reduce maintenance costs and unplanned water supply disruptions, as well as increase water efficiency, the City’s Department of Water and Sanitation has budgeted an amount of R9,9 million for water supply zone management this financial year. Dividing the network into smaller supply zones helps the City keep pressure at consistently optimal levels, and identify and investigate unexplained consumption increases more efficiently. This is mainly done through installing Smart Pressure Reducing Valves (PRVs) and bulk water meters.

Pressure management currently saves on average 23ML of water a day in Cape Town

The City has been pro-actively implementing pressure management to some extent since the early 2000s with the aim of delaying the need for rapid replacement of the pipeline network.

The zone management budget will be used for, (among other things):

Maintenance of existing loggers and controllers, which assist in monitoring the network

Engineering design of zones

Installing zone management infrastructure

The City aims to reach a total of approximately 236 total supply zones by the end of June 2022.  This represents about 68% of the network. This will require installation of seven new Pressure Management Zones and five new bulk meters.

Customers can expect continued near-zero pressure testing to take place over coming months as new supply zones are implemented. This is done to see if there are any unmapped supplies into the zone that need to be taken into account before the zone infrastructure is installed and calibrated.  When necessary, certain zones may also require a dummy shut-down before the construction begins to ensure the installation site can be isolated effectively. Media releases will be sent out to inform communities when they will be affected by water disruption. Customers can also follow @CT_alerts on Twitter for notification and updates on service disruptions.

‘Our aim is to have full coverage of the City network with either Pressure Management Zones or District Metered Areas in order for us to minimise water wastage. The areas prioritised for the installation of these PRVs are based on a combination of pipe burst frequency, pipe material, and prevailing operating pressure in the area,’ said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.

Source: City Of Cape Town