Water Utility, Amatola Water, is set to go through a radical overhaul over the next ten years as it expands its operations to cover the entire Eastern Cape.

The strategic plan, which took a year to put together, was adopted by its outgoing board on Friday. The plan will result in the water utility operating outside its gazette area as it extends its footprint in the province. As part of the plan, four regional offices will be established with additional site offices to bring its service offering closer to communities. The plan also includes a bold move to establish a training academy.

The southern region offices are earmarked for Nahoon Dam, which will cover the coastal municipalities including Koukamma Municipality in Cacadu District Municipality. The eastern region office will be based in Mthatha covering the eastern part of Amathole District Municipality (ADM), OR Tambo Municipality and parts of Alfred Nzo District Municipality; also having a site office in Butterworth.

The northern region offices will be located in Sterkspruit with a site office in Queenstown. It will cover Ukhahlamba District Municipality and the eastern parts of Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM). The western region will have its office in Fort Beaufort covering the western parts of ADM, Cacadu District Municipality and CHDM.

“The process is already in motion while the official launch of the strategy is planned for July 2010. This forms part of a 2020 project aimed at assisting municipalities as water services authorities to provide safe potable bulk water.

“The expansion was necessitated by the demand to support municipalities with the provision of water and sanitation services. This will ensure that we consolidate the growth of our primary business by investing in infrastructure upgrades throughout our plants,” says Amatola Water acting chief executive Xola Bomela.

The utility’s services are two-fold. Its primary business is the provision of bulkwater and secondary services which include operations, maintenance, abstraction infrastructure, water purification, water conservation, water demand management and distribution infrastructure.

Bomela says the utility, which is one of 16 water boards in South Africa, will invest in infrastructure development in outlaying areas outside its original service area which will also improve water quality.

Bomela says Amatola Water, which operates 21 dams and 11 water schemes, stands at almost 100% in water compliance which is above the 96% national SANS class 1 standard.

“This means in all our supply areas, when one opens the tap to have a glass of water, one can be sure that it is safe,” explains Bomela.

According to Bomela, the expansion will be funded by a mix of income sources from Amatola Water reserves, provisioning of services income, government grants and capital from the market.

“Our revenue currently stands at R250 million and we expect this to grow R1,3 billion in 2020. The expenditure will also be controlled by demand. The utility has recorded a 184% growth in revenue in the last four years. Its revenue grew from R88 million in 2006 to R250 million last year.

“Income growth allows for infrastructure investment but this also means we must grow our customer base. The strategy states that we must consolidate bulk water services, expand our built to operate projects including our operations and maintenance services,” explains Bomela.

The water utility has also been earmarked by the Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to take over the Albany Coast Water Board.

Amatola Water has also been able to provide more water from 16 million kilolitres in 1999 to 32 million kilolitres to date. It has consistently maintained water losses through its network at the minimum between 4,99% and 5,37%. 

“This is because we have been able to improve our efficiencies across all our production facilities,” says Amatola Water’s chairperson Nothemba Mlonzi.

The expansion will also result in the growth of the workforce which currently sits at over 300 employees. The employee base is set grow to just over 1 000 by 2020.

“This is where the training academy will play a crucial role. The country lacks certain technical skills which will be necessary to make the expansion a success. We have identified priority skills such as plant operators who will be trained at the academy.

“There will be a programme to train artisans with academic institutions. Engineering, financial, environmental and chemists are critical skills,” adds Bomela.

In future the Amatola Water head office may move to Nahoon Dam, where the utility’s regional offices currently are, and where the academy will be built,” he says.

The next step is to convert this strategy into a five-year business plan and a shareholders’ compact to be submitted to the minister in April 2010.

Amatola Water has already injected millions of rands into infrastructure upgrades designed to meet anticipated future water demand and to improve water quality in the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) and ADM).

One of these projects was a R29 million upgrade of the Laing water treatment works in King William’s Town (KWT) and the Nahoon water treatment works (WTW) which supply water to BCM. 

In addition, two reservoirs in Berlin and Qongqotha are currently under construction, as well as related pipelines to the tune of R40million, all aimed at improving the storage capacity and the security of water supply in these areas. 

“We will increase their capacity to meet anticipated water demand so that we extend our supply zone to cater for future residential, industrial or commercial developments in the BCM area,” says Bomela.