By Mr Larry Crisp Communications Manager, Department of Water and Sanitation, Free State

Electricity has become an integral part of our daily lives. We use it to warm our water through geysers or kettles, it powers our lights when it’s dark but most importantly, the pumps that are used to pump water at the Water Treatment Plants also use electricity to get the water to our taps.

Let’s be honest until a few years back, many of us never thought to purchase a backup generator incase supply of electricity is cut, or even considered installing a solar kit. Surely this year has been an eye opener for most.  Most of the Water Treatment Works in South Africa do not have backup generators, and as a result this affects the supply of water to especially high lying areas. This applies also to Waste Water Treatment Works that takes sewage from our homes to where it is treated and finally sent back to the river.

With the current state of electricity, the situation of water supply is exacerbated especially where Municipalities are already battling to supply water full time to their communities. While we have kind of climatized to sitting in the dark and using torches and phones to light our way and making fires to cook our food it is difficult to imagine having to survive without water because as we know, water has no substitute. 

Load shedding can also lead to appliances being damaged because when power returns after load shedding, households may experience a surge of current to their plugged-in appliances and this could cause serious damage. The appliances may even be irreparable following a serious 'voltage spike'. We need to understand that when a water pump seizes to operate it is not as simple to replace. There are certain supply chain procedures that have to be followed by Municipalities to get the pump either repaired or replaced. This can take weeks or even months. Load shedding does not only stop pumps from working but the whole plant. There are many stages that water goes through in order to be safe for consumption after abstraction from a river or a dam. and most processes are done electronically. When the power goes off it means that the plant seizes to operate. 

Even though load shedding is the enemy of all, it teaches us a valuable lesson for future planning. As communities continue to grow and more Water and Waste Water Treatment Plants are constructed, backup power supply should be included as part of the plan.