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Environmental Science

Home > Study Notes > Environmental Science
Published in: Geography
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About water resources.

Vamsi P / Dubai

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  1. Water Resource: Case Study The provision of adequate water supplies to households in underdeveloped rural areas remains a crucial area of concern in South Africa. In a vast and relatively dry country like South Africa, the satisfaction of basic water needs is for many people, a daily struggle. This leads to poor conditions and, in extreme cases, the migration of the rural population to urban centers. Considering the importance of clean, disease-free water in all fundamental human activities, there can be no doubt that lack of an adequate water supply acts as a major constraint to the development of rural communities. The rural regions of the Northern Cape in South Africa are a good example of an area facing this problem. Therefore, in order to facilitate the collection of potable water, various types of water pumping technologies have been employed in the past. Of the systems used, photovoltaic (PV) and diesel groundwater pumping systems have been in operation, and in most cases, have been successfully supplying rural communities in the Northern Cape with drinkable water. Although both pumping technologies have their merits, there still exists a need to perform a thorough long-term field study of PV systems in the rural Northern Cape regions. As an attempt to test and assess the reliability and capabilities of the PV system, a research project was initiated at CPUT in the department of Mechanical Engineering. The project was divided into two phases. Phase 1 involved the development of a PV pilot water pumping system in order to conduct laboratory assessments and preliminary tests for monitoring a PV station prior to implementation in the field. The system consisted of data acquisition devices that collect data and store it. Phase 2 was concerned mainly with establishment and implementation of an actual telemetry link. Lepelsfontein is a small village in the Northern Cape, some 500 km north of Cape Town in South Africa. It has a population of roughly 450 people. The physical infrastructure comprises gravel roads, manual telephones and a primary school. The water supply system in the Lepelsfontein area comprises a number of sources. The main source is groundwater from a borehole. A three-phase PV submersible centrifugal pump is used to pump water. There is also a diesel pump which is used as a back up to the PV pump in the event of PV pump failure or in times of extended cloud cover. The PV system is situated about 2 km to the south west of Lepelsfontein village. The PV pump operates seven days a week. A diesel pump becomes operational only when PV pump is not working (when it is faulty, being maintained or during extended cloud cover). Water is pumped to 2 storage tanks located in the village. Each storage tank has a capacity of 30 kl. Water from storage tanks is gravitated to a diesel pump located at about 300 m down the hill. Purifying/desalinating chemicals are added before water is pumped to the supply tanks. Water has to be desalinated as it is being claimed that the sea, which is about 10 km to the south east of the settlement, affects the quality of underground water and therefore it is not readily available for consumption. There are four supply tanks of 10 kl each located at about 400 m from the diesel Environmental Engineering — Sustainable Development in Coastal Areas Module 4 Energy: Case Study for Energy Resources Lecture desalinating pump house uphill. Water from the supply tank is gravitated to the village and is accessed through standpipes. The PV water pumping facility at Lepelsfontein comprises three subsystems namely, a set of PV panels, an inverter and a three-phase submersible centrifugal pump. The findings of this study do support the existing body of evidence, which indicates that PV pumping can be competitive with diesel water pumping under specific head and flow conditions. However, the results
  2. obtained in this study are short-term results, making it difficult to make valid judgements with regard to how this system behaves in the long run. Yet the socio-institutional implementation strategies are crucial to the techno-economic success of actual pumping schemes. Even if diesel generators or other conventional pumping systems may appear to be cheaper on a life cycle cost comparison, it might be preferable to opt for a PV system because of the operational advantages. Future work will evaluate a larger number of systems and eventually record long-term results which will be used to assess the reliability and functionality of the systems.

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