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Dirty backwash water is processed and safely returned to your swimming pool |
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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 30 July 2010
Statement issued by Annette Lovemore, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs asking for a precise timetable on the establishment of special environmental courts to enable our legal system to deal with cases warranting special attention.
Polluted water from the Crocodile River flows into Hartebeespoort Dam
While the DA has been lobbying for these courts for some time, a definitive roll-out plan from the minister has become all the more urgent in light of the state of the Madibeng Sewage works which is releasing polluted water into the Crocodile River which flows into Hartebeespoort Dam, one of the principal water sources for many South Africans in the interior of the country.
Our water system is reliant on a complicated system of interconnected networks, the integrity of which need to all be maintained to the highest standards. Any weak component within that system needs to be addressed and those responsible need to answer for failing in their mandate as custodians of our natural resources.
The DA was part of a parliamentary water and environmental affairs portfolio committee visit to Madibeng that took place on 28th and 29th of July. A visit to the Madibeng sewage treatment works revealed a deeply concerning lack of action, with officials admitting that the plant is so dysfunctional they might just as well switch off the pumps in the plant and allow raw sewage to flow into the already heavily polluted Crocodile River.
The committee was also told that the plant should be receiving approximately 18Ml of sewage per day, and is, in fact, receiving only 4 Ml/day. This means that approximately 14 Ml/day of raw sewage flows through the streets and into the river from the sorely neglected and failing pump stations throughout the area. Alarmingly, three of the pump stations that have failed are now discharging raw sewage into the river at the point where the drinking water supply is abstracted.
Five of the six senior positions in the directorate dealing with water and wastewater are vacant. There is not a single qualified person employed at the activated sludge plant in question.
The Crocodile River flows into the Hartebeespoort Dam – one of the most heavily eutrophied dams in the country, with an abundant growth of highly toxic algae. Continue reading Dysfunctional Madibeng Sewage works polluting Crocodile River
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 29 July 2010
Phosphate is a nutrient that is essential for plant growth and is found naturally in the environment. But the excess use of phosphates by humans is overloading our water bodies, which can lead to toxic algal blooms.
We should be concerned….
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 28 July 2010
Invasive alien plants now infest 20-million hectares of South Africa – an area twice as large as previously estimated.
Wattles have taken over more than 1.6-million hectares of South Africa
The shock finding comes from an Agricultural Research Council (ARC) report commissioned by Water Affairs.
“The previous figure was 10 million hectares. We knew this was an under-estimate, but we didn’t think it was this big. It’s come as quite a shock,” the department’s natural resource management programme operations head, Christo Marais, told Sapa.
The ARC had briefed the department on the new estimate at a Working for Water (WfW) implementation meeting earlier this month.
Marais said it had long been obvious there was an under-estimation of the scale of the problem, particularly in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Invasive alien vegetation, including various species of wattle, pine, poplar, weeping willow, gum trees, hakea and prickly pear, among others, pose a serious threat to South Africa’s water supply, as well as the country’s agricultural potential and biodiversity.
If the 20-million hectares of alien invasive vegetation across the country could be condensed into a single area, it would form a dense, impenetrable thicket about twice the size of the Kruger National Park. Continue reading Alien plant coverage shocks Water Affairs
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 27 July 2010
A meeting of the BASIC group, formed by Brazil, South Africa, India and China, ended on Monday without consensus on a unified plan to deal with the global climate change.
The group, which met in Rio over the weekend, tried to reach a common ground on the maximum limit of carbon emissions for developing countries, to be presented to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference, which will take place in Cancun, Mexico, in November.
As they failed to reach a common ground, the four countries decided to hold another meeting in Beijing in October. According to Brazilian Environment Minister Izabela Teixeira, the countries expect to achieve a convergent position at the Beijing meeting so they can work together in Cancun.
In Beijing, the BASIC countries will discuss the impacts of the carbon emission reduction on the economic development of developing countries.
Teixeira stressed that the Rio meeting is the first talks attended by technical personnel from the BASIC countries.
The minister also highlighted the transparency of the conversations and the presentation of concrete figures on each country’s situation.
Source: Xinhua
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 26 July 2010
The icy Arctic waters around Norway’s archipelago of Svalbard may seem pristine and clear, but like the rest of the world’s oceans, they are facing the threat of growing acidity.
The European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research in Ny-Ålesund
Oceans have always absorbed part of the carbon dioxide, or CO2, present in the air, which in turn makes them acid. But with CO2 levels soaring, the scientific community is getting worried about acidification harming marine life.
Off the coast of Ny-Aalesund, a tiny coalmine village turned scientific outpost just 1 200km from the North Pole, researchers from nine European countries conducted in July an unprecedented effort to analyse the phenomenon.
To do so, they submerged nine tubes, each weighing two tonnes and the height of two double-decker busses, in the icy waters of the remote fjord framed by snow-capped mountains.
They then injected the watertight tubes, called mesocosms, with CO2, to reproduce sea life under different acidity levels expected from now until 2150 with the aim of studying the potentially disastrous effects of acidification on marine life.
“It’s here in the Arctic that the ocean will become corrosive the fastest,” Jean-Pierre Gattuso, with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, said, explaining why the researchers chose to turn these waters thick with icy slush into a laboratory. Continue reading Arctic faces growing threat of acidification
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 25 July 2010
Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Buyelwa Sonjica signed a water-sharing agreement with her Swaziland counterpart, Tsandzile Dlamini, at Driekoppies Dam in Mpumalanga on Friday.
Driekoppies Dam
Under the agreement, communities living on both sides of the border will have the right to use water from the dam.
“SADC member countries have agreed to preserve water and promote the sharing of resources among ourselves, and therefore this is a good move for both countries because the project will benefit the citizens of both South Africa and Swaziland,” said Sonjica.
She reminded community members who attended the launch that water had to be used sparingly.
“As we celebrate our achievement today, we should never forget the fact that Swaziland and South Africa are indeed water-stressed countries. We do not have a surplus of water and we cannot afford to abuse our precious water resources. A few good thunderstorms or rising dam levels can never be invitations to waste water or to underestimate its value,” she said.
During the signing of the agreement on Friday, three agricultural sheds and a variety of farming implements were handed over to beneficiaries from the Schoemansdal, Schulzendal and Middelplaas communities, who were forced to relocate when construction of the Driekoppies Dam started in 1994.
The various communal compensation projects amount to more than 260ha under irrigation using water from Driekoppies Dam, as well as about 2900ha of farming land used for various crop cultivation projects.
Sonjica told the beneficiaries that a “mammoth task” awaited them in ensuring the success of their projects. Continue reading SA signs water sharing agreement with Swaziland
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 July 2010
The biggest challenge facing Grahamstown’s innovative R60 million proposal to turn invasive plant species into much-needed electricity is finding 75000 litres of a water a day to keep the 20-year project going.
A thirsty gum tree sucks up 1000 litres of water or more a day
With the City of Saints currently in the grip of a severe drought, local residents on Thursday night (July 22) expressed concern that there would not be enough water for everybody.
With the scheme aimed at saving water by chopping down and burning thirsty, illegal invasive trees, the irony of using large amounts of water to save even larger amounts of the precious liquid was not lost on the 20-strong crowd of interested and affected parties.
Responding to a question about “creating a dangerous situation” by expecting existing Grahamstown residents and businesses to “use less water” in dry times to keep the project going, Coastal and Environmental Services expert Dr Kevin Whittington-Jones admitted the issue had been discussed for “several months”.
He said the project – funded by the Nollen Group, an international environmental finance company with projects all over the world – was “well aware” that the industrial area where the wood burning facility would be situated “had been experiencing water shortages for several months”.
Nollen Group representative Charlie Cox said the project did not need “clean water from Grahamstown”, thanks to installing its own reverse osmosis system to demineralise water before use.
The water was crucial to cool the equipment that would be used to produce 3MW of power a day. Continue reading Mega litres of water needed to remove thirsty trees
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 23 July 2010
A South African professor has invented a hi-tech “teabag” that can purify polluted water instantly – at a cost of just three cents a litre.
The filtration system is so small it fits into the lid of a water bottle, and has already been hailed as a breakthrough in the battle against waterborne disease in poor areas.
It was developed using tiny nano-fibres – each about one hundredth the width of a human hair and packed together into a teabag-like sac that filters out microscopic bacteria. Instead of tea the nanotech bag contains activated carbon which then kills the harmful bacteria.
“Not only do we filter the bacteria out but we also kill them,” said inventor Professor Eugene Cloete, a microbiologist at the University of Stellenbosch.
He said the new technique was a major step towards helping South Africa fulfil its millennium goal of eradicating poverty.
“One of the major problems of meeting the millennium goals is that there is not sufficient infrastructure to pipe water to everybody in the world – so this really is something which addresses the need right now,” Cloete said.
The bag had already prompted several inquiries from foundations providing relief to those without running water.
“People are not dying of thirst but because they don’t have access to safe water. This is inexpensive. It would cost about three cents a litre to produce water that is the quality of bottled water,” Cloete said.
The breakthrough coincides with the launch this week of a major Stellenbosch University initiative called the Hope Project, which hopes to combine the scientific expertise of several departments to address the country’s most pressing needs.
The university’s rector, Professor Russel Botman, said: “Whether it is renewable energy supply for the region, food security, conflict resolution and leadership or rural healthcare and development, we are looking to throw our weight behind the country and the continent’s most pressing needs.”
Source: Times Live
Against a global rainfall average of 870mm per year, South Africa receives a pitiful 450mm, making it the worlds 30th driest country.
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