Recently, the Renosterberg Municipality expressed their gratitude to the Longyuan Mulilo De Aar Wind Projects for their contributions and funding towards the Philipstown Water Supply Upgrade Project.
This project was the first of three phases in the Phillipstown Water Supply Upgrade Project undertaken by the Renosterberg Municipality. The Renosterberg Municipality approached Longyuan Mulilo to provide the funds to upgrade five existing boreholes as part of the first phase.
The Water Upgrade Project commenced in September 2020, and all parties overcame the challenges and impact of COVID 19 to make the project successful and commissioned it in October 2021. After completion, the total groundwater abstraction in Philipstown has increased from 6.7 l/sec to 14.3 l/sec, an 113% increase in the original yield.
Currently, the water demand for Philipstown is at 1 130 Kl per day. Before this upgrade, they could only extract about 580 Kl per day, which did not meet the water demand in the community. Now with all five new pumps running, the total groundwater abstraction amounts to 1 236 Kl per day, meeting the daily water demand of the community adequately.
Another significant advantage of this upgrade project is that the power consumption from the boreholes pumps has been reduced quite significantly by supplying the pumps with renewable solar energy during the day, thereby saving operational costs.
Besides funding the upgrading of the five boreholes, Longyuan Mulilo also provided funds for the security fences around all borehole sites, installed new borehole monitoring equipment, made provision for a three-year maintenance program and created more than 20 temporary jobs as part of the mechanical and civil works undertaken.
As the entire community of Philipstown receives water from these five boreholes, all community members of Philipstown, Philipsvale, Lukhanyisweni and Rietfontein benefited as a result of these upgrades.
The Renosterberg Municipality once again approached Longyuan Mulilo for additional contributions towards the second phase of their Water Supply Upgrade Project. Longyuan Mulilo agreed to fund the training of municipal staff and to provide remote monitoring equipment for the existing boreholes and reservoirs.
“We see ourselves as part of the Renosterberg Municipality and are pleased to see the impact and value of our funding towards community projects, benefiting the local people of Renosterberg and surroundings. It is our obligation and responsibility to contribute and add more value towards the upliftment of the local community where we operate from", said Longyuan Mulilo management.