How the average capacity of dams is calculated:
Each dam has a full supply capacity expressed as a volume in Mega liters (Ml). The percentages that are reported weekly represent the volume of water left in each dam, expressed as a percentage of that particular dam’s full volume.
The volume for each dam is different. One cannot add up the percentages and divide by five.
The volume left in all the dams (example 96 906 Ml) is then expressed as a percentage of the total volume (277 401 Ml) if all the dams were full. Therefore 96 906 Ml divided by 277 401 Ml gives 34.93%.

Have your rainwater harvesting system installed by Water Rhapsody and become independent of supply dams. Contact us for a quotation.

This is the content of a short speech given on Friday night in Cape Town by Lewis Gordon Pugh OIG (a.k.a. the Human Polar Bear) about the proposed fracking for gas in the Karoo, by Shell.

He received a sustained standing ovation !

Ladies and gentlemen, thank for the opportunity to address you. My name is Lewis Pugh.

This evening, I want to take you back to the early 1990′s in this country.  You may remember them well. Nelson Mandela had been released. There was euphoria in the air. However, there was also widespread violence and deep fear. This country teetered on the brink of a civil war. But somehow, somehow, we averted it. It was a miracle!

And it happened because we had incredible leaders. Leaders who sought calm..  Leaders who had vision. So in spite of all the violence, they sat down and negotiated a New Constitution.

I will never forget holding the Constitution in my hands for the first time.

I was a young law student at the University of Cape Town. This was the cement that brought peace to our land. This was the document, which held our country together. The rights contained herein, made us one.

I remember thinking to myself – never again will the Rights of South Africans be trampled upon.

Now every one of us – every man and every women – black, white, coloured, Indian, believer and non believer – has the right to vote. We all have the Right to Life. And our children have the right to a basic education. These rights are enshrined in our Constitution.

These rights were the dreams of Oliver Tambo. These rights were the dreams of Nelson Mandela. These rights were the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, of Desmond Tutu and of Molly Blackburn. These rights were our dreams.

People fought – and died – so that we could enjoy these rights today.

Also enshrined in our Constitution, is the Right to a Healthy Environment and the Right to Water. Our Constitution states that we have the Right to have our environment protected for the benefit of our generation and for the benefit of future generations.

Fellow South Africans, let us not dishonour these rights. Let us not dishonour those men and women who fought and died for these rights. Let us not allow corporate greed to disrespect our Constitution and desecrate our environment.

Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important – gas or water. We can survive without gas….  We cannot live without water.

If we damage our limited water supply – and fracking will do just that we will have conflict again here in South Africa. Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment you have conflict.

Fellow South Africans, we have had enough conflict in this land – now is the time for peace.

A few months ago I gave a speech with former President of Costa Rica.  Afterwards I asked him “Mr President, how do you balance the demands of development against the need to protect the environment?” He looked at me and said : “It is not a balancing act. It is a simple business decision. If we cut down our forests in Costa Rica to satisfy a timber company, what will be left for our future?” But he pointed out : “It is also a moral decision. It would be morally wrong to chop down our forests and leave nothing for my children and my grandchildren.”

Ladies and gentlemen, that is what is at stake here today: Our children’s future. And that of our children s children.

There may be gas beneath our ground in the Karoo. But are we prepared to destroy our environment for 5 to 10 years worth of fossil fuel and further damage our climate?

Yes, people will be employed – but for a short while. And when the drilling is over, and Shell have packed their bags and disappeared, then what? Who will be there to clean up? And what jobs will our children be able to eke out?

Now Shell will tell you that their intentions are honourable. That fracking in the Karoo will not damage our environment. That they will not contaminate our precious water. That they will bring jobs to South Africa. That gas is clean and green. And that they will help secure our energy supplies. When I hear this – I have one burning question. Why should we trust them?  Africa is to Shell what the Gulf of Mexico is to BP.

Shell, you have a shocking record here in Africa. Just look at your operations in Nigeria. You have spilt more than 9 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta. That’s twice the amount of oil that BP spilt into the Gulf of Mexico. You were found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials – and to make the case go away in America – you paid an admission of guilt fine of US$48 million.

And to top it all, you stand accused of being complicit in the execution of Nigeria’s leading environmental campaigner – Ken Saro-Wira and 8 other activists. If you were innocent, why did you pay US$15.5 million to the widows and children to settle the case out of Court?

Shell, the path you want us to take us down is not sustainable. I have visited the Arctic for 7 summers in a row. I have seen the tundra thawing.

I have seen the retreating glaciers. And I have seen the melting sea ice.  And I have seen the impact of global warming from the Himalayas all the way down to the low-lying Maldive Islands. Wherever I go – I see it.

Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay!

Shell, we look to the north of our continent and we see how people got tired of political tyranny. We have watched as despots, who have ruled ruthlessly year after year, have been toppled in a matter of weeks.

We too are tired. Tired of corporate tyranny. Tired of your short term, unsustainable practices.

We watched as Dr Ian Player, a game ranger from Natal, and his friends, took on Rio Tinto (one of the biggest mining companies in the world) and won.

And we watched as young activists from across Europe, brought you down to your knees, when you tried to dump an enormous oil rig into the North Sea.

Shell, we do not want our Karoo to become another Niger Delta.

Do not underestimate us. Goliath can be brought down. We are proud of what we have achieved in this young democracy – and we are not about to let your company come in and destroy it.

So let this be a Call to Arms to everyone across South Africa, who is sitting in the shadow of Goliath: Stand up and demand these fundamental human rights promised to you by our Constitution. Use your voices – tweet, blog, petition, rally the weight of your neighbours and of people in power.

Let us speak out from every hilltop. Let us not go quietly into this bleak future.

Let me end off by saying this – You have lit a fire in our bellies, which no man or woman can extinguish. And if we need to, we will take this fight all the way from your petrol pumps to the very highest Court in this land. We will take this fight from the farms and towns of the Karoo to the streets of London and Amsterdam. And we will take this fight to every one of your shareholders. And I have no doubt, that in the end, good will triumph over evil.

“Does it take a genius to predict drought?

While the fear of water restrictions work in favour of those of us who are involved in water conservation, it would be preferable for all of us to have smoothed restrictions rather than an all or nothing scenario.  All of us mean the population at large, the municipality, the Department of Environmental Affairs as well as Water Rhapsody. Please let me explain?

Cycle of drought

Six, seven years or perhaps even eight years may elapse between one and the next season of drought.  These years between drought cycles are winter months in Cape Town of higher than average rainfall, and the reverse in the northern regions of South Africa where we get summer rains. During these years of higher than average rainfall, all thought of the fact that we live in a water poor region of the world, is forgotten.  Forgotten is the notion of drought by the bureaucrats and politicians that run our city.  Drought is a long forgotten figment in the memory of the population at large as well.  Every drought season, virtually a whole new generation needs to be re-educated in our need to use less water, and how to use less of the precious stuff.  We should not forget what was written in biblical times that we have seven years of drought and seven years of plenty.  While some areas north of Cape Town are experiencing floods of the magnitude seen but forgotten, the floods normally coincide with drought in the Western Cape.

During the years of drought in the Western Cape from 2000 to 2004, Capetonians had restrictions and increases in water tariffs imposed the like of which we hadn’t seen before.  The city even appointed some officers to police water use, which officers disappeared into the woodwork (redeployed), and after higher than average rainfall fell in 2005 all restrictions were lifted with the exception of daily irrigation times(no watering between the times of ten till four 0’clock).  Laughable though it is, this is the only water restriction left, and no police to check on this.  It would be silly too to deploy a police force to check up whether or not you were watering your garden a 10.30 in the morning!

New drought cycle.

We are as I write going into a drought cycle in the Western Cape.  This is going to be the mother of droughts ever seen if the stacked reports from climatologists are correct.  We have been warned of this drought, and our Department of Water and Environmental Affairs should know of this too.  It is strange that the people who work for this governmental department have not applied restrictions in a bid to save water while we still have water in our storage dams. Within eight months there will be panic in local and higher ranking government when we have little or no water.  We will have poor rainfall in the winter of 2011, and 2012 and more than likely 2013. This will mean that the supply dams to Cape Town that are falling at record rates and are already getting low for this time of the year may dry up completely.   There are another three months of summer to go and if the dams continue to fall at this rate (2.8% per week), then expect the dam levels to be at around 45% of capacity by mid April.  It would take a year of higher than average rainfall to put the dams back to where they were at the start of this summer season.  But alas higher than average rainfall will is not forecast.  Rainfall of below average is forecast, and perhaps the dams will rise but perchance to less than 80% of capacity.  This is the magic figure at which 30% restrictions get announced, and this decision would be taken in October.

The meaning of 30% restrictions by DWEA

30% restrictions merely mean that DWEA (Department of Water and Environmental Affairs) demand from the Municipality that they show a reduction in demand of 30% less than the volume of water that Cape Town is allocated by DWEA. It is up to Cape Town Municipality as to what restrictions they put in place to lower demand by the prescribed percentage.

Low Fruit

The low fruit has a couple of meanings here.  The first is the low fruit of supply generally, that of dam building and simply robbing rivers of their water. Hereafter desalination of water is the higher fruit as this comes at a price far higher than raw river water.  The second low fruit pertains to the dams, viz water quality in the dams differs from dam to dam, and some are much further away than others.  Also some are deep and others have a huge surface area delivering their yield to evaporation. Actually the aspect of evaporation is very serious.

The low fruit of dam water use has already been picked.  The low fruit of the water in the lower Steenbras dam which though in today’s terms is small, is close to Cape Town and is good quality raw water.  This dam is now below 50% of capacity, and there is precious little inflow to augment the yield.  Although the upper Steenbras is almost full (97%) the majority of this water is stored for electricity power generation. This power generation works under normal circumstances to level the graph of the daily amount of electricity needed for the City of Cape Town which has spikes in the morning and evening, and troughs in the middle of the day and during the night.  During these spikes, water is allowed to flow down to the Gordon’s Bay side through the mountain turning huge hydro electric generators, and in the period of low consumption the water is pumped back up to Steenbras.  However there is a large pipe from the lower dam to the sea, so if we had plenty of water in the upper dam, and needed some extra electricity, this could be used as a hydro electric generation plant until all the water in the dam was used up.  If  we have energy shortages, you bet much of the precious stored water in the upper dam will be used for energy consumption, or at least held in the upper dam for a just in case, which of course makes this water unavailable for domestic consumption but rather kept for energy generation.

Once the water in the lower Steenbras dams is consumed and it is going fast, then Cape Town Municipality must start to rely more heavily on the poorer quality water from Theewaterskloof and other outlying dams. This water is more expensive to process, and the lower the dam level gets, the worse the quality.

Politicians dam building and jobs.

Election fever has also gripped South Africa, and any immediate talk of water restrictions in the coveted Western Cape must be dispelled.  It seems so strange that the issue of drought which inevitable leads to water restrictions should be seen as bad political management.  The city politicians could not be more wrong.  There is a sense of camaraderie in times of shortages, and we all help each other, and in fact jobs are created during these times.  What is unpopular though is the loss of revenue to the Council when restrictions are imposed.  Revenue from the sale of water goes to the fiscal budget and profits are used wherever the bureaucrats and councillors like.  The less the volume of water that is sold by the municipality, the higher goes the tariffs, and in actual fact an escalation in tariffs is an excellent way of stemming demand for water.  In reality though the city staff who run water supply are well aware that when both tariffs and water restrictions are applied together, the average use per person per day drops which is absolutely logical.  What they dont like is that the per capita usage once restrictions are lifted never returns to the same point as before the restrictions were imposed and prices escalated.  The following fact is not just surmise:  this is the reason why demand does not increase after restrictions are lifted shows that devices to save water are very effective. Once Water Rhapsody clients use our unique systems, there is no looking back.   The efficiency of the Water Rhapsody Systems goes on and on.  This very important fact was given to me by Dave Ramsay who was the chief water engineer for Cape Town a few years ago.  If only the authorities would realize what they could possible do for our environment by actually promoting water saving with all the tools at their disposal including the devices that Water Rhapsody supply and install.

Job creation through demand management

Far, far more permanent jobs are created during times of drought than the temporary jobs created during dam building activities.   It was so interesting to hear the engineers responsible for the building of the last dam possible in Cape Town that of the Berg River Scheme using job creation as a motive to build the dam.  They built temporary houses for their staff and housed them there.  After the dam building process was complete, all the staff were retrenched, and the houses were all sold.  So is it up to those who wish to conserve water to provide jobs?  The answer is an emphatic YES.

Politicians excuse

Of course the fact that there are floods in some parts of the country helps the politicians down play any need for water saving in the Western Cape.  We see daily jockeying for positions for Mayor, party elections, and promises regarding jobs etc.  There is simply no time to address items of so little importance as water, and nobody wants to take an unpopular decision like instituting water restrictions.

Cape Town out of water by 2012

I have stated regularly that the year 2012 will be the year that Cape Town runs out of water.  The debate now will be interesting as to who gets priority over supply of water.  Who will get water in times of outages?  Will farmers get their share?  When Theewaterskloof was built and filled, 90% of water from the dam was assigned for agricultural use.  The farmers though could not use all the water allocated to them and the then DWAF (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry) as it was known then decided that because the farmers did not take up their allocation, that this water would be allocated to Cape Town Municipality.  This gave Cape Town water security in the middle eighties, but since Cape Town has grown so rapidly, this will be insufficient in years of lower than average rainfall, which years we are now in.

Future augmentation – desalination

We have plentiful sea water for desalination purposes do I hear you say?  In order to desalinate enough water to provide one days supply, we will need six million kilowatt hours of electricity. We simply do not have enough energy nor will we be able to find this capacity in the near future. If say at worst we should run out of water completely like Beaufort West.  The average daily demand for water is 1.5 million cubic metres.  The amount of extra energy we would need to desalinate this volume of water would be a minimum of 6 million kilowatt hours every day, for the desalination process.  This water would need to be blended with some other water, most likely treated sewerage water for palatability, and pressurized to municipal pressure.  This would be expensive and with energy we simply won’t be able to find.  Until now all the supply water for Cape Town has been virgin raw water extracted from rivers.  The end to this luxury is nigh.

Water outages

Water outages are a blunt but absolute as an efficient demand management measure (to get people to use less water).  Will we have to endure water outages or wont we?

If everyone installed water saving devices as per the Water Rhapsody Systems of Conservation, we would have no need for measures as tough as outages, but this is not the case. The steps of what can be done culminate in the following:  Install the Water Rhapsody Grand Opus to provide rainwater to the whole household.  This unique system receives rainwater from roofs but is also augmented with municipal water to give all households an emergency supply seamlessly. Water Rhapsody fix the emergency supply from the municipal to your water tank/s for an  emergency supply when, (not if) the Municipality turn off the water supply.  If you lived in Beaufort West and had installed the Water Rhapsody System, you would have a contiguous supply, and you would be unaffected by outages.  Secondly should you reduce your demand for water (without a change of lifestyle) you could reduce your water demand (usage) by half.  The reduction in demand is essential to get your precious saved rainwater to go so much further, and is done in five ways viz: by re-using grey water for irrigation purposes, or for toilet flushing, by re-using swimming pool backwash water and lastly by the use minimizing toilet flushing.

As restrictions bite, the municipality will quickly wake up to the erosion of their revenue, and will raise water rates.  These rates will represent the price of the next augmentation scheme, and the capital to provide enough energy for running the water augmentation, that is of course desalination.

All of these systems come at a cost, and the question is frequently asked, can we afford to install such systems?  Our answer is a rhetorical question: can we afford not to do these things?  Well the answer will be a resounding YES as soon as restrictions bite, and bite them surely will!”

Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor

Founder of Water Rhapsody.  Inventor of all the Water Rhapsody Systems.

2011-01-20

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 have been 8 summer-rainfall seasons where rainfall for the entire summer-rainfall area has been less than 80% of normal. A deficit of 25% is normally regarded as a severe meteorological drought but it can be safely assumed that a shortfall of 20% from normal rainfall will cause crop and water shortfalls in many regions accompanied by social and economic hardship.

Discussion

All but the south-western and southern regions of South Africa rely on summer rainfall, which normally falls between October and March, the summer season. Rainfall is heaviest in the east and decreases westward. For convenience the rainfall season is taken to run from July until June of the following year, but rainfall outside of the summer season is usually insignificant.

The consequence of rainfall being confined to six months of the year is that most crops can only be grown during this period. Similarly, the recharging of water resources is also confined to these crucial six months. When the seasonal rainfall is seriously below normal, crop yields are poor and ground and dam water levels fall dangerously low. Should these conditions occur in swift succession, as in the periods from 1964 to 1970, 1991 to 1995 and again from 2002 to 2005, there is insufficient time for natural resources and the economy to recover from each rainfall-deficit period.

Simultaneous to low rainfall are cloud-free skies and high temperatures. The effect of abnormally high temperatures is an increase in evapotranspiration as well as stress on plants whilst further depleting surface-water reserves through evaporation.

Impacts

The most serious impact, other than dwindling water supplies, is the effect on staple crops and, ultimately, commercial crops. In 1992/1993, undoubtedly one of the most widespread droughts of the last 45 years, maize had to be imported to South Africa (as well as the rest of southern Africa). The knock-on effect of crop failure could be seen in the population drift from rural areas into the cities, farm labour lay-offs and farm closures as well as an increasing indebtedness in the agricultural sector.

Other serious impacts brought about by drought are the devastating veld fires which destroy large areas of grazing at a time when grass is in short supply. Commercial timber and orchards are also prone to damage at such times. In 1992 there were several huge fires which destroyed thousands of hectares of grassland. In one of the worst events, during August, at least nine people perished. In 1994, a combination of unusually strong winds and very dry conditions saw large areas of grazing and timber destroyed. Again, in July of 2002, Mpumalanga was devastated by fires that destroyed 24,000 ha of pasture and left four people dead and damages amounting to more than R32 million.

Severity of Recent Droughts

It is very difficult to look at the entire summer-rainfall region and deduce that drought affected all of these areas equally. On the contrary, some of the provinces in South Africa appear to suffer more harshly than others at times of rainfall deficit.

The outlook for the coming months is not predicted to be entirely favorable either:

• May, June and July: 45 – 50% probability of below normal rainfall
• June, July and August: 40 – 45% probability of above normal rainfall
• July, August and September: 40 – 45% probability of below normal rainfall

Even though the possibility of good desirable rainfall is not showing a colourfull picture, be prepared for rainfalls, whether heavy or not. Contact Water Rhapsody for a no-obligation quote on Rainwater Harvesting and installing a uninterruptable pressure water supply. Become independent from the munisipality water supply and help them in the need to provide enough water to the whole of the Eastern Cape. Re-use your greywater for irrigation or toilet flushing. Make use of what you have and pay for already. The future is unpredictable, but does’nt seem rosy. Be prepared.

To build a system that is suitable for your garden, you need to calculate a) how much water you need and b) how much water you get. Local rainfall tables are available from Weather SA. By using slimline tanks you can keep your tanks out of the way so they don’t take up valuable space in your garden. If you can’t afford a big tank, use a modulate tank so you can start with one and join on another one next year. Slimline tanks are typically round or elliptical, and some tanks are rectangular and flat, so that fit together and look like a normal wall or fence.

Using rainwater for your garden is also a great idea because you don’t have to do anything to the water before you use it for your plants and vegatables. In fact, some research shows the water even healthier than watering them out of your own water supply, depending on where your local water comes from. Water from the tap is treated with chemicals to make sure there is no harmful bacteria, strange colours or smells. Pipes that deliver the mains water can be over 50 years old and full of rust, dirt, tree roots and other nasty pollutants. Compare that to rainwater which falls directly from the sky!

Getting the water from the tank(s) to your garden, you have a few options to consider. This can be as simple as a watering can or hose for small blocks, although this might result in some serious back injuries after a while! Or an integrated set up with pumps and controllers which is better for larger gardens. If you are concerned with small particles gettingf caught in the sprinklers or you also intend on using the water in your home, then you might consider installing the Water Rhapsody Rain Runners onto your downpipes which sieves out any dirt or particals larger than 1mm. Spiders, Mosquitoes, frogs and other creepy crawlies love water tanks so make sure all openings are covered or closed tightly.

Rainwater tanks will make big difference to your garden and water use and will cost you a lot less than you think. Rain is free so we might as well use it! So call us for delivering or installing your rainwater tanks.  In the Eastern Cape we are about to enter the time of the year when heavy rainshowers are to be expected. Be prepared and get water tanks now!

All low fruit of water has been harvested and exhausted.  There is not a single river that can possibly be damned in the country to augment supply.  There are no more augmentation schemes like we know to provide any more water.  Simply put 2010 sees South Africa on its last dregs of supply management as we know it.  The future is not rosy.

The future:

Worst hit will be the Reef.  Ground water will soon be polluted with Acid Mine Water which will enter the water table and erode buildings.  Rivers are being polluted with sewerage AMW, and it is not just the acid water that is so toxic to the rivers, but Cyanide, and radioactive substances including isotopes of Radon, Iridium and  Uranium.  The cocktail of these will make it impossible to use this water for anything whatsoever.  Worse still, is that this water will reach the drinking water of the Vaal system and make this water unusable too, soon, within 18 months!

There is not one single sewerage treatment works in the whole country that is able to process all of the sewerage effluent arriving in the pipelines to their works.  This means that raw, untreated effluent is flowing into every river around the country, and all over the country people are dying from drinking toxic water, in a septic state for us to drink!

Water outages have become the norm in many municipalities unable to cope with increasing demand.  Outages will come to Gauteng by 2013 and Cape Town perhaps sooner.

Cape Town is going into a drought cycle, from which they will only emerge in 3 years time, and will be out of water by 2012.  Though the city is way ahead in educational exposure of water matters, the city ignores rainwater harvesting and the water saving aspect of demand management as a tool to provide extra water for the City.

Places like Hartebeest Poort: this is simply an extension of a sewerage treatment works.  The water is toxic and even the municipality drawing on this water admit that they are unable to treat this water for potable purposes.  Worse is to follow.  The AMW has reached this body of water.  Rand Water is contracting to provide the diminishing water from the Vaal Dam at a staggering 200 million Rand to the area for drinking quality water.

The good news:  Enter Water Rhapsody from the wings:

Water Rhapsody will reduce demand for most if not all buildings by at least 50% and in some instances by 90%.  Water Rhapsody too will provide water safe to use in the house by harvesting water from roofs, and pumping under normal pressure to the whole household.  Furthermore Water Rhapsody with its proven conservation systems is able to reduce water demand to as low as 80 litres per person per day.  Country wide the current demand is 240 litres per person per day.  Water Rhapsody does this without getting the user to change his or her lifestyle in any way.  The resultant effluent from a user of the Water Rhapsody Systems of Conservation is a fall in sewerage flow of 90%.  This reduction over a whole suburb would mean that any sewerage treatment works would be able to cope with the effluent volume, allowing water safe to drink running into our rivers.

Clearly Municipalities as well as Government must take notice that we have a disaster that is currently happening.  It is not if, or when this might happen, IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!!

The track record and technology for the Water Rhapsody Systems is proven without a single failure ever.  The systems have been built into the biggest companies and institutions including Old Mutual in Pinelands and UCT in Cape Town.

The Government and municipalities treat water as a commodity because they sell water for profit but we must never lose sight of the fact that water is a precious resource.

Lastly, though coastal regions are in a better position that inland cities, none of these cities have enough water.  The buzz words of using ground water and desalination of sea water are not sustainable.  The water for instance in the TMG (Table Mountain Group) aquifer is fossil water from millions of years ago, and be warned – there is a finite amount of water in the aquifer, and the recharge is perhaps thousands of years.  As for desalination of sea water – the energy cost of 4 kilowatt hours to desalinate sea water to make one kilolitre of potable water is simply not a cost effective way of providing water.  Take the smallest of the large dams supplying Cape Town –Steenbras Lower Dam contains 30 million kilolitres  of water which Cape Town would use up in less than 15 days.  It would cost Cape Town 120 million Kilowatt hours of power generation to provide the equivalent amount of water as this dam though the desalination process of Reverse Osmosis (RO).  Clearly this should not be considered as an option.  Cape Town is stressed enough for power supply, and there would not be enough power generation for this option.

Water Rhapsody encourages the  public to make use of their natural resources, not taking away of using more energy to try to create something out of existing resources. People must realize the effect of what we’re implementing now, on our future and those of the one’s we leave behind.

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. More panic, but what to do about it.

First things first. You need water to drink. You race off to the shops, only to find a long queue, patiently and some not so patiently waiting to buy bottled water. You may be among the lucky ones that get in first. I once saw people in a holiday town, fight at the Spar for a limited number of Bread Rolls that were becoming available. Imagine if the scarce resource were water!

Then you would think of a longer term plan. Get a water tank. Quickly! So you could harvest any coming rain off your roof. But think about this. There are only about 140,000 water tanks made each year in South Africa. And we have a population of about 50 million. So there would be a mad scramble for water tanks until they were sold out.

Isn’t it just more sensible to buy a water tank, get it installed by Water Rhapsody with the necessary filters, so that in the unlikely event of your town running dry, for whatever reason… you and your family will have some degree of protection? Contact us to get a quote to install a water tank now and protect your most important assets, your family.

Posted by Water Rhapsody

Recently I had a conversation with a friend, discussing ‘Helping other people’, and how difficult it is sometimes so have the right tools, the know-how, the correct place or timing, the money and so the list (excuses!) go on. And how frustrating (or easy) it is, to sit back and wait for something to happen. When nothing happens, or even if the situation become worst….. who have you got to blame? My friend’s advice was: “Use what you got in your hands!”  It might only be a phone for listening, it might only be your car for transport to buy milk and bread. It might not feel enough, but still, its helps a bit. And a bit might be more appreciated at that moment than you think!!

My friend’s advice become my advice to you today! Do you want to be self sufficient concerning your water supply at home? Are you frustrated of waiting for something to happen, for things to get better? Are you afraid of the quality of water in the future? How much it will cost? That restrictions might not be lifted even though your area are not in critical condition anymore? Well, do something about it then! How?  Use what you have got.  The rain we had recently is  free! It can be utilised for your needs, in-house or outside. We supply watertanks, will also install them should you not be able to, and help you to become independant from other water suppliers. Contact Water Rhapsody for a free quote on Watertanks, Rainwater Harvesting, Grey water Recycling and more. Every drop helps!

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 Coast town, at the present rate of consumption. It was implemented immediately from yesterday midday, according to Communications manager Khulukile Mbolekwa. A team was also set to compiling a business plan to present to the government to support a plea for urgent funding for a new disalination plant.

The de-pressurisation measure has been implemented equally, across poor and affluent areas, in Port Alfred and adjoining Nelson Mandela Township, Mbolewa said. The town is an uneven area, with valleys and hills, and it is possible residents in the high-lying areas will be more challenged for supply. They will get water, but supply will be slow.

Port Alfred has only about seven days for drinking water left from its main source, the Sarel Hayward Dam, situated in the catchment above Bathurst. Besides this there is a holding dam that is still full, and it will give us the extra days for the total estimate of 15-20 days, perhaps more than a month. If it does not rain, even with the present restriction in place – after that we will have no water left. That is why we had to act.

The initial crisis plan was to cut water completely through certain periods of the day, but the authority realise this would be a mistake. The underground water supply pipe is very old, and to close the valve completely, then re-opening it again might result in the pipe breaking, not being able to handle the pressure. The Ndlambe Municipality hopes the depressure strategy will give them enough time to build a desalination plant in Port Alfred.

One such plant already exist which serves the the Ndlambe hamlets of Kenton and Bushmans, while Alexandria,  Boknes and Cannon Rocks have a back-up from a spring in the local dunes. Bathurst is being serve by borehole water but its dams are completely dry and it is in an even worse crisis than Port Alfred. So the plan is that the new desalinator will serve Port Alfred and Bathurst.

Mr. Mbolokwe said Ndlambe Municipality had not yet formulated a specific strategy as to how it would solve the onerous electricity demands of a desalinator but this detail would be specified in contractor submissions. “Water is a right, and we have to serve our customers. We understand the costs, but we need to solve this problem.”

 - Water Rhapsody are in the process of communicating with the Ndlambe Municipality, informing them of the advantages of Rainwater Harvesting, and Grey water Re-use for toilet flushing, for this might keep residents of Port Alfred from having to deal with  this water crises in there homes.

Trends in Water Tanks

There are many styles of water tanks available, with new innovations coming out all the time. The most common types of tanks are the plastic or polymer tanks which are traditionally been round in shape. These days, manufacturers are working with rectangular or square designs which are often much easier to place within a home and look much less intrusive. These tanks are also available in a huge range of colours, so that they are able to suit any home colour scheme.

Steel tanks are still common, also, and these are usually lined with polyethylene in order to prevent corrosion. While round is still the most common shape, it seems that manufacturers are finding new ways to work with steel all the time. Concrete water tanks are best if you need to locate your tank underground. As thy are load-bearing, they are great for placing under things such as driveways and entertaining areas.

More foreign designs: One new innovation in water tank design is to design the tank so that it resembles a boulder or a rock. This allows the tank to be placed unobtrusively within the landscape, so that the casual observer wouldn’t even know that it was there. These tanks are also fantastic for environmentally sensitive areas. In recent years. a major advancement in water tank design has been the development of the rubber water tank bladder. The sheer flexibility of these means that they can be installed underneath a house, or even in the back of a vehicle. Bladders are completely sealed and have an extremely high resistance to puncturing to ensure that they will not burst in the home’s sub-floor space. Water bladders come with all of the necessary inlet and outlet valves.

 - Give us a call at Water Rhapsody, we will give you free advice and - Rainwater Harvesting quote. Let us help you to become water-independent and live a greener life.