‘Day Zero Should Not Be Forgotten’: Talbot CEO on South Africa’s Water Wake-Up Call

When Cape Town’s taps nearly ran dry, the world watched. When Gqeberha’s drought dragged on, the world forgot. When Gauteng went days without water, the world moved on.

But Carl Haycock, CEO of water treatment and industrial solutions company Talbot, says South Africa cannot afford to keep forgetting.

The Water Reality

Talbot was founded in 1989. Over three decades, the water sector has transformedand so has the company.

“Corporates want a reliable supply of water for their industrial processes at the correct quality, while mitigating exposure to rapid and often unpredictable increases in water costs,” Haycock says.

The numbers are stark: bulk water tariffs from Rand Water have increased by more than 170% since 2014.

The Mindset Shift

If Haycock could change one mindset in the South African water sector, it would be the cycle of crisis, response, and complacency.

“The idea that the past is a window to the future is particularly relevant in the context of South Africa’s water crisis. Repeated droughts, infrastructure failures and near-misses like Cape Town’s Day Zero have shown how quickly water security can unravelyet these lessons are often forgotten as soon as supply is restored.”

He warns that unless past water shortages are treated as warnings rather than isolated events, South Africa will continue to repeat the same mistakes.

“Already this year, Cape Town is experiencing water supply stress again, there are continued water cuts in Gauteng while Knysna and Plettenburg Bay have critically low dam levels.”

The Business Case

For industry, water security is business continuity.

“When there are interruptions in water supply, some businesses stand to lose millions of rands in lost production.”

Haycock urges industrial clients to look beyond “end-of-pipe” treatment and focus on intraprocess and interprocess opportunities for savings and reuse.

• Intraprocess optimisation: Reducing water use within a specific unit of operationcutting the volume needed in a digester or wash step.

• Interprocess optimisation: Looking at flows between process steps, identifying where relatively clean streams can be treated and looped back into earlier stages.

“Targeting these smaller, higher value streams is often more cost effective than treating the entire effluent in a single large plant, and it frequently unlocks product recovery as well as water savings.”

Beyond Borders

Talbot has long operated beyond South Africa, delivering projects in Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Eswatini.

“Experience in managing logistics, handling samples, navigating regulatory requirements and building strong local partnerships has been critical to successfully delivering cross-border projects.”

The New Hub

Talbot’s new headquarters in La Mercy, KwaZulu-Natal, houses an Industrial Water Security Hub and one of South Africa’s most advanced accredited water laboratories.

The 3,500 m² facility enables the business to hold critical spare parts in stock for customers, substantially reducing lead times.

A new laboratory at Dube Trade Port is also opening, ensuring continued accredited testing while the transition takes place.

The Partnership Model

Haycock says successful partnerships come down to three words: communication, transparency, and commitment.

“Over-promising and under-delivering is a real problem in the water sector. Talbot won’t commit to performance targets that aren’t achievable in practice.”

The Culture

At its core, Haycock says, Talbot is driven by a positive growth and solutions-oriented mindset.

“Rather than stopping at problem identification, the business actively shifts engineering thinking towards delivering practical, implementable solutions that address real operational challenges.”

The Bottom Line

Day Zero was a warning. Gqeberha was a warning. Gauteng’s dry taps were a warning.

Haycock’s message is simple: South Africa cannot afford to forget. Water scarcity will not disappear. Demand will keep growing. And the next crisis is already on its way.

The only question is whether industry will act before the taps run dry again.

{Source: TheSouthAfrican}

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