Page 32 - EngineerIT December 2022

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

SCADA systems are essential for a smart and

sustainable water sector

he current water crisis confronting
South Africa is due to the sector
Tstill largely being burdened by
ageing infrastructure, water quality
issues and pipe bursts, resulting in
41% of leakages attributable as non-
revenue water. “There is room for
improvement, but only if the sector can
adopt and embrace change,” argues
Joyce Moganedi, Power and Water Local
Division Sales Manager at ABB.
Cutting-edge solutions can be
deployed to ensure sustainable
management of the complete water broad spectrum of applications in the water and wastewater industry, including water
lifecycle. This would mitigate the impact distribution networks, water pumps, water transmission pipes, drinking water, water
of natural disasters such as drought and mains, pumping stations and wastewater treatment.
floods. Such solutions are centred on “The flexibility and scalability of SCADA makes it ideal for the entire spectrum of
supervisory control and data acquisition clean power and water installations, be they locally or remotely operated plants, fleets
(SCADA) systems. or networks,” notes Moganedi. It allows for specific plant processes to be monitored,
SCADA is the most widely used controlled and managed.
automation system for water applications This ranges from visual oversight of operations to access to real-time information to
globally. In a world where every drop monitor plant performance and flag any issues that are cause for concern. It also makes
of water counts, water and wastewater remote operations possible to boost efficiency and productivity. “Most importantly, the
plants play a critical role in bridging the ability to predict any failures and deploy mitigating measures timeously allows us to
gap between the growing demand for manage our water infrastructure assets smartly,” argues Moganedi.
and scarcity of this precious resource. However, the uptake of SCADA systems in the water sector is hampered by a lack of
Automation and control technologies are project funding and slow implementation. “Responsible and efficient water usage can
at the core of the challenge. only be achieved by the automation, electrification and digitalisation of South Africa’s
For example, ABB Ability™ water plants to ensure safe, smart and sustainable management of the water cycle,”
Symphony® Plus SCADA can easily highlights Moganedi. Only when plants are automated can responsible water use be
be adapted or engineered for a effectively implemented.

Integrate, integrate, integrate

ecurity and speed will always war were considering adopting developer-focused security solutions and shifting
for dominance in DevOps but security to developers.
Sit’s time to integrate the two as This is a good thing. As good a thing as DevOps itself – an approach that
the landscape becomes increasingly Forrester describes as one that ‘consistently reduces time to market, increases
fractious and complex. It is time to enterprise agility, and makes businesses more resilient.’ It’s also why the research
adopt a security-focused approach firm believes that one of the key areas in which DevOps will evolve is in the
to DevOps, one that integrates the evolution of practices. Replacing processes will see security and risk personnel
security alarm bells and whistles into shifting to the left and joining projects at the start, rather than wedged into the
the flair and speed of development, middle or the end. It’s a view shared by Mandla Mbonambi, CEO of Africonology,
without the traditional frictions and who believes that the shift to the left has become as important and essential to
complexities. A survey undertaken by the success of a DevOps project as the expertise and capabilities of the teams
ESG found that 68% of respondents themselves.

EngineerIT | December 2022 | 32