• Updated: 16/01/2012 16:02:30
• Warning: Take action
• Subject: Extremely uncomfortable; Heat Wave
• Detail: Valid for 17 to 19/01/2012: Warning: 1. A heat wave with persistently high temperatures is expected over the western and southern parts until Thursday. 2. Extremely uncomfortable, humid conditions will be experienced over the western and southern interior until Thursday.

With this heat wave in mind, it will be difficult to keep your lawn from looking like this:

The alternative for using your precious municipal water to water your garden, you might consider having the Water Rhapsody’s grey water system installed, namely Garden Rhapsody. In which case the Garden Rhapsody collects all your grey water, from your baths, showers, hand basins and laundry. The grey water sprays out onto your lawn or where you’ve directed it via hosepipe to spray. Imagine the feeling of watering your garden while taking a shower….

If you harvest rainwater through the Water Rhapsody Grand Opus, you will be making use of your own rainwater in your shower, your lawn will be watered with that same water. Shouldn’t everybody be heading this way?

Have us visiting your premises for a free no-obligation quotation to install these systems.

Contact Frans @ 082 7712 062 or Ansie @ 082 851 9761

Day 15: Go paperless.

With email and online invoicing, there aren’t many reasons why you shouldn’t be using less paper. Use the internet as much as possible and eliminate the need for paper waste.

Day 16: Handel with care.

Taking care of what you have is an essential part of being green. The longer you are able to use existing items, the less waste you’ll create by buying new things.

Day 17: Plant a plant.

Having house or office plants are not just aesthetically pleasing, they also help keep the air you breathe clean and fresh.

Day 18: Collect your cans.

During the first week of your green plan, you started recycling paper. Now you are ready to move up the recycling grid to cans. Contact Collect-a-Can to find your nearest collection point. Before you recycle them, make sure they are clean and dry.

Day 19: Repurpose your rubbish.

Before you throw out or give away the great items you have lying around in your home, think of creative ways to re-use your treasures. You may find that your old ladder could make an interesting shelf.

Day 20: Buy local.

Purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables reduces the amount of processing, packaging and transportation needed to get the foodfrom the farm to your table.

Day 21: Take it in or let it out.

Find someone in your neighbourhood that can alter your clothes for you when necessary. This will save you time and money that you would have spent purchasing a new wardrobe every time the numbers on the scale change.

Four weeks doesn’t sound like a long time, but by making small changes every day for a month you will be able to tackle the task of Going Green with ease.

WEEK 1

Day 1: Start with you paper.

While there are many household items you can recycle, start with a commonly used material. Recycling paper is easy because it does not require anything much else but sorting. Simply contact Mondy Paper Pick-up and find out more about their paper pickup scheme.

Day 2: Bring your own bag.

Elimination the need for plastic shopping bags is a great way to reduce waste and will save you money. There is no need to buy one of those reusable bags that the shops have for sale, as you probably have a suitable bag at home already.

Day 3: Turn of the tap.

Make sure that all your taps completely close every time you use them. Leaking taps waste litres and litres of water unnecessarily. Change your habits and don’t let taps run in the bathroom, while you are brushing your teeth, shaving or in the kitchen, when preparing food.

Day 4: Eliminate paper/plastic cups from your life.

Have your favourite coffee mug or reusable water bottle on hand at all times. Use these instead of paper/plastic cups and reduce the amount of waste you produce.

Day 5: Walk

Fin at least one neighbourhood destination you can travel to on foot. This will help you save petrol and the environment by walking there instead of firing up you ‘petrol guzzler’.

Day 6: Switch it off.

When you leave for work in the morning or a night on the town, save money and energy by turning off your non-essential lights. Also turn off lights when leaving a room, placing reminders on your light switches can help you remember until you get into the habit of doing so.

Day 7: Dine in.

If you frequently eat out or get take aways try to cut back at least one or two meals out of the week. Preparing your own food reduces food container waste immensely.

The shortage of suitable freshwater resources is fast becoming a global catastrophe.

How do we know this?

In the 20th century the global population tripled and currently 220 000 people are born daily. This population growth, along with industrialisation and urbanisation, has resulted in several countries facing serious water shortages. A direct result of this is that 50% of hospital beds are occupied by sufferers of poor water related conditions.
It may seem hard to believe, but globally more people have cellular phones than access to a toilet.
And water usage in agriculture? Well, 70% of freshwater resources are allocated to agriculture. Practical usage includes:

• 25 000 ℓ of water to raise 1 kg of beef
• 4 000 ℓ to raise 1kg of chicken
• 1 120 ℓ to produce a cup of coffee
• 125 ℓ to produce a sheet of paper (please don’t print this!)

As a result of this looming water crisis, social and government agencies are looking for ways in which to limit new water allocations, reduce the usage by existing users and improve the quality of effluent water. This is all in an effort to improve the availability of clean, healthy water.

Aquaculture is expanding rapidly to supply the increasing gap between the growing world population and the decreasing availability of wild caught fish. The industry faces opposition in both the freshwater and marine environments from parties who perceive the industry to contribute to the demand for freshwater or to pollute fresh and marine waters.

However, it requires only 50ℓ to raise 1kg of fish in a RAS.
If done properly, therefore, aquaculture has enormous potential to alleviate hunger and create wealth without harming the environment.
Several ways in which this can be done include:

• Using recirculating systems to reduce water usage to a minimum.
• Effluent waste water should be used for irrigation to remove the risk of fish or associated pathogens escaping, and to utilise the nutrients in this water.
• Using feeds which are based on plant rather than fish proteins and oils.
• Using treatments that are environmentally friendly, especially those that dissociate into harmless substances.

In comparison to the amount of water required to raise other forms of animal crops, aquaculture has a vital role to play in our global water crisis as an industry that can produce a healthy form of protein with minimal water usage.

For more information on Leslie and Aquaculture Innovations, visit their website at http://www.aquaafrica.co.za/

Matthew Du Plessis: “Fracking” doesn’t mean what it used to mean. In the good old days, it was a wholesome substitute for an unprintable expletive – used to its highest glory and fullest effect in the television series Battlestar Galactica. Hearing Starbuck curse was an object lesson in the poetry of vloeking. It was from the heart. The new meaning of “fracking” doesn’t come from the heart. Instead, it’s a punch to the gut. The word “fracking” is a convenient abbreviation of the phrase “hydraulic fracture”. I’ll tell you more about that in a second.

First, let me set the scene. Picture, if you will, the Groot Karoo. Graaff Reinet. Ostrich territory. Dusty, scrub-covered terrain. Angora goats. Sheep. Boreholes. All right. Now hold that image as you cast your mind halfway around the world to where Big Energy has turned its attention from the PR disaster in which oil is engulfed, to the relatively unexplored miracle of natural gas.  Until recently, it was very difficult to get to, but new drilling methods are able to clear a way down.

“Hydraulic fracturing” involves injecting vast amounts of chemically treated water into the cavities created in the drilling process, the pressure of which then fractures the rock formations around it, allowing the gas trapped in the shale to be harvested.

It turns out that many of the land owners who have leased their property out for this process are having a bit of a rough time. Sure, the actual equipment is about the size of a small van – hardly takes up any space at all. But it squirts some apparently rather dodgy chemicals into the ground. Which trickles down into the groundwater – and if the land is serviced by boreholes… well, you can imagine.

But if you can’t, the documentary film Gasland shows footage of people turning on the taps in their home, letting the water flow, and then bringing a lit match near to the running water. Have you ever seen running water, coming out of a tap, catching fire? Watch Gasland. In some instances, we’re talking fireballs.

In the film there’s also footage of farm and domestic animals with hair falling out, testimony from families who have developed serious and chronic illnesses, and energy executives insisting that there’s nothing wrong with the water – yet in the same breath refusing to drink any of it. Of course, the companies involved in the fracking deny there’s any risk to the public. They’ve got studies to prove the chemicals they use cause no harm to the water, the environment or to humans.

Our Karoo. Which lies atop a vast – and evidently gassy – shale formation. They’re lining up for it! Shell International and oil and gas company Falcon already have a licence to scout for gas. And potentially flood the Karoo’s groundwater with tasty chemicals.

In the mosquitoes world it is only the adult females that bite man and other animals. The male mosquitoes feed only on plant juices. Female mosquitoes feed on man, domesticated animals, such as cattle, horses, goats, dogs, all types of birds including chickens; all types of wild animals; and they also feed on snakes, lizards, and frogs.

Most female mosquitoes have to feed on an animal and get a sufficient blood meal before she can develop eggs.

Life Cycle of Mosquito

Eggs are laid one at a time and they float on the surface of the water. Most eggs hatch into larvae within 48 hours.

The larva (larvae – plural) live in the water and come to the surface to breathe.

Mosquito Larvae in your water tank

They shed their skin four times growing larger after each molting. Most larvae have siphon tubes for breathing and hang from the water surface. The larvae feed on micro-organisms and organic matter in the water. On the fourth molt the larva changes into a pupa.

The pupa stage is a resting, non-feeding stage. This is the time the mosquito turns into an adult. It takes about two days before the adult is fully developed. When development is complete, the pupa skin splits and the mosquito emerges as an adult.

The newly emerged adult rests on the surface of the water for a short time to allow itself to dry and all its parts to harden. Also, the wings have to spread out and dry properly before it can fly.

The cure:
The best cure is prevention. With a Water Rhapsody installation there is no access to the water source for the female to lay her eggs. It is closed system with the only open end the fine stainless steel sif that is found in our Rain Runners.
If however you did divert your cutter straight down to the tank and now have a mosquito infestation, there is biological way to deal with these suckers.
You can introduce the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. Israelensis to the water. You can buy it commercially in the form of Margaret Roberts (Vectobac) Biological Mosquito Insecticide.

Organic Mosquito Insecticide

It is a Microbial insecticide (biological agent) for the control of mosquito and fungus gnat larvae in their breeding sites.

The bacterium kills larvae of mosquitoes and fungus gnats. No harmful toxic residues. No secondary poisoning. It is harmless to bees, birds, fish, pets, wildlife, most beneficial aquatic insects and natural predators.

Mosquito Larvae: good source of protein.

If you keep fish in either an aquarium or fish pond, you can feed the larvae to the fish as a live feed and good source of protein.

Red Blood Worms

They are called Bloodworms. Bloodworms are one stage in the life cycle of the non-biting Midge fly. The red colour comes from haemoglobin in the Midge fly’s blood and has no reference to any blood sucking activity. They are herbivorous and feed on algae and other plants or waste material – therefore harmless to you or your animals.
Many fish keepers buy bloodworms as a protein rich food for their fish.

The non-biting Midge looks like a mosquito, but doesn’t bite. Midges live near water and are found in streams, rivers, ditches, lakes and ponds – and of course your water tank. The midge develops in a life cycle that includes four stages: egg, larvae (bloodworm), pupae and adult. The larvae stadia last between 2 to 7 weeks.

The best cure is prevention. Water Rhapsody always ensures that your rainwater harvesting system is a closed system and does not allow any entry for water based breeding insect. We make use of Rain Runners to first sift the water from the gutters before diverting it to the tank. We only make use of the existing outlet/inlet to the tank – no holes are gut into the tank and it therefore remains sealed to insects and sunlight.

Also make sure you do not have a light source close to the water tank as this attracts the adults and invites them to lay their eggs in your tank. Avoid the use of unnecessary lights until 45 minutes after sundown since 90 percent or more of flight activity takes place before that time.

For mosquito infestation we introduce the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis subsp israelensis to the water. This bacterium is harmless to humans and animals and only feeds on the larvae of the mosquito. This however does not work for the Midge fly larvae.

If you need any help to take preventative measures to prevent future infestations, do not hesitate to give us a call.

A spark of static electricity can measure up to three thousand (3,000) volts.

• A bolt of lightning can measure up to three million (3,000,000) volts – and it lasts less than one second!

• Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground.

• Electricity can be made from wind, water, the sun and even animal manure.

• Burning coal is the most common way electricity is made in the United States.

• The first power plant – owned by Thomas Edison – opened in New York City in 1882.

• Thomas Edison invented more than 2,000 new products, including almost everything needed for us to use electricity in our homes: switches, fuses, sockets and meters.

• Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity – but he did prove that lightning is a form of electrical energy.

• One power plant can produce enough electricity for 180,000 homes.

Alternative Energy

• The bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation known. It uses five times less energy than walking.

• B.C.’s forest industry obtains 25% of its electricity from biomass — in this case, the waste material from their own industry.
• A system of distribution and transmission lines brings electricity to southern Manitoba through 70,000 km of lines. That’s enough lines to circle the globe five times!
• 16% of Canada’s electricity is produced by nuclear fission.
• In terms of nominal capacity, the largest solar electric power plant is the Harper Lake Site in the Mojave Desert, California. The site covers 1,280 acres, and has two solar electric generating stations which have a nominal capacity of 160 MW.
• Wind tunnels are used to test models of cars and bridges to see if they can stand up to strong winds. Olympic skiers use them to determine the crouch position with the least wind resistance.
• The city of San Francisco gets 25% of its electricity from wind energy.
• A wind turbine at Fort Severn on the shores of Hudson Bay supplies power to 30 homes when the winds are high, reducing the need for costly fuel from the community’s diesel generator.
• Wave power has been successfully tested off the coast of Scotland. Its use is limited to coastal areas where wave action is reliable and strong and other energy sources are expensive.
• Water provides the power to meet 1/5 of the world’s electrical demands.

• Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted from one form to another.
• Find an elastic band, and stretch it out. The stretched rubber band has potential energy. If you let it go, it moves and has kinetic energy.
• Have you ever wondered how you might get a hot air balloon to float up and down? How would you launch it? How would you get it back to earth? The balloon rises by warming up the air inside it. It descends by letting the air inside it cool down. It all works because of heat energy.
• Electricity travels at 300,000 km/sec. If you travelled that fast, you could travel around the world eight times in the time it takes to turn on a light switch.
• The energy produced by the atom-splitting of one kilogram of uranium is equivalent to the burning of 1.3 million kilograms of coal or 1.35 million litres of oil.
• People run on energy too, and food is our fuel. The unit we use to measure expended heat energy is the calorie.
• Calorie expenditures comparison:
• Lying at ease – 1.5 cal/min
• Tennis – 7 cal/min
• Playing drums – 4–6 cal/min
• Golfing – 6 cal/min
• The most powerful power station is the Itaipu power station on the Paraná River near the Brazil/Paraguay border. Opened in 1984, the station has attained its ultimate capacity of 13,320 MW. (Ten times the size of Limestone!)
• Refrigerators with side by side doors use the most energy, while one door units without self-defrost use the least.

Light

• In 15 minutes, the sun radiates as much energy onto our globe as humans use during an entire year. Just imagine if we could channel the sun’s energy effectively!
• The sun is a huge ball of hot gases, and the temperature at the centre of the sun is more than 20,000,000 C. Tremendous pressure causes tiny particles, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, to smash into each other so hard that they fuse or combine. This nuclear fusion releases energy in the form of intense light and heat.
• Fireflies produce light using chemical energy from their food. The light they give off is more efficient than that of a light bulb. Fireflies lose only 1/15 of their energy to heat, whereas 95% of the energy used by an ordinary light bulb is wasted as heat energy. Some deep-sea squids and glowworms in caves also change the chemical energy from food into light.
• Have you ever bought a light stick at a fair and wondered what makes the stick glow? When you bend the stick, a seal breaks and two chemicals in the stick mix. As they mix, energy is released and this energy produces light. Zap! Chemical energy changes to light energy.
• In Sweden, heat is pumped out of the ground north of the Arctic Circle and used to heat buildings. Sweden has more than seven times as many heat pumps in operation than Canada.