Based in KwaZulu- Natal, Mhlathuze Water’s area of supply covers some 37 000km2 stretching from the uThukela River in the South and up the East Coast to the Mozambique and Swaziland borders, around Vryheid and back to the uThukela River.

Partnering with Hybrid Control Corporation, the Mhlathuze water has been able to improve their water treatment and distribution processes with the latest being the reservoir level monitoring project.

The client has various reservoirs along the water distribution network and they had the following challenges:

• Increased rate of equipment vandalism
  Vandalism is often a concern when a traditional telemetry enclosure system is located in public access locations. It’s susceptible to vandalism and other forms of destruction. This was the case with Mhlathuze Water whereby telemetry system was getting vandalized. This posed a serious threat as some of these reservoirs were feeding industrial clients and required continous monitoring.
• Lack of power source at some of the reservoir sites
  Some of the client’s reservoirs had no power making it difficult to utilize the traditional telemetry panels requiring a power supply. The client wanted to have a solution that will allow them to monitor reservoirs levels without the need for power connections and frequent battery replacement.

• Inability to monitor remote reservoirs
  After all, the main challenge was the inability to monitor reservoir levels from the SCADA system. Existing solutions were either getting vandalized or becoming expensive to maintain due to obsolescence. The client wanted a simple but yet sophisticated solution that will allow them to remotely monitor all reservoir levels.