In this study photoelectrocatalytic technology has been combined with fuel cell technology in an attempt to provide a stand alone water polishing device to be applied to the water purification industry. Tungsten trioxide was chosen as the photoelectrocatalyst to be applied to the fuel cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA). In this thesis two possible WO₃-based photoanodes were studied. Firstly a Nafion-loaded WO₃ photoanode utilising the state of the art proton conductor Nafion in the MEA. The second WO₃-based photoanode was synthesised by a sol-gel method with a view to being directly sintered onto a not yet developed solid state MEA containing a proton conductive glass. In both methods electrochemical studies were undertaken with both WO₃ based photoanodes deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide glass (FTO). The WO₃ catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Nitrogen adsorption and UV-visible spectroscopy. Electrochemical studies included cyclic voltametry and linear sweep voltametry under illumination to ascertain the photocurrent densities of the photoanodes and hence their ability to degrade water borne contaminants. The underlying materials properties were explored as well as the nature of the deposition to gain insight into the mechanisms responsible for effective photoelectrocatalytic activity. The Nafion-loaded WO₃ was applied to a Nafion membrane based MEA and utilised in a photoelectrocatalytic fuel cell. This was studied for possible application under self sustaining conditions for application in the water industry.

M.A. / Providing water services to a community takes careful planning and consideration. It is essential that communities are included from the onset in the processes of the project so that their needs, expectations and circumstances can influence decision-making as well as the activities required for the installation and subsequent delivery of the service. This type of involvement is referred to as community participation and it is a very important aspect when a new development takes place in any sector. This study investigated the nature of community participation that took place when a rural village in the Limpopo Province, South Africa, received a water service from the government. This study also assessed the impacts (beneficial and detrimental) on the needs and expectations of the new water system and the level of satisfaction with the service from the viewpoint of community residents. The methods that were used to gather data were focus group meetings, in-depth interviews and a satisfaction survey. The investigation revealed that community participation was not very extensive and was limited to community meetings and labour by community residents. Seven potential benefits of participation, namely, better health, quality of life, equal benefits, human rights, employment opportunities, affordability and sustainable development were identified, but most of the respondents claimed to have only experienced the health benefit from these positive outcomes. Concerns were mostly about the municipality’s insufficient consultation and the tap water not being easily accessible and constantly available. The satisfaction survey confirmed these complaints. Although the study could not show that the dissatisfaction of the community was related to low levels of community participation at the onset of the water service and the lack thereof afterwards, it was recommended that ongoing community participation can resolve the issues that the community might have with the water service and its provider.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / Water supply and sanitation remain a huge problem in townships and rural areas of South Africa, in effect affecting the water supply, hygiene and health of marginalized communities. Following democracy in 1994, South Africa’s new government embarked on a program of eradicating backlogs in water supply and sanitation that had become endemic under apartheid in townships and rural areas. In addition, South Africa’s constitution categorically states that every citizen has a right to a minimum of basic water supply and sanitation. Internationally, access to basic water supply and sanitation are fundamental human rights. Thus the South African government aims is to ensure that all South Africans have access to basic water and sanitation services. This study investigated the quantity and quality of water and how these effect sanitation and hygiene of communities using Walmer Township in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as a case study. The study used a multi-pronged methodological approach including structured interviews with a sample of households, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations and secondary information. Although the Walmer Community felt that they had access to sufficient quantity of water for their daily use and that the quality of the water was fine, the reality was that most households use less than the daily minimum amount of water per person as required in the constitution because of the distance where they have to fetch the water, which is too far to collect more water than they absolutely need. There is need for municipality to provide more stand pipes in order to reduce the distance that most households have to walk to fetch water. 80% of Walmer residents still use the bucket system, which is the issue that the community is more aggrieved about. One of the reasons the bucket system persists is the unplanned development of the Township and the type of dwellings (mostly shacks) that people still use. Also, the Township has grown and mushroomed organically as a result of the constant influx of people looking for better economic opportunities from rural areas or other urban areas. This makes it very difficult for the municipality to plan for and provide services and infrastructure as the Municipality is always playing catch-up. Worse still, the average number of people that use each bucket toilet (over 80) makes it extremely difficult to maintain the toilets clean and in functional and usable state at all times. Another problem is that the buckets, in particular those managed by the municipality, are not collected as scheduled resulting in spill-over of the toilets. Most of all, there are currently no clear arrangements around management and maintenance of the bucket toilets. Therefore the impact that the bucket system has on the residents’ health and hygiene, and the general Township environment is dire. The uncontrolled and continuing influx of people into Walmer Township has led to very high population density, with the average number of people per household up to ten. Most people of working age in these households are unemployed, which means that most households in the Township depend on social grants for survival. The high unemployment rate and dependency on social grants by most households in Walmer Township means that the community cannot afford to pay for services and therefore depend on amenities provided by the Municipality. The majority of the population of Walmer Township depends on basic services provided by the Municipality. These are provided as public amenities available to all Walmer residents, which makes them largely ‘open access’. This has resulted in poor management and poor maintenance of these amenities. The unhygienic state of most of the bucket toilets and the poor state of water stand taps is as a result of this current management arrangement. It would improve management of these public amenities if a system of locating stand taps and bucket toilets to specific households that could limit access and use to these defined groups of households was introduced. These households would then be responsible for maintaining and managing use of the specific and allocated amenities. The current management arrangements for these public amenities point to the fact that there is currently lack of participatory planning and management between the Municipality and the community. The Municipality takes top-down decisions resulting in disjuncture between the Municipality and the Community in terms of real community needs, provision of these needs, and how they should be serviced and managed.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2016 / The water-energy nexus considers the relationship between water and energy resources. Increases in environmental degradation and social pressures in recent years have necessitated the development of manufacturing processes that are conservative with respect to both these resources, while maintaining financial viability. This can be achieved by process integration (PI); a holistic approach to design which emphasises the unity of processes. Within the realm of PI, water network synthesis (WNS) explores avenues for reuse, recycle and regeneration of effluent in order to minimise freshwater consumption and wastewater production. When regeneration is required, membrane-based treatment processes may be employed. These processes are energy intensive and result in a trade-off between water and energy minimisation, thus creating an avenue for optimisation. Previous work in WNS employed a black box approach to represent regenerators in water minimisation problems. However, this misrepresents the cost of regeneration and underestimates the energy requirements of a system. The aim of the research presented in this dissertation is to develop an integrated water regeneration network synthesis model to simultaneously minimise water and energy in a water network. A novel MINLP model for the design of an electrodialysis (ED) unit that is capable of treating a binary mixture of simple salts was developed from first principles. This ED model was embedded into a water network superstructure optimisation model, where the objective was to minimise freshwater and energy consumption, wastewater productions, and associated costs. The model was applied to a pulp and paper case study, considering several scenarios. Global optimisation of the integrated water network and ED design model, with variable contaminant removal ratios, was found to yield the best results. A total of 38% savings in freshwater, 68% reduction in wastewater production and 55% overall cost reduction were observed when compared with the original design. This model also led to a 80% reduction in regeneration (energy) cost. / GS2016

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science school of Geosciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Hydrogeology. Johannesburg, June 2017. / The Masama Sandstone Aquifer is located in a semi-arid region of south-eastern Botswana where there are no perennial rivers. Groundwater is the main source of water supply for the communities. Historically many water drilling programs have been carried out in this area and the hydrogeological system has been conceptualized. An integrated approach coupling environmental isotopes, radioisotopes and multivariate statistical analysis of the hydrochemical variables was employed to study the origin, age, recharge conditions, rock-water interaction and the hydrological link between the aquifer and geological structures. The major ions in this area are Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and HCO-3. Groundwater in the Masama area fall in the transition from a Na-HCO-3 –type through Ca-Na-HCO-3 to Ca-Mg-HCO-3 -type waters from the western to the eastern part of the area. The water types are as a result of cation exchange, carbonate dissolution and rock-weathering processes. The δ18O and δ2H values vary spatially depending on the source of moisture, rainfall season, geology, topography and groundwater circulation depth. Deep circulating groundwaters are isotopically depleted whilst shallow circulating groundwaters are isotopically enriched with respect to winter rain. Low tritium values < 0.8TU and 14C values < 80pmc testifies for recharge. Recent rainfall amount in the area is not sufficient enough to make a profound replenishment in the aquifer. Tritium, 14C and Chloride Mass Balance helped in identifying recharge location and hydrologic connections between structures and the sandstone aquifer elucidating that recharge zones are in the NE and NW of the study area. High recharge rates occur in the north-eastern part and the Makhujwane fault act as a conduit for groundwater recharge. This study provides a better understanding of the aquifer and the information contained herein can be incorporated into future works for sustainable use of the groundwater resource. / XL2017

Thesis (M.Sc. (Hydrogeology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, School of Geosciences, 2017. / Hartbeespoort Dam, the source of irrigation and potable water for the local community of Hartbeespoort area is a vulnerable water resource. The aim of this research was to evaluate the interaction between dam water and groundwater as well as characterise the hydrochemical data from metals and tritium. The former was done through the application of environmental isotopes and the implementation of a long term water balance, while the latter used hydrochemical data to define the spatial distribution of metals and tritium. The results indicated that the dam water is separated from the groundwater in winter. Two sources of mixing were recognized to have occurred downstream of the dam in 2015 but not in the Hartbeespoort dam area. These were identified as artificial through the runoff of agricultural water that was abstracted from the dam and through the pumping of water near the fault. Higher than normal tritium concentration indicated that contamination comes through the Crocodile River after the fault connecting the river to Pelindaba, the nuclear power generation plant south of Hartbeespoort Dam in the Broederstroom area. The Crocodile River showed that the contamination of water by lead, 22.11ppb in summer and 3.8 ppb in winter, and cadmium,2.2 ppb in winter. The Magalies River feeds the dam with copper. All metals accumulate at the dam wall and settles in the sediment, diluting the downstream water. Boreholes near the dam and spring along the fault are vulnerable to contamination. The water balance estimation resulted 18 345 472m3, with a 3.9% error, gain of water to the dam from the groundwater greater than the amount exiting the dam to through groundwater. The groundwater entering the dam is estimated to be 32 517 704m3. The groundwater exiting the dam is estimated at 14 172 232m3. The difference in groundwater showed a decrease of 10 000 000m3 over the 15 year period from 1st October 2000 until the 30th September 2015. Consequently, these results show an increased stress placed on the groundwater presumably due to an increase in groundwater abstraction from agriculture and the expanding mining area. / GR2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, August 2016 / Monitoring the status and abundance of mammals, as well as establishing threats to biodiversity in different areas, is an essential management requirement in protected areas. Monitoring mammal species can assist in determining species interactions, patterns of behaviour and is important for further research, policy and management strategies. Water provision has implications for the preservation of wildlife, and is thus a management concern. Numerous studies monitoring mammal water utilisation patterns have employed traditional data collection methods, which are restricted primarily to diurnal observation during specific time intervals. Given the projected future impacts of global climate change on regional water availability, it is essential to investigate current water usage by mammals in the Kruger National Park (KNP), so as to better ascertain likely future water requirements under climate change scenarios. The use of remote photography for scientific observation, investigation and monitoring has many potential benefits, and an innovative and relatively new method through which one can observe mammal water source visitation patterns, is through the use webcams. There has been comparatively little research on mammal water requirements and visitation patterns at water provisioning sites using remote photography as a data collection method. Further to this, there is a gap in our knowledge concerning how daily climate variables (viz. temperature and rainfall) and astronomical conditions control water source visitation patterns at the finer temporal scale. This research primarily contributes to understanding contemporary water source visitation patterns and how this will influence future management decisions. At a broader scale, determining recent visitation patterns is critical in the context of projected future climatic changes and the associated water requirements for mammals of KNP. Webcam images were obtained for the period March 2012 - March 2014, captured at two artificial water sources in the central KNP. A clear divide is exhibited between herbivore and carnivore visitation patterns, with herbivores exhibiting exclusively diurnal patterns and carnivores’ nocturnal patterns. Significant relationships with Tavg intervals demonstrate that the majority of herbivores are shifting their visitation periods earlier in the day per 5°C increase in mean daily temperature, while the majority of carnivores are shifting their visitation periods later in the night per 5°C increase in mean daily temperature, however there is variability of species responses across the two study sites. Under the highest Tavg interval (30°C - 35°C) impala, warthog, southern giraffe, African buffalo and plains zebra exhibit a shift to earlier visitation by 1 – 6 hours, forcing them to utilise the water sources outside of their preferred temporal range. The influence of the timing of rainfall events indicates that the mean number of individual species sightings is significantly larger on days before rainfall compared to days after rainfall. The study highlights that waterdependent herbivores utilise the artificial water sources in relative proportion to their abundance in the central KNP, while water-independent herbivores are avoiding these artificial water sources. The findings of this research could be used to supplement current water provisioning guidelines and plan for water provisioning efforts in future. / TG2016

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg, 1996 / Current practice of'the rural water sector in Mozambique does not generally consider all factors that have influenc.eon project sustainability, The urgent need to provide returnees in rural areas with safe water, does not give adequate time to engineers, technicians and those involved in the sector, to conceive and plan a water project property. A Decision Support System (DSS) for rural water supply has been proposed to assist the decision making process to be more systematic, fast and comprehensive. It requires a number of input cata variables which are not difficult to obtain and these variables have been selected to ensure that most aspects inherent in a successful project are considered. The main achievement of this system is the project report, similar to a project preliminary design, and the financial results which are important for project assessment and ranking. The Decision Support System is a computational model which uses engineering and economics approach to combine and process input data and information contained in its database. While the calculation method does not need constant updating, the database has to be verified frequently to produce reliable results. South African prices have been used in the database construction but a correction factor facility was incorporated to adjust and make the model useable in Mozambique. The model has been designed to be used by planners, engineers and technicians, and funding agencies. The model can be used by planners to assess implication of policy decisions on future water supplies and water resources development. For engineers and technicians, the model estimates water demands, project components sizes and quantities, and water source development and reliability. To funding agencies, the model is a tool to determine the best investment scenario of a rural water supply project.

This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Master of Architecture [Professional] at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in the year 2014. / No matter the reasons for the birth of a city, water sits at the very heart ensuring a healthy working population. Johannesburg is one of the only cities in the world that has no major water source of its own and as a result has its water pumped uphill from the Vaal Dam into the city. At the same time the city faces a crisis that is based on both the supply and demand for water. In South Africa, an already water stressed country, it is predicted that precipitation will reduce over the next century, reducing runoff and the supply of fresh water together with demand eventually over taking supply. Through rethinking how the inner city of Johannesburg deals with the saving, purifying and redistribution of its available surface water, the idea of water infrastructure can become something more than a subconscious operation controlled from a far off location and pumped unsustainably back into the city, and more like a series of upgraded machines dispersed about the city within localized contexts, supplementing the existing vital operations on a very obvious and conscious level in order to protect its populations by better protecting it’s most important resource of all. Located within the Maboneng Precinct and more specifically located over a channel of water that becomes the Braamfontein Spruit, this thesis aims at designing a building that will incorporate a water treatment facility together with research laboratories to purify grey water to a standard that is usable for most needs including drinking. Water however does not exist by itself when placed within the context of any environment that has an established infrastructural system. It exists together with the many various machines and pipes hidden from our everyday lives; they are the subconscious networks of the city’s mind, constantly working in the back(under)ground to maintain a reliable flow and quality while the populations go about their conscious, daily functions. The aim is twofold; firstly to show how developing technologies can be experimented on a smaller neighbour-hood scale in order to encourage the development of new thinking and secondly, by developing a Water treatment facility and laboratory coupled with daily social functions as well as offices sited in an urban environment, I hope to show that infrastructural projects that are usually located on the outskirts of cities, away from every day activity, can enhance the civic quality of an urban space. With every system becoming more reliant on technology, water needs to be seen not only as an entity that exists within the natural cycles of the planet, but one that also exists very much within the mechanized systems of the city’s infrastructure, with its availability relying heavily on those systems that manage it as well as the daily social functions that hinge off of it.

O autor, depois de algumas considerações sobre dependências entre água, desenvolvimento econômico e saúde, procede a uma recuperação histórica do abastecimento de água desde a Antigüidade até os tempos atuais quando empresta ênfase à cidade de São Paulo. Compara a situação do Brasil ao mundo subdesenvolvido no início da década dos setenta, época em que o Governo Federal fez eclodir o mais importante, até hoje, dos programas oficiais relativos ao saneamento básico, o Plano Nacional de Saneamento Básico - PLANASA - sustentado pelo Sistema Financeiro de Saneamento - SFS. Em seguida, analisa o desempenho do PLANASA no primeiro decênio de sua existência, concluindo, pelas estatísticas disponíveis, que as metas para o período 1971-80 foram atingidas. No entanto, foca a situação financeira do PLANASA tomando por base a Companhia de Saneamento Básico de são Paulo - SABESP - concluindo em vista de vários problemas enfrentados pela economia nacional e pelo fato de as companhias estaduais de saneamento básico serem analisadas apenas sob o prisma dos demonstrativos financeiros usuais, ser urgente proceder a modificações na política da sustentação financeira da SABESP e, por extensão, do PLANASA como um todo. Propõe que se analise o desempenho das empresas de saneamento básico levando-se em consideração, também os benefícios sociais decorrentes de sua atuação. / After some considerations about the relationships between water, economic development and health, the Author makes a historical survey of water supply from ancient to present times, in which São Paulo City is focused. He compares the Brazilian situation in the beginning of the 70\'s to the other underdeveloped countries. The Federal Government then developed the most important plan of basic sanitation ever made in Brazil: \"Plano Nacional de Saneamento Básico\" - PLANASA (National Sanitation Plan) - supported by the \"Sistema Financeiro de Saneamento\" - SFS (Sanitation Financia! System). He makes an analysis of PLANASA performance during its 10 years of existence, coming to the conclusion, based on available statistics, that the aims for the period 1971-1980 were reached. However, he focuses PLANASA financial situation based on that of the \"Companhia de Saneamento Bâsico de São Paulo\" - SABESP (São Paulo State Sanitation Company)- and concludes that due to the various problems faced by the national economy and the fact that the states sanitation companies are analysed only on the basis of financial reports - it is urgently necessary to operate changes in the financial supporting policies of SABESP and consequently of PLANASA as a whole. He proposes to undertake further analysis of the basic sanitation companies taking into consideration the social benefits resulting from the performance of those companies.