Access to safe drinking water is a privilege not shared by everyone in Africa. Often, drinking water is contaminated – by damaged infrastructure and distribution systems, breakdowns at treatment facilities, rapid urbanisation, or general water pollution. In South Africa, this means many people are obliged to turn to groundwater.
However, to avoid disease and ill health, it is important to ascertain whether the groundwater is fit for human consumption.
Condition monitoring specialist company, WearCheck, recently integrated its sister company – previously Set Point Water Laboratories, now WearCheck Water – into its operations, adding another analysis service to the company’s repertoire.
WearCheck’s range of condition monitoring services also includes the scientific analysis of used oil and other fluids, asset reliability care (ARC), transformer oil testing, lubricant-enabled reliability (LER) services and advanced field services (AFS), (rope testing, technical compliance and non-destructive testing), among others.
Thelma Horsfield, General Manager of WearCheck Water, highlights that the company is ISO 17025:2017 accredited and tests water from any source. “We conduct analyses on water from many sources – ranging from drinking water to factory/industrial effluent, and everything in between – to determine the presence and levels of potentially harmful substances. The process applies for water to be used for drinking, or agriculture, or to be disposed of after an industrial process,” she notes.
Horsfield continues, “Naturally available ground- and surface water are invaluable water sources that should be closely monitored when they are being used. The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) national standard SANS241: Drinking Water Quality, sets out the minimum requirements for safe drinking water and is reinforced in the National Water Act.
WearCheck Water operates two ISO17025-accredited laboratories – one in Cape Town, the other in Johannesburg. Technicians at the laboratories conduct scientific analyses of water samples for a range of clients in different industries from across Africa.
Moses Lelaka, WearCheck’s Technical Water Lab Manager in Johannesburg, explains some of the quality systems that govern the water-testing process.
“SANS241 sets out the minimum requirements for potable water to be considered safe for human consumption, covering physical quality, chemical components, heavy metals levels, organics and microbiology. Additional determinants for nearby pollutant influences must be added to SANS241. For instance, where agriculture is practised nearby, checking for fertiliser contamination should be included.
“However, we find that although annual testing in terms of SANS241 determinants is followed by water providers, more regular monitoring programmes are often lacking. Daily, weekly, and bi-weekly monitoring, based on the number of people serviced, is often overlooked.
“Monitoring is invaluable in that it signals environmental changes in the water table that can occur quickly due to seasonal changes, rainfall, drought, heavy industry, agriculture, natural disasters, or other factors. Responsible monitoring signals any changes in water quality before it presents any harm to life.”
Lelaka emphasises that due to many and varied sources of potential contamination which can severely affect people’s health, it is imperative to test drinking water before it is distributed for consumption. He adds that it is equally important to determine the safety of industrial effluent, to ensure it is disposed of in an earth-friendly way.
WearCheck offers water analysis services in every region in Africa where the company has a presence: in South Africa Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Namibia, Mozambique, and the DRC.
For more information, visit www.wearcheck.co.za
