The City’s engineer for water operations, Hein Henning, says the city was faced with the dilemma of having to pump water to its neighbour for just one month a year. For the rest of the year the pump station would be dormant and need hundreds of thousands of Rands maintenance due to possible corrosion, perishing, lubrication and bearing damage to the idle infrastructure.
Instead, the progressive municipality chose to innovate and rather generate an income while simultaneously reducing the requirement for maintenance by effectively allowing the pumps to run backwards against the pressure of water from its elevated Leliefontein reservoir and generate electricity for the region’s electrical grid.
Read the full media statement here: