Saving Water SA

Saving Water SA
supplies and installs
Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems.
Water Rhapsody are leaders in
Grey Water
and
Rainwater Harvesting systems in South Africa with over 16 years experience and over 3000 installations.

We are an authorised dealer for
Jojo and Martin Nel
Water Tanks

WWF

WWF Green Trust Award

Water Rhapsody
is a
WWF Green Trust
award winner.
Save up to 90% of your municipal water bill.

Ice island calves from Greenland glacier

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 August 2010

A University of Delaware researcher reports that an “ice island” four times the size of Manhattan has calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. The last time the Arctic lost such a large chunk of ice was in 1962.

Research Tents on the Petermann Glacier. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean. Image courtesy of NASA.

“In the early morning hours of August 5, 2010, an ice island four times the size of Manhattan was born in northern Greenland,” said Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. Muenchow’s research in Nares Strait, between Greenland and Canada, is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Satellite imagery of this remote area at 81 degrees N latitude and 61 degrees W longitude, about 620 miles [1,000 km] south of the North Pole, reveals that Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile long [70 km] floating ice-shelf.

Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service discovered the ice island within hours after NASA’s MODIS-Aqua satellite took the data on Aug. 5, at 8:40 UTC (4:40 EDT), Muenchow said. These raw data were downloaded, processed, and analyzed at the University of Delaware in near real-time as part of Muenchow’s NSF research.

Petermann Glacier, the parent of the new ice island, is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.

The new ice island has an area of at least 100 square miles and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building. Continue reading Ice island calves from Greenland glacier

Huge ancient freshwater aquifer under seabed

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 10 May 2010

A marine research company has proposed a R1.8-billion project to solve the water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay by tapping ancient water from a huge freshwater source under the seabed.

Dramatic geologic formations are displayed in the Cape Fold Belt - the folded sedimentary sequence of rocks in the south-western corner of South Africa.

In a recent presentation to the Development Bank of SA, Deep Water Research (DWR) from Cape Town said the aquifer – situated 60km off Port Elizabeth – “is larger than the Breede River Dam”. Sucked out hot from at least a kilometre beneath the floor of the sea, the supply would be “very long term and consistent”, it said.

Local experts have raised questions about the proposal, however, pinpointing the need for a comprehensive impact assessment and the need to balance the certainty of finding water in the volumes described against the funds spent searching for it. The security of the resource, the threat of seawater contamination and the geological ramifications should be taken into account, they argued.

In a presentation to the bank at its Midrand headquarters, Hugh Lloyd, a director of DWR, said there were large volumes of fresh water off the South African coast.

“A programme to explore and develop this resource on the coast, where our water resources are diminishing rapidly, has been initiated by DWR.”

The aquifers were revealed during years of oil and gas exploration, he explained. “An exploration well off Port Elizabeth intersected a potentially abundant supply of potable water.

“This resource alone has the potential to be an order of magnitude larger than the Breede River Dam. Such aquifer water resources have potential major advantages over dams as the water is not polluted, doesn’t evaporate, the supply is very long term and consistent, and it can become productive far sooner than a dam.” Continue reading Huge ancient freshwater aquifer under seabed

Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems could save SA’s high quality water

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

Municipalities may soon learn to utilise water of inferior quality for uses such as flushing the toilet in an effort to save drinking water. For example, irrigation in South Africa uses approximately 54% of the total freshwater demand followed by another major user, toilet flushing. Domestic toilet flushing consumes between 50 and 70% of a household’s total drinking water supply.

Grey-water from showers, baths, hand basins, laundry tubs and washing machines can provide a solution to our water scarcity challenges. A joint pilot study, conducted by the Universities of Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg (UJ) and Cape Town (UCT), and funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC), is proving that the use of grey-water can be an effective way of saving our high quality water.

A dual grey- and drinking water reticulation system is a system consisting of separate pipes that supply grey-water (for only toilet flushing in this project) and drinking water, respectively, to the end user. This is the first dual grey- and drinking water reticulation system for high-density urban buildings currently piloted in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Hillman Block) at WITS, collects its grey-water from 13 hand-basins and conveys it to a 200 litre tank [installed by Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems - see Testimonial by Professor Adesola Ilemobade]. Continue reading Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems could save SA’s high quality water

WWF remains concerned after budget speech

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 19 February 2010

While WWF, the conservation organisation, welcomes the tax proposals put forward in Minister Gordhan’s Budget Speech today (17 February 2010), the organisation remains concerned about massive infrastructure spending devoted to coal-based electricity supply.

Gariep [...]

Desalination at best is a short term solution

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 16 February 2010

Desalination plants are not the answer to water supply problems in South Africa and many other parts of the world, and should not be seen as some kind of silver bullet.

Salt is piled [...]