MechChem Africa May-June 2021

⎪ Water and wastewater processing ⎪

Dynamic Fluid Control sees future in local valve designs Tumi Tsehlo, CEO of Dynamic Fluid Control (DFC), talks about public private partnerships and how they can be used to modernise and expand water and sanitation infrastructure. D ynamic Fluid Control, a 100% black owned andmanagedmanu- facturer of valves for the water, effluent and mineral processing occur not only because of high pressure, but rather due to ongoing pressure fluctuations forcing the pipes to continuously expand and contract, resulting in stress fractures.

industries, is urging water utilities to seek out public private partnerships tomodernise and expand their water and sanitation infra- structure and improve the efficiency of water systems. The Benoni based manufacturer employs over 300 staff and currently exports products to 129 countries. While water covers 70% of the surface of the planet, only 3% of this is suitable for hu- man consumption and irrigation. Of this, two- thirds is effectively unavailable and mostly locked in frozen glaciers. Of the remainder that gets piped to homes across the world, some 35% to 60% is lost to leaks. In South Africa, 1.1-million litres of ex- pensive treated water is lost every year, a lot of it because of leaks on the country’s 290 000 kms of underground infrastructure. “Leaks are a great equaliser and not just a thirdworld problem. Events such as National Water Week and the World Water Day are a good platform for development actors to come together and advance strategies to minimisewater losses, buildefficiencies in the distribution systems aswell as improve exist- ing technologies,” says Tumi Tsehlo, DFCCEO. The issue is becoming more acute, mainly becausemany takewater for granted. Before COVID-19 took over SA’s collective psyche, the country experienced a catastrophe of its own in Cape Town, when the city almost be- came the first in the world to run completely dry. Even though it was drought related, the burdenofmaking sure it doesn’t happenagain largely depends on the Government’s ability to cut water losses and promote responsible usage. “DFC is open to sharing its expertise with Government and other role-players in water and collaborating ondeveloping technologies tailored to driving distribution efficiencies. The main priority is to get water utilities to audit their systems and install and upgrade valves where needed. Valves on the network don’t get much credit,” adds Tsehlo. Managing water pressure in one of the most cost-effective leakage management strategies. The higher the pressure, themore water is lost through pipe bursts and connec- tion, valve and tap leakages. Most pipe bursts

Valves play a critical role inwater distribu- tionsystems forflowandpressurecontrol and subsystem isolation. The use of installed shut off valves, for example, is key to being able to properly repair and rehabilitate broken sec- tions of a network. The efficient placement of these valves improves the reliability of water distributionsystems and limits the lossof non- revenue water (NRW). NRW affects local economies as well as local resources. Some of DFC’s critical valves installedonSA’swater distribution infrastruc- turehaveproven their reliability andcontinue to deliver a return on investments even after more than 20 years. “We are not satisfied with being a manu - facturer of world class products. We believe strong design can be at the heart of both disruptive and sustained commercial success and this will be the focus of our investments over the next few years,” says Tsehlo. “Withover70yearsof experience inmanu- facturing valves we understand the needs of thewater sector. Our design teamis currently engineering valves that can limitwater losses while upholding the best conditions for the network, providing state-of-the-art water control. “In addition, ours is a homegrown offering, as opposed to imported alternatives

that neither contribute to the local economy nor job creation,” he argues. Following years of despair, the outlook for manufacturing in South Africa is looking more optimistic. Global supply chain disrup- tions due toCOVID-19 accelerated the trend towards increased domestic manufacturing. ABSA’s latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 53.0 points in February from 50.9 points in January, signalling an expan- sion of manufacturing activity in the country. “While theuptick inmanufacturingoutput is welcome, we also need manufacturing to favour South African ingenuity. At DFC we are fundamentally relooking at the way our products are designed, putting a premiumon innovation and training workers to move up the value chain,” Tsehlo concludes. q Local valve manufacturer, DFC, is relooking at the way valve products are designed, while putting a premium on innovation and training.

Valves play a critical role in water distribution systems for flow and pressure control and subsystem isolation.

May-June 2021 • MechChem Africa ¦ 19