Abstract for:A System Dynamics Approach to Water Quality: Initial Conceptualization

As water scarcity increases in South Africa, more focus is placed on water quality and it is the responsibility of Eskom as a State Owned Company (Eskom SOC) to use this water wisely. Water quality is evaluated by applying the system dynamics method based on three scenarios commonly used in improving water quality in a community: Raising awareness of water importance and usage, investing in the long term education and development of the community and building a full scale water treatment plant to improve water quality. It was found that the biggest impact was identified through building a water treatment plant, but this solution is not sustainable in the long run. The optimal solution was where all three scenarios were implemented in varying proportions, with 80% of the focus placed on long term education/development, 15% on raising awareness of water quality and 5% on construction and operation of the water treatment plant.