RAND WATER ANNUAL REPORT 2023

ABOUT RAND WATER

Environmental Pillar

Progress Update

Sludge Residue Management

Water treatment residue (sludge) produced from both Zuikerbosch and Vereeniging is treated at Panfontein, producing on average 1000 tons of dry sludge per day. Disposal of sludge has been a constant problem over the years especially with growing environmental awareness and subsequent legislative requirements. Interventions to deal with the challenge have been put in place. An intervention to move the sludge from the selected drying beds to the sacrificial beds is currently underway. This will provide a stop gap while waiting for the medium-term intervention to start. Work to create space for storage of wet sludge within Panfontein is in progress. In terms of the long-term solution to sludge storage challenges, a beneficiation project is currently at investigation stage. Rand Water supplied an average of 4 520 Mℓ/d of potable water to our consumers by end of 2022/23, up from the previous year’s 4 443 Mℓ/d. The Peak day demand is 5 199 Mℓ/d achieved in March 2023, compared to 5 069 Mℓ/d achieved in May 2022. Non-revenue water (NRW) is at an average of 4.71% owing to losses in treatment and distribution. Proposed interventions to reduce NRW include the implementation of a “Satellite Leak Detection” project to detect the location and extent of leaks, the establishment of additional zones/ sectors within the distribution network, and pipeline augmentations that will include additional metering at all cross connections. We continue to use the Water Wise brand, an environmental brand of Rand Water, which is used to educate and influence a broad spectrum of stakeholders on how to use water wisely. Rand Water worked closely with several internal and external stakeholders (including the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Goldfields mine, WESA, Pick It Up) to execute several events aimed at providing water conservation and environmental awareness. Seventeen (17) educational and awareness water wise events with a total number of 19 894 audience members were implemented internally and externally. These events included the National Water Week, the World Wetlands Day, the World Environment Day etc. Rand Water has an extensive monitoring capacity consisting of three (ISO9001: 2015) certified site labs, over 500 online instruments located at various Rand Water production sites, and an (ISO17025: 2017) accredited laboratory to ensure quality safe drinking water. We achieved 99.35% on (SANS 241) - Composite Indicator against a target of 98.33%.

Water Security Water supply & distribution (volumes sold)

Water Loss Management

Water Conservation education (Awareness)

Water quality

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