This partnership seeks to reduce water losses in Metsimaholo Local Municipality (LM), situated in the International Vaal/Orange-Senqu catchment. Actions include a baseline assessment to determine current losses, community outreach measures and leakage repair on bulk and household infrastructure. Project partners are Sasol, Metsimaholo LM, Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), and GIZ's International Water Stewardship Program. This project will provide insights into financing options for water-loss reduction, which can serve as reference for other countries.

Project Results

Sasol, one of the biggest users of water in South Africa for business-related activities, decided to partner with the Department to collaborate on what is called the DWS-SASOL collaboration – Zamdela Water Loss Reduction Project. This project was encouraged by similar operations in water partnership under the umbrella of the United Nations (UN).

In early 2017 the Metsimaholo Local Municipality had to implement restrictions where water supply to this low-income area was restricted using intermittent supply (closing valves). In some cases, supply was restricted by 70% and the communities began approaching Sasol to provide water tankers.

In July 2015 Sasol entered into a water conservation/water demand management (WC/WDM) partnership project with MLM in collaboration with Rand Water (as implementing agent), The German Development agency (GIZ), and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). The DWS contributed R4 million, Sasol R2.9 million and GIZ 60,000 Euros. Part of the project included the installation of pressure controllers to reduce pressure from 22:00 to 5:30 as opposed to introducing intermittent supply of water through the closure of valves. Through this intervention this community has continuous access to water and the municipality benefited by reducing demand to this area by 23%. Some members from this community are employees of Sasol.