The CSIR and Joburg Water workshop was attended by CSIR delegation: Berenice Lue Marais Contract R&D (CR&D), Mlawule Mashego Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE), Kevin Wall Built Environment (BE), Pinda Sifunda Human Capital Development (HCD), Senzo Makhathini (NRE), Maxwell Mapako (NRE), Bruno Meyer South African National Space Agency (SANSA), Riaan Coetzee Materials Science Manufacturing (MSM) and Themba Belle (CR&D). The Joburg Water delegation was represented by: Antonino Manus (City of Johannesburg), Tshepo Phutha, Henry Roman, Rob Boyd and Nevil Enslin and Nino Manus.
A fruitful workshop hosted by Group Manager: CSIR Contract R&D, Berenice Lue Marais, was recently held between the CSIR and Joburg Water. The two organisations identified the following issues as the key areas for possible collaboration:
- preventative maintenance;
- energy management;
- pipeline integrity materials;
- biogas; and
- the quality control of small enterprises to monitor the implementation of operations, fixing leaks and sewer detection mechanisms.
Berenice said, “The areas of potential collaboration were identified after Joburg Water provided in-depth presentations on the challenges of aging infrastructure and the need for plans to deal with the Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) issue and the looming water crisis.”
She added, “We discussed finding alternative ways of repairing water pipes, as well as mapping pipelines utilising a similar technology developed for Eskom power lines to detect underground services and weak spots in pipes as potential research areas. In addition, Joburg Water indicated that stakeholder engagement with communities on technology acceptance, use and care, was a key issue.”
“There was a general feeling of excitement at the prospects of working together among the participants,” added Berenice. A follow-up workshop has been arranged for May 2011 at the Joburg Water site, as well as a tour of the Northern waste water treatment works near Diepsloot.
