Imtiaz Sooliman – Smart water meters for Western Cape health facilities

Private Partnership between the Western Cape Department of Health,

gift of the givers and Microsoft will see more effective use of

water in hospitals. The collaborative effort was announced

in Cape Town today. Smart water meters will be installed at health

facilities across the province, all in a bid to save the precious

resource. Our reporter, Mariska Berta spoke to the gift of the

givers.

We're coming to you from the heart of the mother city, where a very

exciting project was launched today, or it was announced today.

Gift of the givers is involved. International company Microsoft

and the Department of Health will be joining forces to look at ways

to streamline the use of water in hospitals. Of course, that's just

a starting point for this new project where they will be using

smart meters, and gift of the givers will be the implementation

agent for this. Of course, gift of the givers have been involved

throughout the province since the beginning of the water crisis. So

to speak to us a little bit more, we have the head of the

organization, Dr India, Suleiman, Dr sav thank you so very much for

joining us. Just in a nutshell, explain to us this project that

you are embarking on. It's an addition to all other projects

we're already doing. Basically, there's a shortage of water. The

water that you have, we have to look after it properly. In places

of emergency, it's even more incumbent that you look after that

water properly. The Smart waters and the smart meter that we will

be implementing in hospitals, a project partnered by Microsoft,

ensures that we find the faults in the hospital where water is being

wasted and it could run into 1000s of liters that water, the meter

first picks up where the water is being lost, where the faults are,

and how to save that water. Secondly, in the event of no water

being lost, but suddenly there's a drop of in pressure, or the water

level to drop, and you have urgent operations taking place, or you

need water in the ICU, that meter can redirect water to the urgent

areas. So it's huge benefit in terms of fixing up the faults,

finding the faults and saving life by directing water to the right

places. The application, of course, is far wider than that.

We're learning on the job as we're going along. We can apply it at

schools for educational assistance department and also that smart

meter, we can put it on boards, and you can tell us earlier,

rather than later, if the aquifer is drying out, so we can actually

save the aquifer, cut the amount of water that's coming out of the

aquifer, and start shutting the taps down to allow the aquifer to

recharge and then reopen the balls much later on in the crisis. Right

now, this is important technology that we really require. Gift of

the givers. Of course, go where the need is, but will this project

go to the rest of the country as well? It's starting here in the

Western Cape, but are you hoping to expand it? That is the initial

discussion that, of course, the areas more in need than the

Western Cape and poor areas too. And Microsoft said yes, because

they've got total cooperation here already. I mean, the health

department has just opened its doors, and it's been very, very

easy to deal with them. And you know, my special compliments to

Winton Gibbs, and we all said, in the interest of the people of

South Africa, we'll use this as a testing ground to perfect the

model, make all the mistakes, fix everything up, and then just

rolling it out in all nine provinces, and hopefully export

the idea to other parts of the continent and other parts of the

world that may have similar problems. What is gift of the

givers busy with? Besides this project, you are busy everywhere.

What other projects are you busy with? In terms of the drought, we

know that the Eastern Cape also has a severe drought now, and

things are not looking good. Just tell us a little bit about your

other projects as well. We'll be preparing for Eastern Cape, you

know where right now we're holding 12 warehouses full of bottled

water. Bottle water is not the ideal, but it is life saving at

short notice. So we look at Eastern Cape, but we busy building

drilling balls still in the Western Cape, we've designed our

whole filtration system. We have filtration systems people are

coming up with was costing a million Rand. We refined that and

made it at 47,000 Rand, and it's far more superior than Indian

system designed by us. So on the job, we're learning we're busy at

schools in Sutherland. We in a race to save the town. We have to

put 208 new boreholes because the entire town is dry. Many sheep are

dying. Ford is required. So to answer your question, we're

providing bottled water. We're providing food for farm workers

and for people who've lost their jobs. We're drilling more balls,

designing our own filtration systems, implementing the Smart

Meter and delivering fodder to several areas in southern cape,

Northern Cape, Western Cape, you know, in Aberdeen and parts of

Eastern Cape, potency

fraserburg, luriz Fontaine and other parts of northern K bustle,

Bay,

the lanes, lanesburg and deflectors. Albertina, giobertina

and our trucks are basically on a cycle all the time. And when we

tell our drivers, take a vest, he said, If you take a.

Rest the sheep will die, so they've been working extra hard.

Compliments to all the staff and all the farmers who've donated the

fodder from different parts of the country, which is very vital for

the needs of the sheep. Thank you very much. That was Dr India

Suleman of gift of the givers. As you heard from him, this drought

has very, very far reaching impacts, and is over a very wide

area, not just the Western Cape, other parts of the country also

affected by this, and they working tirelessly to assist where they

can, to help people get through this horrible drought. The water

meter is a pilot project here in the Western Cape, and it will be

launched in Fife hospital in the near future, and of course, they

will be hoping to roll it out even further as the goes on the.