As World Water Week puts global attention on water security, Gauteng-based Upward Spiral Water Treatment 1471 is showing how hazardous liquid effluent streams can be converted into reusable water while supporting environmental protection by providing a landfill avoidance solution to hazardous liquid effluent management and local job creation.

Operating from the East Rand, the company treats approximately +-6,000 tonnes of hazardous liquid effluent each month and recovers approximately 80% of water in the effluent. Instead of selling the recovered water, Upward Spiral 1471 discharges the water directly back to the City of Ekurhuleni municipality for re-distribution, where it is further treated to municipal standards for drinking water.

The model offers a timely example of how private-sector innovation can help reduce ease pressure on South Africa’s constrained water systems.

“World Water Week cannot only be about awareness. It must also be about, advanced scalable engineering solutions,” says Jackie Pahad, Managing Director at Upward Spiral 1471.

“By treating hazardous liquid waste as a resource rather than a liability, we are protecting local ecosystems from toxic discharge while putting recovered water back into the municipal system.”

South Africa’s industrial and mining sectors are under growing pressure to reduce environmental harm while the country continues to face water scarcity. Upward Spiral 1471’s approach addresses both challenges by treating hazardous effluent, recovering treated water and beneficiating from the waste stream.

The company uses in-house developed specialised treatment and extraction technology to separate water from hazardous industrial effluent. The recovered water is sent to the City of Ekurhuleni for further treatment, while chemical and heavy-metal residues are captured and reprocessed/beneficiated.

Its Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) to landfill technology supports responsible effluent management by treating hazardous liquid waste so it can be safely discharged to sewer or reused in industrial processes, in line with municipal discharge regulations as a landfill diversion solution.

“True environmental sustainability is achieved when ecological restoration becomes economically self-sustaining,” says Pahad.

“Our work shows that heavy industry can play an active role in cleaning up the environment while reducing the financial burden on the state and municipalities.” and curb the threat of water scarcity.