Top Award for City's Woman Water Scientist

The first black woman to head the City of Cape Town's Water Scientific Services Division has been honored by the National Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry at the annual Women in Water, Sanitation and Forestry Awards.

Mpharu Hloyi, 33, was the overall winner in the category "Management and Policy: Water" and second runner-up in the category "Research: Water". She received the award from Minister Lindiwe Hendricks at a banquet held at Gallagher Estate on 11 August 2006.

Participants were nominated in terms of their contributions towards sustainable development and poverty eradication through research, community development, education and management.

In less than a year of being appointed manager of the City's Water Scientific Services Division, Ms Hloyi successfully consolidated the five laboratories into three.

During Cape Town's recent water quality crisis, fuelled by misleading media reports about the presence of rat-tailed maggots in the drinking water, Ms Hloyi and her team of scientists conducted intensive research, proving that the water was 100% compliant with national drinking water standards. In so doing, the City of Cape Town and the Department of Health were able to allay public fears.

"Cape Town boasts some of the best water quality in the world and my mission is to guarantee that the water supplied to our 3,2 million consumers is safe, clean, clear and meets current drinking water standards," Ms Hloyi told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee at the hearing on Water Quality. Inter-laboratory comparison has proved that Cape Town's water is tops .

"My dream is to capacitate leaders to understand the whole water value chain so that they can make informed management decisions which will minimise risks that impact on water sustainability."

"I aim to do so by ensuring that the Scientific Services Division is the leading provider of analytical, monitoring, consulting and advisory services in the water sector," she says.

According to Sipho Mosai, Director: Water Services for the City of Cape Town, her professional integrity and belief in service excellence have been instrumental in the implementation of sound water policies.

"Ms Hloyi also ensures that her staff members are continuously developing their skills and pushes them to reach their full potential and flourish in the field of science," he says.

Born in Soweto and educated at Sekitla High in Hammanskraal, Ms Hloyi is married and has one child.

In 1998 the City of Cape Town awarded her a bursary to study at the University of Western Cape where she graduated in 2001 with a Masters Degree in Chemistry cum laude.

As former scientific services manager at Amatola Water, she headed a laboratory in East London which advised municipalities on water quality monitoring and detecting waterborne diseases such as cholera in OR Tambo District Municipality. The laboratory also monitored and evaluated the levels of algal toxins during the upgrading of the Laing Dam in Amathole District Municipality.

Her paper on the implications of the industrial effluent by-law in the Cape Metropole assisted the National Department of Water Affairs & Forestry in developing a strategy for wastewater discharge.

She also developed the ISO17025 accreditation system and acquired a Laboratory Information Management System for water quality for the City of Cape Town.

Dr Bulumko Vuyani Msengana, the City's Executive Director: Services and Infrastructure, commented : "I received the news of Ms Hloyi's outstanding achievements with much excitement. I feel extremely proud and privileged to have in my team such a talented person who has enriched the lives of so many people in such a short space of time. I am happy to note that Mpharu always undertakes her tasks with typical devotion and a mind that is incisively critical and analytical."

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