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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 09 May 2010
South Africa’s organic farming industry is up in arms over international research that claims organic farming harms wildlife and produces less food – and that its produce is no healthier than conventionally farmed foods.
The popularity of organic foods – produced naturally without pesticides and potentially harmful fertilisers – has soared in South Africa in recent years.
But research conducted by the University of Leeds in England found that organic farms produced less than half as much food compared with conventional farming and needed twice as much land to produce the same amount of food.
The study also showed there were 10% fewer small birds, such as yellowhammers, corn buntings, linnets, skylarks and lapwings, in organic fields in the UK. Researchers found that larger birds, which were attracted to dense organic crops, were scaring away the smaller birds, disrupting the ecosystem.
But that was not the worst of it. A recent review commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency found that organic food was neither more nutritious nor healthier than conventionally farmed food.
Said the agency’s Gill Fine: “This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference … there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.”
But local experts have slammed both reports. Durban agricultural scientist Dr Raymond Auberbach said that, contrary to the study’s findings, organic farming was beneficial to birdlife, adding that conventional farming methods were wiping out birds of prey. Continue reading Research claims organic farming harms wildlife
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 28 April 2010
The Rondevlei Nature Reserve, located about 20 kilometres outside of Cape Town, and learners from Sid G Rule Primary in Grassy Park are engaged in a collaborative conservation education project.
 Rondevlei wetland. Photo by 'timparkinson' under creative commons licence. The project’s goal is twofold: the pupils learn about ecosystems, biodiversity and conservation, while helping to collect important environmental data that the City of Cape Town can use to assess water health throughout the municipal area.
It is also part of a bigger vision developed by Dr Mark Graham, aquatic ecologist and director of environmental consultancy Ground Truth, aimed at mobilising communities to better look after their rivers and other water resources.
“Due to increased utilisation of water sources, our rivers are more and more under pressure in terms of pollution. Our water quality shows fairly worrying statistics,” Graham said.
To protect water resources, municipalities usually implement a range of initiatives, such as improving their solid waste management and sewerage systems as well as investing in wetland rehabilitation and conversation. But without community involvement, water conservation schemes will never be completely successful, believes Graham.
He therefore came up with the idea of asking schools to adopt a section of a river that they monitor on a regular basis. The data the pupils collect could be fed to the water affairs department of the municipality in which the school is located. Continue reading School collects environmental data for city
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 16 April 2010
“Your department has let South Africa down, and seriously so,” Democratic Alliance MP Annette Lovemore told Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
Lovemore, speaking during debate on the water affairs budget vote in the National Assembly, called on the minister to show “vital, critical and urgent leadership to address the current shocking level of mismanagement of our water resources”.
 Excessive concentrations of nutrients stimulates algal growth resulting in the decrease of water quality and the emergence of harmful algal blooms. Ground and surface water quality in South Africa was deteriorating fast, and people had died after drinking polluted water, she said.
“Animals in the Kruger National Park and ecosystems across the country are under threat. Tourism is compromised by the eutrophication of rivers and dams. Water treatment costs are escalating due to poor raw water quality.
“Farmers are unable to irrigate with polluted river water. The availability of water to sustain economic development and human and environmental health is diminishing. Opportunities are being seriously undermined,” Lovemore said.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa told MPs they were sitting on a time bomb. Continue reading Water quality deteriorating fast warns MP
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 05 April 2010
Southeast Asian nations on the Mekong River pledged Monday to step up cooperation over the shrinking waterway amid fears China’s dams are exacerbating a severe regional drought.
 Mekong River Leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — the member-states of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) — convened in the Thai coastal town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the river, on which more than 60 million people rely.
“Without good and careful management of the Mekong river as well as its natural resources, this great river will not survive,” Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said as he opened the summit, the first in the MRC’s history.
“The Mekong river is being threatened by serious problems arising from both the unsustainable use of water and the effects of climate change,” he warned.
China — itself suffering the worst drought in a century in its southwest, with more than 24 million people short of drinking water — attended the talks as a dialogue partner of the MRC, as did military-ruled Myanmar.
Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao led the Beijing delegation to the summit, which comes after river levels in northern Thailand and Laos hit five-decade lows, according to the commission.
The situation has alarmed communities along the Mekong, which is the world’s largest inland fishery and vital for the region’s transport, drinking water and irrigation. Continue reading Mekong River may not survive
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 April 2010
Ministers and officials from ten countries and territories in East Africa yesterday endorsed or signed off on a potentially far-reaching protocol to protect East Africa’s coastal and marine environment from land-based activities and pollution.
The new protocol – five years in the making – makes the western Indian Ocean the third marine area of the world to achieve a multilateral agreement to limit and control land-based impacts on the marine environment, after the Mediterranean (1980) and Wider Caribbean (1999).
The parties to the agreement are Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Reunion, Mauritius, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, which will be signing the protocol in the near future.
 Durban Beach. Burgeoning cities such as Durban are threatening the very resource base that sustains them. “This agreement comes at an opportune time, and will be assisting us with our initiatives in coast East Africa to save one of the few remaining areas of the world that are still unspoilt,” said Dr Amani Ngusaru, head of WWF’s Coastal East Africa Marine Programme.
“Over 60 million people in eastern and southern Africa live and depend on the goods and services provided by the coastal and marine ecosystems of coastal east Africa.” Continue reading Conservation protocol for coastal East Africa
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