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Avg: 34.01% 
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. |
A brief synopsis of drought in South Africa since 1960 -2005 Introduction The rainfall climate of South Africa is one of great variability. Seasonal rainfall percentage deviations since 1960 demonstrate wide fluctuations about the long-term average and it is in this context that large rainfall deficits must be assessed. Between July of 1960 and June of 2004, there [...]
Instant panic! Immediate thoughts would turn to your family and home. The taps would open, but nothing would come out, there may be a little water left in your kettle, and some in your geyser. Then you may hear the news that the city will be out of water for a month. [...] The Ndlambe Municipality has intervened to stave off an impending water disaster in Port Alfred by drastically reducing the pressure in supply pipes. The decision was taken at a crisis meeting of the Ndlambe council yesterday morning, guided by municipal experts who have warned there is less than a month of drinking water left for the Sunshine [...]
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 funky, chunky water; it is pipes and people who may have a hard time with it. Pretreatment is only necessary to overcome limitations of the distribution plumbing to handle funky water. With a properly designed system, grey water can be reliably and safely distributed with no filtration whatsoever. Continue reading Interesting information re Grey Water Recycling 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 [...]
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. To test whether this technique could induce droplets, the researchers fired a high-powered laser through an atmospheric cloud chamber in the lab containing saturated air. They illuminated the chamber using a second, standard low-power laser, enabling them to see and measure any droplets produced. Immediately after the laser was fired, drops measuring about 50 micrometres wide formed along the plasma channel. Over the next three seconds, the droplets grew in size to 80 micrometres as the smaller droplets coalesced. The team’s results are published online in Nature Photonics (www.nature.com) Continue reading Rain-making lasers could trigger showers on demand The article by Melanie Gosling, environmental Affairs writer refers. 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. As mentioned in the article, all rivers in the Western Cape have been dammed, and the maximum amount of water is being extracted. There is no more water that can possibly be squeezed from our rivers. What was not said is that this water is used, polluted and largely wasted to rivers around the Western Cape with concomitant damage to riverine and marine life. The focus has always been and remains to supply more and more water. Now DWEA are looking at other ways, hence the aquifer extraction and sea water desalination. Has the Minister not been advised by scientists that by extracting fossil water from the TM aquifer, the relatively finite amount of water in the aquifer is being permanently reduced for all practical intents and purposes. This is a fossil aquifer, and has been there for millions of years. Not only would extraction permanently reduce the amount of water in the aquifer, but it would also jeopardise plant and animal life as well as rivers within the aquifer system. If you for instance pump water out near Cape Town, there will be a lessening of available water as far as Port Elizabeth! Continue reading Plans to supply desalinated water
Continue reading Nelson Mandela Bay declared a drought disaster area! |
Against a global rainfall average of 870mm per year, South Africa receives a pitiful 450mm, making it the worlds 30th driest country. Water Rhapsody, with 16 years experience in water conservation, is number 1 in South Africa in Grey water recycling systems and Rainwater harvesting systems.Water Rhapsody a WWF Green Trust award winner can save us up to 90% of our municipal water bills. 
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NELSON Mandela Bay was declared a drought disaster area yesterday, allowing the city to apply for R1.6-billion in emergency funding to tackle the crisis.
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