Rainwater Harvesting | savingwater.co.za

Water shortage of crisis proportions looms

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 03 February 2011

The maximum consumption that SA’s water resources can sustain will be reached in about five years, warns Engineering Council of SA vice-president Thoko Majozi.

Garden Rhapsody. A grey water solution by Water Rhapsody.

With floods causing havoc in seven provinces, it may be hard to believe that a water shortage of crisis proportions is looming. The maximum consumption that SA’s water resources can sustain will be reached in about five years, warns Engineering Council of SA vice-president Thoko Majozi.

“We have known for decades that SA will run out of water,” says Majozi. “It’s time everyone recognised that we live in a water-scarce country.”

So scarce that SA is the world’s 30th-driest country, says Jeremy Taylor, founder of water conservation company Water Rhapsody. He adds that SA has less water per person than its drier neighbours Botswana and Namibia.

SA has seen a little of what a prolonged drought can do in the Western Cape, where towns such as Sedgefield, Mossel Bay and Knysna have resorted to costly seawater desalination to stave off disaster.

But that’s nothing compared to what is heading Cape Town’s way, warns Taylor. He explains that the La Niña climate pattern causing floods in the northern provinces will have the reverse effect in the winter rainfall area. Continue reading Water shortage of crisis proportions looms

Seven New Year water saving resolutions for 2011

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 31 December 2010

South Africa is already on the list of the 30 driest countries in the world, and 2010 has not been a good year for water in South Africa, with drought posing serious challenges in [...]

Rainwater Harvesting commended by the SADC’s Water Division

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 December 2010

By: Ignatius Banda

In Thembekie Gwebu’s yard under the roof leaves stands a curious giant green plastic container with a plastic pipe connected to the gutter. She has been asked a number of times by curious visitors and passers-by what the contraption is, and she happily explains.

Rain tank used for collecting rainwater. Harvested water is pumped into the home and used for bathing, toilets, irrigation, etc.

Gwebu, a 60-something year-old widow, uses the container for rainwater harvesting.

At a time when the Bulawayo municipality has introduced water-shedding as part of long existing efforts to conserve the disappearing water from supply dams, the coming of the rain in this city – traditionally characterised by low rainfall – has been welcomed by residents like Gwebu as an opportunity to use rainwater collected from roofs for their daily needs.

“This helps during the time when there is water rationing,” Gwebu says. Even when there is water running from the taps, the harvested rainwater has come handy in reducing the council water she would otherwise pay for.

Gwebu is one of a growing number of residents in this city of more than two million who have rediscovered the old method of water conservation through harvesting rainwater for domestic use, when in the past many had relegated this to rural communities.

However, the continued water woes in this City have awakened many here to how this naturally available resource can be harnessed and exploited. “I use the rainwater I harvest for drinking, cooking, laundry and also in the toilet,” Gwebu said, adding that the water stored in the 2,500 litre bowser can last her up to a month.

Not only does this conserve the municipal water from supply dams but she also does not pay her water bill for the month.

Rainwater harvesting is increasingly being encouraged across the Southern Africa Development Community, SADC, as an alternative provision of clean drinking water at a time when some communities are failing to adequately exploit groundwater amid concerns of contamination and pollution.

These household rainfall catchment systems have also been commended by the SADC’s Water Division, as the rainwater harvested from roofs does not require treatment before consumption and they are also a means to mitigate the effects of long dry spells in cities like Bulawayo. Continue reading Rainwater Harvesting commended by the SADC’s Water Division

Campaign encourages rainwater harvesting

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 17 September 2010

The past week residents around Hartbeespoort Dam had another taste, as so often in the past, of a water dearth with reservoirs running at under ten per cent of their capacity. In some suburbs taps ran completely dry for a number of days while others still have no water.

Hartbeespoort Dam receives effluent from the Pta/Wits urban industrial complex. Photo by Michael McCloskey

A lot has been said and written in the past about the reasons for the water shortage – lack of capacity, lack of planning, lack of maintenance, lack of rain, etc., etc. The fact of the matter is that we are, nationally and regionally, running out of water. Dr Anthony Turton, then a research fellow at the CSIR, pointed out in 2008, in the famous address the CSIR tried to stop, that South Africa’s average rainfall was only about half that of the global average – 497mm per year against the world average of 860mm per year. In addition, 98% of the country’s water resources have already been allocated by 1998, meaning that there is no dilution capacity left.

Also, unlike other countries where cities were developed round lakes or near rivers or the seashore, southern Africa’s major urban developments took place on or near watershed divides. This is particularly relevant in the case of Hartbeespoort Dam which has to content with the effluent of the sprawling Pretoria/ Witwatersrand urban industrial complex. As a water poor country the levels of pollution that South Africa has to cope with are unique in the world.

A campaign to encourage residents to harvest rainwater is to be launched on the tenth of next month. It is one of the activities planned as part as the Global Environmental Action Day against Climate Change. Thea Holm, who is organising the event in Hartbeespoort and Brits, says the 10/10/10 Global Action Day will entail 1 700 events in 140 countries around the world. Continue reading Campaign encourages rainwater harvesting

Mitigate the impact of a water strike

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 30 August 2010

Water Rhapsody rainwater harvesting tank

Harvest rainwater from your roof to ensure that the water strike does not leave you without water.

Unresolved wage negotiations in the water sector have prompted SA Municipal [...]