refinery in the North West Province understand its water usage and move towards operating in a more sustainable manner. Site water management was improved and the objective of this research fulfilled by: (i) Surveying the potable water and the storm water systems with a view to assessing the current water accountability and determining methods to improve accountability; (ii) Determining the water balance for the site and presenting it in the form of a water balance sheet; (iii) Reporting water usage in accordance with the Minerals Council of Australia’s “Water Accounting Framework for the Minerals Industry”; (iv) Calculating the water footprints of the refinery; and (v) Evaluating the water usage at the refinery and identifying ways in which water savings could be achieved. It was seen that the biggest consumer of water was the boilers and utilities section and the biggest loss of water was through evaporation. The refinery potable water requirement (2 280 m3/y) amounted to 0.16% of the daily water use for the Bojanala Platinum District. Four reports (outputs) were generated using the WAF. The four reports generated provide a good indication of the movement of water into, out of and during a process. WFs were calculated for the process. The blue WF was calculated to be 832 363 m3 and the green WF was calculated to be 261 970 m3. The product WF was 43.9 m3/t of base metal produced. There was no grey WF as the site does not discharge polluted water. This research provided an opportunity for the refinery to improve water efficiency onsite as well as improve reporting standards. Water usage was reported using global reporting tools to set a benchmark for the base metals industry.