The problem:

Bloemfontein:Water problems in high-lying areas

Bloemfontein and the greater Mangaung area are struggling since September with water supply and delivery problems. First, water restrictions were introduced and lately residents are experiencing irregular supply and low pressure.  This is due to the fact that two reservoirs of the city nearly ran dry and left most of the traditional Mangaung suburbs without water for five days.

The current problem is that water is drawn out of the reservoirs as fast as it is pumped in. This effectively means that no reserves can be built up.

In a statement by the Mangaung Metro the levels of the reservoirs are indicated to be at 48%. This is only sufficient for the water network and not enough for the delivery of water to high-lying areas in Bloemfontein.

Residents in high-lying areas will have some water during the morning but as the day progress, the pressure and supply desiccate.

With summer just underway, what will happen during the season as the demand for water increases?

The solution:

Take control of your own water supply rather to be dependant on the municipality.  Water Rhapsody can help you by harvesting rainwater and recycling of your grey water.

We specialize in the manufacturing and installation of Water Conservation Systems and have 16 years of experience behind us.

For more information and a quotation, please contact us by using the contact form on the right of this page.  You may also contact us on 082 7712 062 or 082 8519 761.

  Not receiving constant water pressure from the municipality?

Then Water Rhapsody is your answer.

We specialize in the manufacturing and installation of Water Conservation Systems and have 16 years of experience behind us. Our Systems include:

• Garden Rhapsody– Grey Water Diverter
  • Re-use your bath, shower and laundry water to irrigate your garden-automatically.
• Grand Opus– Rainwater Harvesting system
  • Harvest clean rainwater and use this water instead of municipality water.
• Second Movement  
  • Grey water for toilet flushing.
• Multi Flush Toilet system
  • Allows you to use the least amount of water to clean the pan.
• Pool Side tank
  • Recycle your pool’s backwash water back into your swimming pool.
• Poseidon Advantage Series
  • Recycling of large industrial grey water producers like car wash bays.

The installations can be as simple as a gutter-to-tank installation or as intricate as an Uninterrupted Pressurized Water Supply (UPWS) system, ensuring you against any water outages.

For more information visit our website at www.watersafe.co.za, mail us on info@watersafe.co.za or call us on 082 7712 062/082 851 9761.

“Every backwash of two to three minutes will use between 200 and 900 litres of water”

Stop throwing your pool backwash water away! It is illegal to pump this water to the street and environmentally most unfriendly. Owning a swimming pool means having to waste up to 500 litres of backwash water per week on cleaning the filtration system.

Our Water Rhapsody Poolside Tank system receives the water normally thrown away from a pool’s filter backwash process. The system processes this dirty water and within 24 hours the water can be safely returned to the pool. Should you wish, we can connect the system in such a way that you would still be able to empty your pool for whatever reason you might need to.

Other ways to use less water for your swimming pool:

• Use a pool cover.  It will reduce water loss due to normal evaporation, which can be as high as 25mm a week or as much as 1000 litres from larger pools.
• Repair any swimming pool leaks. Even a small leak in either pool equipment or the pool’s structure represents a substantial amount of water waste.
• If heated, reduce your pool and spa water temperature. Warmer water evaporates more quickly
• Keep the pool water in the pool. If your pool has an overflow hole or pipe, plug it whenever people are swimming. This will prevent water loss through the line when the pool is in use.
• Maintain the chemical balance in your pool. This will help prevent algae bloom which may need to be vacuumed or backwashed which will waste water (unless you have installed the Water Rhapsody Poolside Tank). Correct control of salt levels will also save you money and prevent over salination which may influence your ability to recycle that water, at the same time adding unnecessary salt to environmental water.
• If your pool has a water feature or waterfall, ensure that this remains shut off while no-one is around to appreciate it as these invariably cause considerable additional evaporation and chemical losses. It may pay to have a shut-off valve fitted if you do not already have one.
• Discourage excessive splashing and boisterous play. The more water lost to splashing, the more frequently you will need to refill or top up the water in your pool.
• When you are filling your pool, be sure to keep an eye on your water level. Forgetting to shut off fill water can make for a costly waste of water.

Contact Water Rhapsody for more information on the Poolside Tank, or for a no-obligation quote to have it installed.

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.

“Water Conservation

The following restrictive use of water obtained from the Municipality’s water supply system will be imposed with effect from 25 July 2011:

1. The use of hosepipes, sprinklers, sprinkler and drip systems to water gardens, lawns, grassed areas, flower-beds, racecourses, sports fields, bowling greens, golf greens and fairways, croquet lawns, turf wickets, ploughing fields and the like will NOT be permitted between 10:00 and 16:00.
2. Washing down of driveways, paved areas, roofs and buildings will be permitted only if a pressurised sprayer is used.
3. Washing down of cars, boats and caravans will be permitted only if a pressurised sprayer is used.
4. In terms of Section 73 of the Water Services Bylaw: Any commercial vehicle washing facility must be constructed and operated in such a manner that 60% of the potable water used by such facility is recycled for reuse in the facility, provided that commercial vehicle washing facilities that are in operation when this By-law is promulgated will be granted a period of three years from the date of promulgation (14 May 2010) of this By-law to comply with this.”

This is where Water Rhapsody can be of help. We have the system called ‘The Poseidon Advantage’, and this is a short description of it:

The Poseidon Advantage

A flexible system to digest the food content of “Grey Water”  Grey water contains BOD (biological oxygen demand), and the BOD needs to be removed before filtration can take place.

The process of digestion may be anaerobic followed by aerobic, or simply aerobic, and the filtration may remove suspended solids only or both suspended and dissolved solids.

The applications to which this process may be put are the re-use of car wash water, irrigation through a drip or automated pressurized irrigation system, and for the re-use of clarified water to flush toilets through conventional cisterns.

 Contact us at Water Rhapsody for a quote on the Poseidon Advantage.

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.

2500l = R1650

5000l = R2785

Contact us for your tank orders as soon as possible. Visit our Water Tank Page for colors available.

More rain might be coming our way. Be prepared. Let us do the installation for you. For a free quote on our Rainwater Harvesting System, let us know through the Contact Form.

These graphs is an indication of the average persentage of water used domestically. Even though a person can not live without water, drinking water takes up only 1-2% of our total water consumption. A bath 120-200l per use, a shower 60-80l, washing mashine 70-120l, and toilet flushing 6-12l.

Even though we can save on the amount of water we use daily, for example showering only 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes, we will still need our water for these daily routines and necessities. Therefor, by only installing the Water Rhapsody Garden Rhapsody and Multi-Flush, you will re-use your grey water to irrigate your garden, and you will use much less water needed to flush your toilets with. See Graph below for percentage savings.

Contact us for quotations on installing these systems.

Have a look at our demonstration model below:

On the left side is a normal 9l cistern after a normal pull of the handle, using all water in the cistern to the bottom.
On the right side is the same size toilet, retrofitted with the Water Rhapsody Multi-Flush. The toilet was flushed once for as long as it was needed. On the 9l toilet, this toilet could be flushed 4 times until the cistern was as empty as the one on the left.

This should explain enough for itself. Imagine having your tanks filled after the good rains, with precious rain water. You would not want all that water to go down the drain in a few days, would you? Consider having your toilets installed with the Water Rhapsody Multi-Flush. You wouldn’t loose anything by doing so……except all your sh**!

JoJo Water tank

JoJo Water Tank Special:
2500l – R1795
5000l – R2995

Includes VAT and delivery in the NMB area.

Click here for available Colours