Eldidy's Peace of Mind

Disinfectants Could Infect Your Water

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:52:56 +0200

Did you know that chemical disinfectants can create byproducts when they are added to drinking water? They form when the disinfectants interact with organic matter in the water. These by-products can create danger in our drinking water when they surpass regulations. To read more about how Boncor drinking water systems can give you safer drinking water than you have ever imagined, click here.

civilnotes: Water and You: The Water Treatment Process (by...

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:50:22 +0200

civilnotes:

Water and You: The Water Treatment Process (by njamwater)

Photo

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:48:39 +0200

A dialogue between the dumb and the deaf

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:50:08 +0300

The heated debate between professionals and politicians on infrastructure and service deliveries shall continue till eternity.
Last week my friend (who is a politician) took me out for a coffee. I knew it would be a good chance for both of us to air our frustrations from our wives and direct it more towards ourselves.

I was at the coffee shop in time waiting for him, and as usual he called me 5 minutes later saying that he shall be five minutes late. Eventually he arrived 30 minutes later with a big smile and a promise to make it up to me.

While having our coffees he launched a swift attack started by saying “I do not know how you people operate?”….I laughed and retaliated by saying we are the ones that do not know how you politicians work? We fail to understand your values. I went on saying “Politicians are usually classified based on the value system of the country of application. With the lack of accountability any person (not only politicians) can become useless and inefficient.

Some countries have or had a value system based on achievements no matter tools to be used ( the Machiavelli principles). Their politicians embrace the value and use it to verify their actions, which can range from petty lies to killing, to ensure success of goals.

In developing countries the goals have moved from success of the state and serving the people to serve oneself and the leader’s interest no matter what. This is the detriment to the system, because with lack of public accountability and with an autocratic leader that politicians run to serve, the leader becomes becomes the state and the people become the servants.

Funny enough when the above mentioned situation prevails in a country the morals drop, and the dexterity disappears. The latter disappearance is mainly due to first: devaluation of education in the value system, secondly, the migration of professionals, and thirdly disarray in the nation structures, and the imminent fight between law and the law makers/politicians.

In the light of above discussion I can answer your difficult question as follows:
The politicians intentions differ from ours (professionals). They intend to implement a project if it coincides with their personal interest only. Therefore a fight might erupt between the politician and the professional who is trained to procure services, goods and administer their use in certain manner different than that of the politicians.

I may agree with you my dear friend that some professionals and specially engineers don’t give ample explanation or talk. It is due to their training. They are used to drawing as a tool of communication. Also some of them assumes that the other understands what they say. They are vocally challenged

The pride of the professional is delivering a service to highest possible technical level, while politicians pride is delivering a service at the best personal and political gains. Thus conflict erupts. This conflict results in delay of decision taking by politicians, whom later starts pointing fingers during the election year, and tell the people all sorts of excuses and faint promises in a quest for a renewed term of non-achievement. The professionals gets frustrated with those delays instigated by the decision makers/politicians, who usually knows nothing about the workings of a project ( from professional point of view). The ownership fight evolves around the project, while service delivery is at stake.”

My friend who appeared to be completely absorbed in his thoughts, raised his head and said “sorry what did you say?”….

WISA conference, Cape Town 2012

Sat, 12 May 2012 21:21:24 +0300

WISA conference, Cape Town 2012

Sat, 12 May 2012 21:20:27 +0300

WISA conference, Cape Town 2012

Water Institute of South Africa-WISA 2012

Sat, 12 May 2012 19:28:53 +0300

#WISA #WISA2012

Great conference I enjoyed every bit of it…
The only remark is that all the awards focused on water treatment and new processes…water science has many fields of research that cannot be ignored. Researches in water resources, water management and water transportation have been totally ignored. While water treatment represents about 5% to 10% of the cost of the system, the institute (WISA) cannot and should ignore other disciplines. Water is a science that cuts across several trades and not only biology or chemistry.

Before Private Sector Participation (PSP): Understanding the Water Sector of Africa(1)

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:54:59 +0200

Private sector participation in the development of water infrastructure pro-poor, or Africa’s Developing Countries, requires rethinking the design of both water sector transactions and the regulations.
The water services sector has many uncertainties, either natural, governmental or financial. The private sector investment in the water services can only be addressed in light of the financial risks foreseen, investment returns, possible sector incentives and its impacts on the quality of life for urban poor.

In the Developing Countries of Africa, where the majority of its population is poor, the traditional models or approaches to private participation in water sector can unavoidably erect barriers to improving service for low-income households in developing countries. The current approach frequently involves exclusive control of a local monopoly over a long period and an obligation to provide service to all or to all who request it within the area of exclusivity

A project finance structure which allows water projects - with attractive cash flow and risk profiles - to secure long term private capital, has become increasingly pivotal in international financial allocations and the nations’ budgeting process. Financing water projects is now conditional on two local factors: first to have an attractive cash flow and second an attractive risk profile. In other words it should have a low risk profile, which many of African urban, let alone low-income or rural, communities lack.
Some of the water sector challenges are:
(a) Water is expensive to convey or transport but comparatively cheap to store.
(b) Most of water industry infrastructure is buried which makes it difficult to assess. This might result in difficulties in investment’s planning and pose risks for contract design and negotiation.
(c) Significant currency risk, as customer pay in local/domestic currency that does not match international debt and equity financing.
(d) So far, little competition has been introduced in the different components of water supply.

The first wave of privatisation of the water industry was driven by the international donors and financiers to Sub-Saharan Africa as the only way for service delivery. The commercialisation of water services was suggested through 2 models: the French model of PSP (management concessions), and the English model of PSP (the fixed assets and management concessions). The latter was shunned by the investors due to the high cost of investment, lack of accurate information on water assets, the over employment in the water sector, and low financial and economic endowment of the communities served.

Benchmarking for efficiency.

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:23:49 +0200

Towards the end of last year, I attended the IMEASA conference in Johannesburg. The conference was interesting and several technical papers were presented.

One of the papers that attracted my attention was presented by Moraka,W. The paper (Moraka et al (2011)) addresses an initiative to improve municipal water services provision through benchmarking.

While listening to the presenter, several questions cropped up my mind. However, due to the schedule constraints, only 3 questions where allowed. Excluding mine.

I went through the paper again, and I found it is necessary to discuss these questions for clarity and peace of mind. I am in a quest for a healthy discussion that would benefit everyone. The questions are as follows:

a. Benchmarking is a process where the utility results are sensitized, by comparing one’s business- or water processes and performance metrics - to another for their best practices. However the paper discusses Benchmarking of indices from several operators against preset figures. This is not the “Benchmarking” process. It is assessing performance by Indices, which Tynan and Kingdom (2002) has ably addressed it. This point needs further clarifications to avoid ambiguity.

b. Estache and Kouassi (2002) suggested that a firm’s efficiency to be measured relative to the efficiency of all other firms in the industry, subject to the restriction that all firms are on or below the frontier. In the case of South Africa there are factors impacting on the efficiency that are exogenous to the operator, such as market structure and service location (i.e. operating upstream and/or downstream or both). Such aspect also needs to be addressed and clarified.

c. The process is for “measuring” performance. The latter exercise ought to result in actual metric figure, such as 80% efficient etc; however the outcome of the paper does not clarify if this is the case and its basis.

d. The fact that most municipalities have not ring-fenced their water operation can make comparison difficult and not feasible.

e. The Non-revenue water is mainly two components, one is due to engineering and endogenous factors and one is due the community and exogenous factor, how shall that be addressed in the model.

The above are some of the questions, among many, that have to be addressed for successful implementation of the exercise.

"We say what we say, and we do what we do"?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:49:57 +0200

Sitting and reflecting on the Budget Speech brought a bouquet of ideas upon me….
The gap between the State of The Nation speech (SNS) and the Budget speech (BS) is wide…the first spoke about intentions to reduce the cost of doing business, while the second results in increased cost of living and doing business.
The SNS talked about dialogue between business and government, while the BS slammed the businesses with increased taxes. The latter , coupled with the drive for infrastructure spending, may result in increase of unemployment among middle management and increase employment among “blue collars”. Such action will further erodes the middle class strata and increase dependency.
Another conflict between the speeches is when the president in the SNS asked Eskom to reduce cost of electricity, while the BS resulted in increase of the fuel cost, thus appreciating the opportunity cost of electricity.
An important question presents itself : is the increase of social grants has it any relation with the coming elections?
To read the BS, one can hear the government saying” I am increasing expenditure and increasing taxes” yet those who are involved in the infrastructure industry, would be skeptical about spending the promised expenditure in time due to the following:
1. Very slow pace of approvals and project registration as a result of the overlapping authorities among the governing bodies of infrastructure, and lack of clear lines of responsibilities for implementation.
2. The ebb of dexterity among civil servants and public officials, which prolonged tendering processes and decision taking.
3. The abrupt and frequent change of rules, regulations and implementing agencies.
3. Weak professional and business syndicates.
Therefore, the practical implementation of the BS shall translate to increased taxes, increased social grants and possible freeze of the market if care is not taken.

Relax

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:47:36 +0200

Relax

The African skies - 1

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:45:45 +0200

The African skies - 1