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.

Just want to share this beautiful picture of Kouga Dam with you from yesterday, what a amazing site !!!

Regards

Victor

It truly is! Thank you for sharing this with us Victor.

-Water Rhapsody Eastern Cape

Residents are currently paying R8.27 daily for the first  500 litres use. For 300 litres more, you pay R16.73. If you use 800 litres more, you pay R33.45. Next moth the tariffs are as follows:  For the first 800 litres used daily, you pay R6.60. For the next 800 litres you pay R8.27 and for the next 1000 litres you pay R9.82. For more than this you pay R16.73 per 1000 litres.

For more info, contact the Customer Care Helpline on 041 – 506 5555 or email customercare@mandelametro.gov.za

- Port Elizabeth Express, 3 Aug’11

Last year this time the combined capacity was 33.7%

This could mean that the water restrictions be totally lifted. The Department of Water Affairs said it would lift the restrictions when the combined capacity of the Impofu and Churchill dams reach a combined capacity of 85%.

Does this means that the scarcity of water in the metropole is something of the past?  No!, warns Mr Dewalt Coetzee, director: southern operations from the department of water affairs.  Full dams are not an indication of plenty of water.  South Africa is a water scares country and if we waste the water now and the rains stays away again, we might be back to water restrictions within a year’s time.

The long term weather forecast predicts another dry season.

Lets all work together to keep on saving water.

Water Rhapsody, a leader in the manufacturing and installation of water conservation systems will visit your premises and advise you on affordable and sustainable water and energy conservation systems

The water tariffs will be lifted with effect from 1 August 2011 and the decreased water usage restrictions will take effect from 25 July 2011.

The tariffs under the restrictions were:

Kouga River

The water tariffs from August 2011 will be:

R6.60 for the first 800l/day
R8.27 for the next 800l/day
R9.82 for the next 1000l/day
R16.73 per kl thereafter.

There are a few reasons why the water restrictions are not totally lifted.

Within the last two months the average volume of the water in the dams making up the Algoa Water Supply System has increased by 100%. What has however been of concern is the fact that the dams dedicated to the NMBM water use has not had the amount of run off as seen in the Kouga River. The Churchill Dam located on the Kromme River only started overflowing on Friday evening 15 July 2011. This is a month after the Kouga Dams was full. Also to note is the fact that the overflow of the Churchill Dam flows into the Impofu Dam, which means that the runoff in the Kromme River was actually low, meaning that the majority of the inflow came from the tributaries and not the main river.

The latter is therefore the main reason that the restriction on the NMBM has not been entirely lifted and therefore the statement that the status of the water availability to the NMBM will be judged on the availability of water in the Kromme River. The storage of these two dams needs to be at least at 85% for all the restrictions to be entirely lifted.

At the current water consumption levels the NMBM has sufficient water for approximately two years.

The Department of Water Affairs placed a 10% restriction on the water usage of the Metro. This is due to the fact that the metro is in a drought prone area and the future weather outlook shows that we are going to have a dry season and our water supply may decrease considerably.