Thebe Invests in Clean Water
The state of water services in South Africa has recently been described as “in crisis”, hence the water sector is fast becoming a key infrastructure priority in the country. Thebe Investment Corporation has exposure to the water industry through its investments in Headstream Water and Accentuate.
Headstream Water is primarily focused on the wastewater treatment market segment but also operates in the water treatment and purification segments. In 2012, Accentuate’s wholly-owned subsidiary Safic established a joint venture with Indian water purifier Ion Exchange, which provides a wide range of integrated water treatment and management solutions to sectors spanning industrial, institutional, infrastructure, municipal and household, both urban and rural. Ion Exchange pioneered water treatment in India and is Asia’s largest water and environment solutions provider and has developed cost effective systems to treat contaminated water, even in rural areas where there is no electricity.
Conservative estimates show that over 1000 Ml/d of additional treatment capacity is required immediately in South Africa to bring capacity up to what is currently needed.
“This means that a conservative estimate of the immediate capital expenditure required is in the region of R10 billion to bring capacity to current demand levels. Official estimates from the Department of Water Affairs show that R670 billion is required to bring South Africa’s public water sector up to the required level over the next 10 years.
“This represents a very significant marketing opportunity for Headstream to capitalise on its unique technologies,” says Justin Moore, CEO of Headstream Water.
Fred Platt, CEO of Accentuate, says South Africa is a dry, water-scarce country and it is crucial that this resource is managed carefully and innovatively. He believes that Accentuate’s partnership with Ion Exchange India will be hugely beneficial to an emerging country like South Africa, given Ion’s wide array of cost-effective and energy-efficient water treatment and management technologies which are suitable to Third World conditions.
“Ion Exchange has been around for 50 years and its depth of intellectual property (IP) and amount of skills and technologies is impressive. They are the musters of providing total water solutions to customers ranging from nuclear power stations to safe drinkable water for rural dwellers,” says Fred.
Headstream Water has secured exclusive access to a number of proven, unique and innovative technologies for water and wastewater treatment in South Africa. The current primary focus is on the HYBACS® wastewater treatment technology which provides an ideal solution for the upgrading of existing wastewater treatment plants to increase the treatment capacity and enhance treatment performance in a cost effective manner by leveraging off existing infrastructure.
“The ability to retrofit existing plants represents a major opportunity for capital expenditure savings for municipalities. Another key benefit of the HYBACS® technology is that it delivers substantial energy savings when compared to conventional solutions,” says Justin.
Headstream is also involved in rolling out micro filters for use in rural households and associated products for the camping and travel industry. Headstream Water has secured a portfolio of unique, innovative and proven water treatment technologies via exclusive licences for South Africa and the region.
“These technologies have a diverse range of applications from biological wastewater through to water purification. Each technology has performance benefits that enable the company to differentiate the solutions it offers in what is highly competitive market with many players offering “off the shelf” technologies that have been around for many years and are available to everyone,” says Justin.