SA’s water infrastructure crisis needs new ‘digital approach’

Water experts believe digitising water infrastructure in SA can help authorities manage water more efficiently and effectively to improve service delivery for all.

Dominic Collett, urban development engineer and smart city specialist at Royal HaskoningDHV, said the first step is to get an accurate and real-time overview of the country’s infrastructure.

“A single view of the truth that will help city officials make informed decisions. This is possible with ‘digital twin’ technology.

“A digital twin is a virtual representation of physical assets, like buildings or water pipes. By sharing data between the virtual and physical environments, municipalities, city officials and planners can make the most of our infrastructure and future-proof it to extend its lifespan,” said Collett.

Water and sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that SA needs more than R120bn in the next 10 years “to ensure the entire SA has security of supply of water”.

Sisulu said the money was needed for the completion of major infrastructure.

Collett said infrastructure was the immediate challenge and maintenance is the most urgent requirement “if we are to avoid the devastating effects of water outages on communities and businesses, and we’re already faced with a significant backlog.  

“The good news is that the solution is mostly there in the form of the National Treasury’s infrastructure delivery management system.

“A lot of the hard work has been done and it is a very thorough document. The final step that would do it justice is to use technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to speed things up and help us make the most of our infrastructure and increase its lifespan,” Collett said.

Collett said it is cheaper to maintain than it is to repair, and it is cheaper to repair than it is to replace.

“A digital approach to looking after our infrastructure would make maintenance more effective, preventive and cost-effective. While the upfront cost of implementing a digital replica of our infrastructure and the AI technology required is hard to calculate, maintenance budges should be in order of 2% of the replacement cost of the infrastructure. Of this, the AI system’s implementation would be in order of a fifth of this.”

Sheilla de Carvalho, a smart asset management expert at Royal HaskoningDHV, said completing a full audit of SA’s water infrastructure will help authorities gain a full understanding of its condition and shortcomings, as well as highlighting ways to remedy these.

“A data-driven approach informed by building information management will help strategic role players in the sector to plan, design, build and manage water infrastructure more effectively to deliver clean and efficient water services to all South Africans.” 

She believes that with a holistic understanding of the water systems, infrastructure managers can enhance and optimise asset management processes and techniques, in turn leading to better decision making.

“With an accurate and detailed overview of our infrastructure, reflecting the state of each pipe, valve and pump, maintenance teams can work together rather than in silos.

“For example, when the maintenance leak repair unit, asset management planning unit, implementation of new projects unit and the financial budgeting unit use the same data, they can set collective targets and control points. Once this is done, we’d be able to set up automated prioritisation.”

According to Collett, with information at their fingertips city officials can make informed decisions backed by AI and predictive analytics.

“They’d also remove the risk of human error while existing issues would be fixed faster. Decisionmakers would be able to see, in advance, when specific parts of the infrastructure will need maintenance.”

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