1. Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of … / CITSI
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Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of … / CITSI
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA:
THE CASE OF HARDING
Author: Hlosokuhle Fuyana
Supervisor: Prof G. Ochieng
Co-supervisor: Dr J. Snyman

2. Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of … / CITSI
INTRODUCTION
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• Globally, the water sector faces noteworthy challenges in maintaining reliable
service provision, amidst varying challenges such as ageing infrastructure,
growing demands, meeting increasing complexity and skills shortages.
• As part of the on-going efforts to address these challenges, this research has
been undertaken to facilitate the dissemination of technological innovations
within the field of water infrastructure management.
• These innovations entail the integration of a Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) and a hydraulic modelling software with water Infrastructure Asset
Management (IAM).
• Using a GIS geodatabase, an Asset Register was developed; from which a
failure risk scoring of each feature classes i.e. level of deterioration was
undertaken. The risk scoring aided in the development of an Infrastructure
Replacement Plan (IRP) with associated cost estimates.
• The research was based on the Ugu District Municipality (UDM) town, Harding,
Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN).

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STUDY AREA

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Department of … / CITSI
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
• South Africa is facing grim challenges with regards to the dispersion of
sustainable basic services such as water, its quality and management, as well its
efficient use (van Zyl, Manus and Pensulo, 2008:3).
• The trials faced in the country emanate from ineffective IAM and maintenance and
very notably poor planning for new infrastructure or life cycle management (van
Zyl, Manus and Pensulo, 2008:3).

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the research is to develop an integrated GIS geodatabase, hydraulic
model and IRP for the water IAM of Harding, with the following specific objectives;
• Map the water infrastructure of Harding to aid in its IAM.
• Develop an Asset Register for the town's water network, including a failure risk
assessment for its assets (feature classes).
• Develop an operational hydraulic model for the network to enable system
modelling and analysis.
• Formulate an IRP with estimated costs for infrastructure replacement.

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Department of … / CITSI
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LITERATURE REVIEW
To fulfil the objectives it was necessary to review research and case studies of water
IAM not only in South Africa, but globally. The literature review covered the following
sub-headings;
• Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM). This section touched on the key concepts
of water infrastructure management, national and international government
policies and regulations and the needs for effective water IAM.
• Literature on the IAM challenges such as Ageing infrastructure, Increasing
complexity, Growing demands, among others; both globally and in South Africa
was also reviewed.
• GIS and hydraulic modelling developments in recent years and an evaluation of
the most effective software package to use in aiding WSA in South Africa better
manage their water infrastructure.
• Water infrastructure replacement literature and research case studies were also
reviewed. This assisted in developing the methodology for Asset register
development, Risk management criteria formulation, Condition assessment
strategies and the drafting of an IRP.

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Department of … / CITSI
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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PHASE 1: Data collection
• Interviews of the various level UDM staff were conducted to assess the WSA’s
needs and gather crucial information on the town’s water network. The interviews
formed part of a Water Needs Assessment for the municipality town.
• Mapping water infrastructure using GIS was conducted once the municipality’s
needs were established. ArcGIS 10.1 was utilized for the mapping of the water
infrastructure. This stage of the research entailed the following;
– Collecting as-built drawings and reference data (Cadastral data and aerial
photographs),
– Data extraction and conversion, entailing the scanning hardcopy as-built
drawings and then “georeferencing” them using aerial photographs, cadastral
data and field GPS coordinates. Georeferencing enabled the as-built
infrastructure data to be assigned its correct “real life” geographical locations
within a GIS system.

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– Geodatabase design Prior to capturing the water infrastructure in the
georeferenced as-built drawings, there was a need to determine which
attributes or information of the water infrastructure features was to be
captured. The feature class attributes contained in the geodatabase are
summarised in the table below;
Feature
class
Attribute
data
Description Data type
Pipe Material Type of material from which the
feature class is manufactured
Text string
Size Diameter of pipe section (mm) Integer
Age Current age of feature class and
year of installation
Integer
Pipe class Pipe diameter (mm) Integer
Scheme
name
Water scheme or project under
which feature class was installed
Text string
Condition Current condition of feature
class as determined by a field
verification
Text string
Element Type
Naming
Convention
Pipe HAR-W-P-
Junction HAR-W-J-
Hydrant HAR-W-H-
Tank HAR-W-T-
Reservoir HAR-W-R-

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– Digitizing The last step in this exercise was the digitization of water
infrastructure which is the process of converting the geographic features on a
hardcopy map into digital format using a GIS software package. This was
done by tracing features, for example water reticulation pipes, bulk mains and
other water network features (reservoirs, isolation valves and hydrants) from
the scanned and georeferenced CAD drawings.
• Direct field observations One week was spent with the operations and
maintenance plumbers, observing their maintenance practices, processes and
data collection. The information gathered during this time included pipe burst
frequency, replacement practices, and system information tracking i.e. logging the
location and occurrence types of incidents.

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PHASE 2: Asset Register development
• Formulation of an AR To better manage Harding’s water network, the extent,
boundaries and quantity of its components had to be determined e.g. number of
reservoirs and the total length of pipes etc.
• Failure risk management A failure risk management score (criticality analysis)
ranging from 1-5 was assigned to the water network features as agreed with UDM
during the needs assessment. A score of ‘5’ represents a high feature class risk,
whereas a ‘0’ represents no risk.

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PHASE 3: Hydraulic model development
• Hydraulic model The following scenarios were run on in the hydraulic model to
compare its current performance against design standards:
– Scenario 1: Average water demand Single Period Analysis,
– Scenario 2: Peak water demand Single Period Analysis,
– Scenario 3: Pipe velocity demand + Fire flow Single Period Analysis, and
– Scenario 4: Extended period simulation.
• Condition Assessment The field verification or condition assessment was
deemed appropriate to confirm the accuracy of the data captured from scanned
and georeferenced CAD drawings.
• Development of an IAMP An IAMP is typically based on existing infrastructure
data and information, a main component of which should be derived from the
Asset Register. In this study the IAMP was limited to the development of an IRP
with associated costs, as an initial step in managing Harding’s water
infrastructure.

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RESULTS
Mapped water infrastructure model

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Pipe distribution by material Pipe distribution by size
Pipe distribution by age

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Comparison of system pressures with normal standards
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
PRESSUREKPA
Min allowable pressure = 245.1 kPa
Max allowable pressure = 343.1kPa

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Comparison of system velocities with normal standards
-0.70
0.00
0.70
1.40
2.10
2.80
3.50
VELOCITYM/S
Max allowable velocity = 2.5m/s
Min allowable velocity = 0.7m/s

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• Development of an IAMP
Existing pipe
diameter and material
Existing pipe age
and length (m)
Existing pipe to
be replaced (m)
Assumed replacement
pipe diameter and
material
300mm AC > 30yrs = 1600m 1600m 315 uPVC
250mm AC > 30yrs = 50m 50m 315 uPVC
200mm AC > 30yrs = 700m 700m 200 uPVC
150mm AC > 30yrs = 1800m 1800m 160 uPVC
100mm AC > 30yrs = 1200m 1200m 110 uPVC
40mm to 63mm CI > 30yrs = 1200m 1200m 63 HDPE
40mm to 63mm GI > 30yrs = 2000m 2000m 63 HDPE
Proposed replacement pipes

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Proposed infrastructure replacement cost estimates
Assumed replacement pipe diameter and material Unit Quantity Rate (m) Amount (R)
315mm uPVC m 1650 1,865.361 3,077,844.00
200mm uPVC m 700 564.031 394,821.00
160mm uPVC m 1800 361.601 650,880.00
110mm uPVC m 1200 73.731 208,476.00
63mm HDPE m 3200 70.90 226,880.00
Supply and Installation of pipe fittings Sum 1 200,000.002 200,000.00
Allow for transfer of house connections Sum 1 500,000.002 500,000.00
Isolation valves No. 57 1,108.28 63,171.96
Hydrants No. 52 5,000.002 260,000.00
Subtotal 5,582,072.96
Add: 14% Value Added Tax 781,490.21
Total 6,363,563.17
NB:
1 the pipe rate is based on a class 16 pressure pipe
2 these are estimated provisional sums and rates based on quotations received from suppliers. An exact figure
will be arrived at after a detailed field verification has been undertaken

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Department of … / CITSI
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CONCLUSIONS
• Integration of computer technology such as GIS and hydraulic modelling with
water IAM, as discussed in this study, is a proven valuable solution for WSA to
meet their mandated responsibilities. This is especially true in South Africa’s
municipalities, which like many other developing countries, face a number of
challenges in effective water infrastructure management.
• The use of technology allows for the improvement of a number of these
challenges as outlined in the research. For example, automated infrastructure
mapping allows for better maintenance and lifecycle management, which in
turn allow WSA to plan adequately for their aging infrastructure.
• Once WSA are capable of monitoring and planning for its infrastructure
effectively, potential foreign investors can be more confident in investing in
water infrastructure. This will aid in alleviating challenges related to inadequate
funding and ease the burdens of poor revenue collection.

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QUESTIONS?

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Department of … / CITSI
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Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of … / CITSI
THANK YOU