The Beaufort Gyre ("rotating pattern") slowly swirls the surface waters of the Arctic basin, turning the Polar Ice Cap along with [...]]]> A huge pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is expanding and could lower the temperature of Europe by causing an ocean current to slow down, British scientists said on Sunday.

The Beaufort Gyre ("rotating pattern") slowly swirls the surface waters of the Arctic basin, turning the Polar Ice Cap along with it. It makes one complete rotation about every 4 years

Using satellites to measure sea surface height from 1995 to 2010, scientists from University College London and Britain’s National Oceanography Centre found that the western Arctic’s sea surface has risen by about 150mm since 2002.

The volume of fresh water has increased by at least 8 000km³, or about 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic Ocean. The fresh water comes from melting ice and river run-off.

The rise could be due to strong Arctic winds increasing an ocean current called the Beaufort Gyre, making the sea surface bulge upwards.

The Beaufort Gyre is one of the least understood bodies of water on the planet. It is a slowly swirling body of ice and water north of Alaska, about 10 times bigger than Lake Michigan in the United States.

Some scientists believe the natural rhythms of the gyre could be affected by global warming which could have serious implications for the ocean’s circulation and rising sea levels.

Climate models have suggested that wind blowing on the surface of the sea has formed a raised dome in the middle of the Beaufort Gyre, but there have been few in-depth studies to confirm this.

If the wind changes direction, which happened between the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, the pool of fresh water could spill out into the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even into the north Atlantic Ocean, the study said.

This could cool Europe by slowing down an ocean current coming from the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe relatively mild compared with countries at similar latitudes.

“Our findings suggest that a reversal of the wind could result in the release of this fresh water to the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even beyond,” said Katharine Giles at UCL’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The team plans to investigate further the relationship between sea-ice cover and wind changes.

- Reuters

Here’s a suburban scene that makes my blood boil: someone using a garden hose to “sweep” a driveway. In fact, it’s not only in suburbia that you see this — I saw an employee of a top Rosebank hotel doing the same this morning.

We [...]]]> Article by: Sue Blaine
Source: Business Day Blogs

Here’s a suburban scene that makes my blood boil: someone using a garden hose to “sweep” a driveway. In fact, it’s not only in suburbia that you see this — I saw an employee of a top Rosebank hotel doing the same this morning.

We still use potable water to “sweep” driveways

Perhaps the reality is this: water is just not expensive enough in South Africa.

We have had endless government campaigns about saving electricity, but I have yet to see much, if anything, on saving water. We ignore water at our peril.

Poor-quality water “was of limited use and added to society’s economic burden through treatment costs and secondary impacts” on the economy, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said in its a 2011 report on water in South Africa.

The country’s National Water Resource Strategy calls for “appropriate and timely corrective measures” to mitigate the effects of industrialisation and urbanisation on its water resources.

The CSIR report notes that in 2005, 95% of South Africa’s freshwater resources had already been allocated. The country’s average annual rainfall, at 450mm, is less than half the global average (850mm) and 10 of the water management areas in South Africa could not fulfil demand in 2000, according to the report.

South Africa is about to spent nearly R1bn fixing the Witwatersrand’s acid mine drainage problem, and there is the enormous additional problem of eutrophication — the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, to natural water through fertilisers or sewage. The most common symptom of eutrophication is an increase in microcystis — blue-green algae producing toxins that rob water bodies of oxygen, making water sterile. Since 2005, it has caused toxic cyanobacterial “blooms” every year in Gauteng’s Hartbeespoort, Roodeplaat, Klipvoor and Rietvlei dams and in KwaZulu-Natal’s Shongweni Dam, according to the Department of Water Affairs.

To add insult to injury, tap water in South Africa could be undrinkable in future. Already, some of the country’s tap water contains poisons.

Poor-quality water will negatively affect the economy, curbing the manufacturing sector directly and indirectly, says limnologist Bill Harding. Limnology is the study of freshwater bodies.

Despite Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa promising a turnaround in the parlous state of wastewater treatment almost two years ago, it does not appear much has been done to rectify an ever-worsening problem. The Department of Water Affairs is enormously understaffed.

The 2010 Green Drop (wastewater quality) report showed that only 32, or 3%, of South Africa’s estimated 850 wastewater treatment works complied with requirements for safe discharge. The report noted that only 449 of the works had been assessed, with the rest either ignoring, or being unable to comply with, the call to submit to scrutiny.

Only 32 (7%) complied with the Green Drop criteria after being measured for E coli bacteria, nitrates, phosphates, ammonia and other nasties.

The national Green Drop Programme was launched in 2008 and was meant to cover all wastewater treatment works to ensure they did not harm the water bodies into which they discharged their products.

I could go on, but I think the point is made. We do not have a lot of water. We are using almost all the water we have. We are “killing” a fair bit of our water, and still we use potable water to “sweep” driveways.

That’s just stupid.

Water is in the news again, but never has the situation been as dire as today.  Quite simply – Cape Town is out of water. Any new augmentation schemes are not sustainable.

The following are proposed non-sustainable [...]]]> By: Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor (Founder of Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems and winner of a WWF Green Trust Award)

Water is in the news again, but never has the situation been as dire as today.  Quite simply – Cape Town is out of water. Any new augmentation schemes are not sustainable.

The following are proposed non-sustainable schemes:

• Damming the Lourens River at Somerset West:  This will add less than one percent capacity to our beleaguered situation.  There are no more rivers that can possibly be dammed to provide any more water for Cape Town.
• Extracting water from the berg by pumping to the Voëlvlei Dam:  The well-respected head of the Freshwater Research Unit at UCT, Prof Jenny Day, commented that this was a “no-no”.  Already the salinity of the Lower Berg River is rising to unacceptable standards, and any further extraction will make this worse.  The situation of the Lower Breede River is equally parlous.
• Desalination of sea water:  this is not sustainable as it is too costly on any scale let alone on a large scale.  Costly because each kilolitre of water desalinated from sea water will cost more energy than we have got or we likely will get. Desalination costs eight kilowatt hours per kilolitre of desalinated water.  Further problems of desalination are that a super saline concentrate is returned back to sea, which turns valleys in the sea into a place where neither plants nor animals can survive.
• Pumping from the TMG (Table Mountain Aquifer):  Already we have seen deep boreholes dry up and collapse in this aquifer and any extraction from this aquifer will have a negative impact on the river systems as this is most likely where the recharge of the aquifer will come from.  These are the same rivers that are now dammed to extinction throughout the Western Cape.
• Recycling of sewerage effluent:  while this is to be supported, it must be understood that this will not be acceptable to some of our religious groups.  It should also be noted that our sewerage systems are in an unsafe condition, and we need some 6.6 billion Rand to upgrade and build new sewerage treatment works.  Here too energy plays a huge role, as 90% of the running cost of our sewerage treatment works is the energy cost of pumping water around the various treatment sewerage works.  At last check there was only 300 million on any long term budget for upgrading sewerage works.

Grey Water

Garden Rhapsody. A grey water solution by Water Rhapsody.

Director of DWA (Department of Water Affairs) Rashid Khan stresses the use of demand management as the way forward to use less water He also talks of the re-use of on site water but fails to mention “grey water” as a specific.

Grey water [water from baths, basins, shower and laundry] unnecessarily goes in the same pipeline as black water to be treated at sewerage treatment works. All grey water diverted from the sewer system and used for irrigation purposes means far less effluent to be treated.

All of our present problems of water supply would simply go away if everyone could simply use less water.  Halving one’s water demand is easily achievable by: (a) re-using grey water; either for irrigation purposes or toilet flushing; (b) minimizing toilet flushing with a device where the user takes control of the volume of flush and; (c) re-cycling swimming pool backwash water to the pool.

Furthermore there are now huge benefits of rainwater harvesting to supply whole households with rainwater for normal use i.e. for bath, shower, hand basins, laundry, toilet flushing etc.  This makes perfect sense if one considers that – of the water from dams that can be accounted for, 60% of water delivered to the Greater Cape Town area, is used in the home.

If grey water were to be re-used on a large scale we would see a reduction of up to 90% of effluent reaching our sewerage treatment works, saving huge sums of money and giving our sewerage treatment works spare capacity which they don’t have at the moment.

Water Tariffs

Water Tariffs are also set to rise dramatically as a tool to get water consumers to use less water.  The City of Cape Town has a monopoly on both the supply of water as well as the tariffs, except that one may now supply one’s own water by delivering rainwater harvested from roofs to one’s whole household during our winter rainy season.

On top of tariff hikes, water restrictions, etc. any further action by Cape Town, should we run out of water, would be to have water outages as a means to stem demand.   This was used recently in Beaufort West where they got outages for 36 hours at a time.  Making use of rainwater harvesting to supply one’s home would exempt the user from outages, as rainwater tanks double as an emergency feed of municipal water as well.

If there is any further proof that demand management could fix the water supply problems that are upon us, a Water Engineer of Cape Town – Dave Ramsay – stated about ten years ago, that when water restrictions are imposed, consumption comes down.  This should be enough to convince suppliers and users of water alike of the benefits of demand management.

However, he went on to say that once the water restrictions were lifted, demand rises again, but never to the level prior to the implementation of water restrictions.  This is perhaps because to stem demand, the City has historically restricted irrigation with municipal water, so to keep their gardens alive homeowners installed water saving devices, including devices to re-use grey water for irrigation purposes.

Edited by Saving Water

Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa. Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 06 Dec 2011

Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa. Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.

As rainfall patterns change, Africa is facing major crises

“For every one of us, the first thing you use when you wake up in the morning is water, and when we are going to bed, it is water. Yet, it’s taken for granted,” says Chris Moseki, research manager at the Water Research Commission (WRC) in South Africa. WRC is a member of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) – a global alliance of organisations working on water issues.

Access to water is an urgent issue here in the Southern Africa region, where nearly 100 million people lack adequate access to water. Modelling by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa shows the region will become hotter and drier over the next 50 to 100 years, putting farms, industry, domestic water supply and natural ecosystems at risk.

International water experts and policy makers are concerned that planning for changes to water availability is not getting the prominence it deserves. Bai-Mass Taal, the Executive Secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), says they are working to raise the profile of water within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“We are saying to the parties, look: we appreciate what you are doing in other sectors, but without addressing water directly, all of that will be in vain,” says Taal.

At this point, water issues are being discussed by treaty negotiators as part of wider planning, prioritising and implementing of adaptation to a changing climate.

Dr. Ania Grobicki, GWP Executive Secretary, says that with growing numbers of countries expected to experience water scarcity, the current position of water in climate talks is inadequate.

“The GDP of many countries in the least developed countries is dependent on water. More than 50 percent of food for the world will come from Africa in the future, and this is dependent on availability of water,” she says. “That is why this discussion should go beyond where it’s now.”

More than 70 percent of the Southern African Development Community’s population depends directly on farming, overwhelmingly on rain-fed agriculture. The CSIR’s projections are among many drawing attention to how predicted changes to rainfall, limited resources for adaptation and a lack of institutions and capacity to regulate river and stream flow will leave people in Southern Africa and across the continent extremely vulnerable.

Similar challenges are predicted not only for Africa, but across the world as weather patterns change, but Africa’s lack of irrigation and other infrastructure is a factor that magnifies the need for urgent intervention.

Africa’s response

As rainfall patterns change, Africa is facing major crises. Millions faced famine in Niger and Mali in 2010 after drought hit farmers and herders. This year, the Horn of Africa has been facing its worst drought in 50 years and millions are suffering from hunger. According to the U.N. World Food Programme, some 12.3 million people in the Horn are in need of emergency assistance.

Rhoda Peace, the African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, points out that when African leaders talk about climate change; they invariably talk about droughts and floods’, showing that water is already a high priority.

In 2008, African heads of state agreed to make water and sanitation a priority.

“Leaders agreed to allocate at least 0.5 percent of their national budget to water,” says Peace. “Now whether that is actually the case is another story, but some countries are doing very well and may reach their targets.”

Providing adequate access to water across Africa will cost billions of dollars. And for the many African governments which are failing to honour earlier commitments will not be able to raise the required amounts without support.

Simon Thuo, the Eastern Africa coordinator for GWP, says he is surprised that despite the clear need, even the African negotiating group’s proposals mention water only in passing. Along with other experts, he believes that if climate negotiations address management of this essential commodity specifically, it will not receive the necessary attention and funding.

By: Joshua Kyalimpa
Source: IPS

The City of Tshwane has made history by being the first municipality in South Africa to use hydropower. This huge project was launched on 29 November 2011. This has realised the objectives of the [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 02 Dec 2011

The City of Tshwane has made history by being the first municipality in South Africa to use hydropower. This huge project was launched on 29 November 2011. This has realised the objectives of the study that was done by the University of Pretoria through funding from the Water Research Commission, which explored the use of water to generate power that could assist in supplementing the existing supply within a municipality. With this new source of energy, the country could start looking into providing such a service to other areas while reducing the problematic carbon emissions from coal that poses a threat to the environment.

Hydropower is still an untapped resource of energy within the African continent

The ‘Pressure Hydropower System’ has been installed and integrated at the new site, Pierre van Ryneveld reservoir located in the south-eastern part of the City of Tshwane. When operational, the system will generate about 16 Kilowatts of electricity per hour.

The acting Executive Mayor, Councillor Terence Mashego congratulated the team of experts and applauded the excellent work done by the University of Pretoria and its students and the Water Research Commission for funding such an initiative.

“The fact that somebody was employed to take part in the project by working on it or supplying stock for it, the project assisted in putting food on the table for those families’. I also appreciate that the project involved students who should be promoted based on their contribution towards this big initiative’’ says councillor Mashego.

“Nearly 20 percent of the world’s electrical energy is used for the pumping of water ,while 60 percent of energy in plant operations is used for the pumping of water’’ says Mr Jay Bhagwan, Director for Water Use and Waste Management at Water Research Commission.

Hydropower is still an untapped resource of energy within the African continent since only six percent of it has been used so far. The WRC studies indicate that pressure hydropower has a huge potential for complementing the energy needs of municipalities. Scoping studies conservatively indicate that by introducing Pressure Hydropower into the reservoir outlets of the Metros in South Africa, some 26 000 MW/h can be generated immediately. Says Bhagwan, “if this was expanded on a wide scale to large pressurised transfer pipes and reticulation systems, a significant amount of clean energy can be generated to complement the municipalities and country’s needs”. Further demonstrations of hydropower generation are planned for Bloemwater, eThekwini Metro Water Services and Rand Water in the coming months.

By: Hlengiwe Cele
Source: SA Water Research Commission

It’s possible to reduce deforestation to near zero by 2020, but delaying action to save forests by even a decade means double the area of forests lost by 2030, says WWF.

Our forests [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 29 Nov 2011

It’s possible to reduce deforestation to near zero by 2020, but delaying action to save forests by even a decade means double the area of forests lost by 2030, says WWF.

Our forests are disappearing while we sort out how to save them

According to the latest chapter of WWF’s Living Forests Report, “Forests and Climate”, the world stands to lose 55.5 million hectares of forest between now and 2020, even if we take urgent action to reduce deforestation. If the world delays the necessary steps, we stand to lose 124.7 million hectares by 2030, according to the report.

These forests are not only vital to the well-being of people and wildlife, but also to the global climate, because deforestation releases greenhouse gases, says WWF. The report finds that reducing deforestation to near zero would also bring global emissions from forest destruction close to zero, but delaying this reduction until 2030 would mean sacrificing an additional 69 million hectares of forest worldwide and at least an additional 24Gt CO₂ into the atmosphere, not including losses from forest degradation or the carbon stored below ground. Currently, up to 20 per cent of global carbon emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation – more than the total emissions from the global transportation sector.

The report further finds that new plantations are not the solution, as they will not begin to sequester enough carbon to offset emissions from deforestation until 2040 at the earliest.

“Our forests are disappearing while we sort out how to save them,” said Bruce Cabarle, Leader of WWF’s Forest and Climate Initiative. “This continued loss of forests will have dire consequences for our global climate, for nature and for the livelihoods of billions of people. And we know we can’t plant our way out of the problem. The message is clear – we must act now to protect the world’s forests for good or we’ll lose them forever.”

According to WWF, United Nations climate talks, set to get underway this week in South Africa, provide a key opportunity for the world’s governments to unite on efforts to halt global forest loss. At these talks, details on a scheme in which developed countries pay developing countries not to cut down their forests will be agreed.

This effort, referred to as REDD+, is a unique opportunity to address both climate change and forest loss, and while considerable progress has been made on working out the details, governments must now commit to a global target for tackling deforestation at the scale and pace needed, said WWF. The Living Forests Report finds that achieving zero net forest loss by 2020 is not possible without REDD+.

“WWF understands that these climate negotiations are complex. But we must not let the opportunity that REDD+ presents slip through our fingers. If we get this right, we can safeguard our climate and help people overcome poverty. There is too much at stake to let these talks get mired down by technicalities,” said Gerald Steindlegger, Policy Director of WWF’s Forest and Climate Initiative.

WWF is asking global leaders to back an ambitious target of near zero forest loss by 2020. The Living Forests Report shows that this target is achievable through improved governance – sustainable land-use plans, law enforcement, improved land tenure systems, transparent and inclusive management, and markets that demand sustainable forestry and agriculture products.

Yet the report shows that in reaching this target, countries must adopt strong safeguards to protect the planet’s biodiversity and benefit local communities and indigenous peoples.

Given the urgency of halting forest loss, WWF is calling on governments to provide the needed finance to support REDD+ actions. Industrialized countries have a critical role to play in providing adequate, predictable and sustainable financing for REDD+. This report finds that $30-50 billion by 2020 is needed to reach near zero emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Though the sums needed appear large, delaying action will greatly increase the long-term costs of coping with climate change. While this public financing is essential, other sources of innovative financing, such as credit support for forest bonds, could be a way to leverage private-sector finance so that governments are not alone in efforts to scale up forest finance, according to WWF.

The Living Forests Report uses the Living Forests Model, developed for WWF by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), to consider a range of different forest scenarios for the next half century, modified by changes in diet, biofuels, conservation policy, and fuelwood and timber demand. The report concludes that achieving and sustaining Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation by 2020 (ZNDD) is possible if we act now. The report further finds that unless we act now to use REDD+ to successfully halt deforestation, the opportunity to keep global temperature rise well below 2°C will be lost. According to WWF, reaching an agreement on key elements of REDD+ is critical to saving forests and the climate, conserving biodiversity, and benefitting the well-being and livelihoods of people around the world.

Source: WWF

The African continent is the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its dependence on rain-fed agriculture but can harness the potential for hydropower, said Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 28 Nov 2011

The African continent is the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its dependence on rain-fed agriculture but can harness the potential for hydropower, said Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa on Monday.

Africa currently uses only 10% of its hydropower potential

“The challenge for Africa is to decouple economic and social development from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation to an extent which has no precedent in the developed world,” said Molewa, who is leading the SA’s negotiation team at COP17 in Durban.

Water shortages caused by climate change threaten agriculture and human health in Africa, she said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted yields from rain-fed agriculture to shrink by half by 2020.

“This will spell famine for many,” she said.

Water shortages have already affected the agriculture and livestock industries in Kenya, she said, and African nations that currently have water surpluses will shift to water scarcity before 2025.

But Africa’s water resources could also rescue the continent from the effects of climate change in the form of renewable energy, she said. The continent currently uses only 10% of its hydropower potential.

“A national, regional and international effort towards unlocking this potential is an example of how African societies could go from being amongst the most vulnerable to become climate resilient,” she said.

Molewa repeated the SA government’s support of the “polluter pays principle”, imploring developed nations to fund green projects in developing nations, since they are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Africa contributes only 4% of global GHG emissions, but SA is responsible for almost half of that.

Molewa also highlighted the Africa Pavilion at COP17, which presents opportunities for green-development projects on the continent.

The effects of climate change on Africa are “unacceptable” and climate-change talks must “produce a credible, fair, equitable and balanced outcome” in the coming weeks.

Source: Business Live

Mpumalanga's weather stations recorded 225 days of fog in 2010

A study is being done to see if Mpumalanga’s poorest communities can harvest fog as a vital water source.

The national Department of [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 22 Nov 2011

Mpumalanga's weather stations recorded 225 days of fog in 2010

A study is being done to see if Mpumalanga’s poorest communities can harvest fog as a vital water source.

The national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform plans to conduct a pilot project next year with the hope of rolling out fog harvesting to communities along the province’s eastern escarpment.

“If the pilot project yields positive results, we will consider a large scale roll-out to feed into local water distribution networks,” said department spokesman Eddie Mohoebi on Monday.

It is hoped the project will alleviate water shortages in South Africa, which is one of 30 countries with the worst water scarcity in the world. The country’s average annual rainfall of 450mm is nearly half of the global average of 860mm per year.

Communities in Cabazane village near Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape and Thohoyandou in Limpopo are already harvesting fog and providing clean water for their basic needs.

Fog is caught by a 40 square metre net made of stainless mesh co-knitted with a poly material attached to six-metre-high wooden poles.

Gutters, attached to the bottom of the net, catch the water droplets and lead it down into reservoirs.

The pilot project in Mpumalanga aims to produce 5 000 litres to 15 000 litres of water per day through fog harvesting.

According to statistics from the South African Weather Service (SAWS), Mpumalanga’s weather stations recorded 225 days of fog in 2010. It is the highest number of fog days for all provinces in South Africa.

SAWS senior scientist Dawn Mahlobo said fog was recorded on 82 days at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport and 85 days in Ermelo.

The department wants the first fog harvesting plant to be erected in either Piet Retief, Donkerhoek, Madadeni, Shibange or Ntunda.

“At this point in time, it is difficult to determine where exactly the fog will be harvested. The outcome of the feasibility study will determine the area suitable for fog harvesting technology,” said Mohoebi.

The bids for Mpumalanga’s pilot project closed last week Friday.

The pilot project will commence a month after a service provider is appointed.

The contractor will train community members to operate and maintain the system.

The department hopes the project will provide access to clean water and enhance local economic development with job creation in maintenance, installing, repairing fog water harvesting technology and establishment of small gardens for community.

No electricity is needed to operate the plant.

“Other communities along the escarpment will be considered if thick fog appears for 90 days or more for a few hours at a time and is accompanied by strong wind. The sites should also be at least 1km above sea level,” said Mohoebi.

By: Cobus Coetzee
Source: BuaNews

South Africa’s water resources and adjacent ecosystems are in a terrible state, with only 35% of the total length of the country’s mainstream rivers still in good condition.

The high levels of threat [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 21 Nov 2011

South Africa’s water resources and adjacent ecosystems are in a terrible state, with only 35% of the total length of the country’s mainstream rivers still in good condition.

The high levels of threat results particularly from intense land pressures.

The recently released Atlas of Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas reveals that 57% of river ecosystems and 65% of wetland ecosystems are threatened.

Mandy Driver, the SA National Biodiversity Institute’s manager of biodiversity policy, said the Biodiversity Assessment published seven years ago highlighted the poor state of many river ecosystems, with the majority of the country’s large rivers rated “critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.

“We needed a strategic intervention to help sustain and conserve freshwater ecosystems, and the Atlas is the result.”

The team, who spent three years researching and compiling the Atlas, found tributaries overall were in a “far better state” than mainstream rivers.

“They also support the sustainability of hard-working rivers further downstream by diluting poor quality water and flushing pollutants. Only 35% of the length of mainstream rivers is in good condition, compared to 57% of tributaries.

“The high levels of threat results particularly from intense land pressures, especially around cities,” the Atlas notes.

Project leader and CSIR principal scientist Jeanne Nel said water influences the well-being of a country’s people, and water shortages or a decline in water quality will hamper economic development.

“Ultimately, the quantity, quality and timing of water flows are determined by the health of the ecosystems through which the water passes.”

South Africa has only 62 free-flowing rivers (without dams), constituting only 4% of total river length. Free-flowing rivers have become a rare feature in the landscape and the Atlas has identified 19 that should be preserved.

Speaking at the Atlas launch, Deputy Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said water was fundamental to national economic growth and development – as well as South Africans’ well-being.

“This scarce resource should be well managed, protected, used, conserved and developed.”

She pointed out that deterioration in the health of ecosystems negatively affected their ability to provide beneficial services, such as the filtering performed by wetlands to provide potable water.

By: Kim Helfrich
Source: The New Age

Capetonians could face stricter water restrictions as dam levels hit a four-year low.

Save good quality drinking water - use grey water for irrigation

Low-level restrictions are already in place including a ban [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 18 Nov 2011

Capetonians could face stricter water restrictions as dam levels hit a four-year low.

Save good quality drinking water - use grey water for irrigation

Low-level restrictions are already in place including a ban on watering gardens between 10am and 4pm.

Adding to the low dam levels, rainfall this year has also been below average.

A UCT climatologist said of the past 10 months, eight had had below-average rainfall. May, June and July, usually the wettest months, were “drier than normal”.

Climate models showed this situation was likely to become more common in the years ahead and it could drive up the price of water.

Residents were being urged to conserve water. This appeal comes as climate change is expected to lead to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns.

The City of Cape Town’s water department was due to meet the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on Wednesday but has not released any details.

The city’s draft annual report says 19 percent of water was “unaccounted for”. This term refers to the difference in the amount of water purchased and in the city’s distribution system, compared with the amount which is sold to customers.

The report for the past financial year calls for measures to prepare for a “water-constrained future”. Some of the alternatives are desalination of sea water and the greater use of groundwater.

According to the draft report, some water-saving techniques are showing results. One of these is a pressure-management system which reduces the pressure of the water supplied to city consumers during off-peak periods.

This results in fewer leaks. A project like this at Brown’s Farm in Philippi produced an estimated saving of R8.2 million annually. After the project was introduced, there was an immediate drop in consumption.

Levels of the six major dams supplying Cape Town are at the lowest they have been in four years. On November 7, levels stood at 86 percent. Last year at this time they were at 93 percent and at 102 percent in 2009. Levels peaked in 2008 at 103 percent and were 99 percent in 2007.

Farouk Robertson, spokesman for the city’s water and sanitation department, said the city had “never relaxed” its appeal for residents to use water wisely.

Robertson said the city had expanded rapidly over the past few years and economic activity had increased.

This had led to more water consumption.

He urged residents to “amplify water conservation efforts”.

One tip was that residents should monitor the moisture of the soil in their gardens and, if necessary, introduce composts which would reduce the evaporation of water.

Another measure was to use buckets to wash cars, instead of hosepipes.

Robertson appealed to home-owners to watch their water meters and report leaks immediately.

“If you are wasting water, you are depriving other people of good quality drinking water. Know what you going to do, before you open the tap,” he said.

Peter Johnston, a climatologist with UCT’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, said for May, June and July, rainfall was less than 80 percent of the long-term average.

Johnston added that as December approached and it got hotter, around 1 percent of the volume of dam water would be used or lost due to evaporation each day. Because, November had been cooler, it had lessened the impact of evaporation.

“This is the sort of thing we can expect. We should get used to this scenario occurring more often and it’s a call for all us to watch our demand and usage.”

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry was not immediately available for comment.

By: Bronwynne Jooste
Source: iol