Rainwater Harvesting
It is now viable to harvest rainwater for your whole household. This includes rainwater harvesting, storing and pumping rainwater for bathing, showering, toilet flushing, pool, laundry and irrigation. Rainwater harvesting together with other Water Rhapsody products can save up to 90% of your water bill.
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Monthly Archives: May 2010
Proposed water tariff hike on cards
The Amathola Water Board is proposing an 8.8 percent water tariff increase to its main recipients, which means that consumers in Buffalo City and areas under the Amathole District Municipality can expect further increases in tariffs, reports Msindisi Fengu. Amatola Water Board finance director Craig Step said the proposed increase should be viewed in the context of increases in major inputs such as electricity, bulk water purchases from the Department of Water Affairs and worker’s salaries. “The tariff increases could have some impact on the final pricing by municipalities, which could then be projected to the end user (residents). As water boards are part of the water value chain, any changes effected would have an effect on the rest of the components of this value chain,” he said. Step said the increase would also affect police stations, clinics, schools and industrial clients - Daily Dispatch, 10 May 2010
“Water-shedding” in the pipeline for Grahamstown
Due to the consistently low levels of dams in the Grahamstown area, the Makana Municipality is considering limiting water supplies in some parts of town. Addressing a media conference on Thursday, Makana Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart said this “water-shedding” process will help the municipality to meet its demand for water supply. She added that this process of regular water cuts would work in a similar fashion to the electricity load shedding which is occasionally carried out by Eskom. Explaining how the municipality’s water operations sank to the level where they are “erratic” to the extent that the residents start questioning the water quality, Baart blamed the situation on earlier municipal reports which were never addressed.
Water Stress – New Global Headache
A third of the world’s people might have access to only half the water they need in the next decades if nothing is done on a sustainable basis right now. And South Africa is particularly vulnerable.The high amount of water usage in South Africa – as much as 25% of its renewable freshwater resources – puts it way above that of its sub-Saharan neighbours. And causing water stress, that is when the amount of water used exceeds 10% of renewable resources. Companies that rely on water for manufacturing or production processes need to look at ways of re-using their waste water for energy and irrigation. This is one way of stretching existing resources. This is a global problem and it has been estimated that has much as 80% of waste water is being discharged untreated in developing countries because of lack of regulations and resources. Global giant Coca-Cola is an industry leader in this regard – all its production facilities in South Africa have water treatment plants. It has a long-standing commitment to not only replace the water that it uses in the production of its beverages, but also on broader issues of water stewardship. It is one of … Continue reading
Posted in Water Conservation
Tagged Eastern Cape, Global Concern, safe water, Water shortage, Water sources, Water Stress, Water usage
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Interesting information re Grey Water Recycling
Grey water is the domestic or household wastewater that comes from the laundry and bathroom. When treated properly this is safe for external use. Toilet water on the other hand is termed ‘black water’ and cannot be reused. Kitchen water is technically grey water; it is treated as black water as it often contains food and grease. Water Rhapsody can help you recycle your household grey water for use on garden beds. It is an excellent way of saving water and saving money! Grey water is available every time you shower or wash with the average house creating up to 83,000 litres of grey water per year. Your grey water is suitable for irrigating most garden areas including ornamental beds and lawns. When watering native gardens remember to use a type of detergent that has low levels or has no phosphorus. Treatment before irrigation? Plants and soil, especially the upper, most biologically active layer of soil, are fantastically effective for wastewater treatment. Pretreatment is often presented as an essential element in a grey water system, when in fact it may be more pointless than treating your wastewater before sending it down the sewer. Plants and soil are fine with … Continue reading
Large Hikes in SA’s drinking water tariffs on cards
South Africa’s water boards are proposing increases of between 6.2% and 43% to the cost of the potable bulk water they supply to the country’s municipalities. Such tariff increases, if accepted, are likely to push up the cost of drinking water sold to end-users by municipalities. The proposals, details of which are contained in a document tabled at a meeting of Parliament’s Water Affairs portfolio committee yesterday, appear to fly in the face of an announcement made by Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica last month. “I want to allay the fears of South Africans that there is in the near furture a possibility of a (tariff) hike. It’s not in the pipeline, ” she told a media briefing at Parliament on April 13. Questioned about this later yesterday, the department’s media liaison director, Linda Page, said there was no contradiction. “You will remember the minister was responding to a question on whether there are likely to be tariff increases linked to funding for infrastructure and thus potential increases in the price of raw water. The increases that the water boards are proposing…. are the normal annual increases linked to the CPIX because they operate on a cost recovery basis,” she … Continue reading
Innovations needed as climate change sees water supplies dwindle – Andrew Muir
LARGELY due to climate change, South Africa is becoming drier from the west to the east. Climate modelling for our area shows that our annual precipitation (rainfall) will reduce by between 10% and 15% at current warming levels. As a result, along coastal areas fresh water has to be transported from further and further afield to meet the demand of ever-growing urban areas. This has become a worldwide challenge, and around the globe researchers and scientists have being looking at the use of technology to increase the supply of fresh water. Proposals include towing icebergs from Antarctica to water-stressed regions, cloud-seeding, desalination plants and extracting fresh water from deep submarine aquifers. A longstanding proposal beginning in the late 1970s has been to tow icebergs from Antarctica to supply fresh water to water-scarce regions of the world. One major challenge to this proposal has been how to tow the icebergs towards the equatorial zone without them melting before reaching their destination. Cloud-seeding is a process in which dry ice or potassium iodide particles are used to increase rainfall. Although there is little scientific evidence that this actually works, many communities faced with water shortages are willing to try it. There is … Continue reading
R750-Million for Desalination Plant not available
Two weeks ago I posted the report that our Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs (DWEA) Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has said that her department was forging ahead with plans to supply desalinated water to Cape Town, and furthermore extract water from the Table Mountain (TM) aquifer. This week it was reported in The Algoa Sun, that since Nelson Mandela Bay was declared a drought disaster area, very little has been done to pull the area out of the crisis. Municipal spokesman Kupido Baron says that since the declaration, the minutes of the meeting were send to the national and provincial disaster management centres. “We have received feedback from the national centre which has assessed the area and confirmed our situation,” said Baron. However, no funding has been made available to the municipality thus far. He said in the interim, funding would have to be allocated from the current municipal budget. According to Baron there are several facets of the disaster plan that have already been set in motion. They currently had four reputable companies working with the municipality to determine the environmental impact a deslination plant would have in and area.”An area close to the Swartkops power station on the Swartkops River has been identified … Continue reading
Posted in Grey Water Recycling, Rainwater Harvesting, Water Conservation, Weather
Tagged Dam Levels, drought disaster area, Eastern Cape, Greywater re-use, Port Elizabeth, Rain fall, Rainwater Harvesting, Saving water, Water Conservation, Water Restrictions, Water sources, Waterproblem
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Rain-making lasers could trigger showers on demand
Lasers that stimulate condensation may help to induce rain artificially. Zeeya Merali Make rain while the laser shines.J-P. Wolf / University of Geneva The rain dance is getting a twenty-first-century revamp using laser technology. Optical physicists have demonstrated that shooting lasers into the air can trigger the formation of water droplets, a technique that could one day help to stimulate rainfall. For more than 50 years, efforts to try to artificially induce rain have concentrated on ‘cloud seeding’ — scattering small particles of silver iodide into the air to act as ‘condensation nuclei’, or centres around which rain droplets can grow. “The problem is, it’s still not clear that cloud seeding works efficiently,” says optical physicist Jérôme Kasparian at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. “There are also worries about how safe adding silver iodide particles into the air is for the environment.” Kasparian and his colleagues realized that there might be a more environmentally friendly alternative. Firing a laser beam made up of short pulses into the air ionizes nitrogen and oxygen molecules around the beam to create a plasma, resulting in a ‘plasma channel’ of ionized molecules. These ionized molecules could act as natural condensation nuclei, Kasparian explains. … Continue reading
Mother’s Day!
Do you know when Mothers Day is this year…. and years to come? Mother’s Day Date South Africa: 2010 – May 09 2011 – May 08 2012 – May 13 2013 – May 12 2014 – May 11 We’ll remind you again next year, don’t worry! “My mom is a never-ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I’ll always remember the tune”. – Graycie Harmonu s Mother’s Day Flowers: Carnations are the traditional flowers used on Mother’s Day. Apart from presenting their mom flowers, the people of South Africa also wear them to celebrate the day. The flower holds a special meaning on this day. While wearing red and pink carnations mean that a person’s mother is still living, the white ones are worn in honor of a deceased mother. On this particular day, children in South Africa pamper their mother and give her a special treatment. She is exempted from the daily chores, which are taken over by the children. ”Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.” – Lin Yutang Mother’s Day History The history of Mother’s Day is centuries … Continue reading
