BLOEMFONTEIN, Free State — The Mangaung Metro Municipality has officially upgraded its infrastructure with a new smart water systems initiative, headlined by a R50 million Telemetry and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) project. This advanced technological rollout is designed to efficiently monitor the city’s water infrastructure, identify pipe bursts, and drastically reduce water leakages across the region.
According to Mangaung Metro Municipality technical team spokespersons, the state-of-the-art monitoring technology will continuously track water usage, detect illegal water meter connections, and provide real-time data on reservoir levels. The initiative comes at a critical time, as the municipality has been grappling with high water loss volumes. While the national acceptable norm for water loss sits between 20% and 25%, the city recently emphasized it is experiencing a high loss volume of 45%. Pre-results of a recent audit show the city has made a dent in the problem, reducing losses from a concerning trajectory of 51%. This follows previous reports from last year, where the Metro documented water losses through leakages at 36%.
To support this ambitious technological leap, the Metro has employed 150 young people, including skilled engineers, to actively monitor the new system and rapidly resolve leaks. Municipal spokespersons emphasized that every liter of lost water represents lost revenue, making this youth employment drive a dual-purpose solution for community upliftment and infrastructure preservation.
The practical benefits are already being recognized on the ground. Workers at the Hamilton Park pump station expressed strong gratitude for the advanced technology, noting that it will significantly cut costs and time associated with physical site visits. Previously, delays in diagnosing issues—ranging from mechanical faults to vandalism in areas like Brand—would prolong water outages. The new SCADA system allows technical teams to pinpoint exactly what is happening within the network instantly.
Local residents have also reacted positively to the smart water systems upgrade. Following recent weeks of water shortfalls, community members have welcomed the investment, expressing optimism that the continuous, automated monitoring will prevent future shortages and stabilize the local water supply.
Looking ahead, the Mangaung Metro technical team confirmed that the city will soon advertise for dry sanitation toilets to phase out the problematic pit latrine system affecting Botshabelo residents. This forward-thinking sanitation strategy follows a recent knowledge-exchange visit by CoGTA to China earlier this year, where delegates studied advanced Chinese wastewater treatment methods to inform and improve local municipal solutions.
