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

The decline of large predators and other “apex consumers” at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems across the planet.

The removal of predators like sea otters has consequences for all [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 July 2011

The decline of large predators and other “apex consumers” at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems across the planet.

The removal of predators like sea otters has consequences for all of us

The finding is reported by an international team of scientists in a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

The study looked at research results from a wide range of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and concluded ”the loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world.”

According to lead author James Estes, a marine ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, large animals were once ubiquitous across the globe. They shaped the structure and dynamics of ecosystems.

Their decline, largely caused by humans through hunting and habitat fragmentation, has far-reaching and often surprising consequences, including changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality and nutrient cycles.

Plummeting numbers of apex consumers are most pronounced among the big predators, such as wolves on land, sharks in the oceans, and large fish in freshwater ecosystems. There also are dramatic declines in populations of many large herbivores, such as elephants and bison.

The loss of apex consumers from an ecosystem triggers an ecological phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade,” a chain of effects moving down through lower levels of the food chain.

The research, funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), “highlights the unanticipated effects of trophic cascades on Earth systems, including far-reaching processes such as biogeochemical cycles,” said David Garrison, director of NSF’s Biological Oceanography Program.

“The removal of predators like sharks and sea otters, bass and wolves has consequences,” said Garrison, “not only for these species, but for all of us.”

“The top-down effects of apex consumers in an ecosystem are fundamentally important, but it is a complicated phenomenon,” Estes said. “They have diverse and powerful effects on the ways ecosystems work, and the loss of these large animals has widespread implications.”

Estes and co-authors cite a wide range of examples in their review, including:

• The extirpation of wolves in Yellowstone National Park led to over-browsing of aspen and willows by elk; restoration of wolves allowed the vegetation to recover.
• Dramatic changes in coastal ecosystems followed the collapse and recovery of sea otter populations. Sea otters maintain coastal kelp forests by controlling populations of kelp-grazing sea urchins.
• The decimation of sharks in an estuarine ecosystem caused an outbreak of cow-nosed rays and the collapse of shellfish populations.

Despite these and other well-known examples, the extent to which such interactions shape ecosystems was not widely appreciated, scientists say.

“There’s been a tendency to see it as idiosyncratic and specific to particular species and ecosystems,” Estes said.

One reason for this is the top-down effects of apex predators are difficult to observe and study.

“These interactions are invisible unless there is some perturbation that reveals them,” Estes said. “With these large animals, it’s impossible to do the kinds of experiments that would be needed to show their effects, so the evidence has been acquired as a result of natural changes and long-term records.”

Estes has studied coastal ecosystems in the North Pacific for several decades, conducting research on the ecological roles of sea otters and killer whales. In 2008, he and co-author John Terborgh of Duke University organized a conference on trophic cascades, which brought together scientists studying a wide range of ecosystems.

The recognition that similar top-down effects occur in many different systems was a catalyst for the current paper.

The study’s findings have profound implications for conservation.

“To the extent that conservation aims to restore functional ecosystems, the reestablishment of large animals and their ecological effects is fundamental,” Estes said.

“This has huge implications for the scale at which conservation can be done. You can’t restore large apex consumers on an acre of land. These animals roam over large areas, so it’s going to require large-scale approaches.”

The paper’s co-authors include 24 scientists from various institutions in six countries.

The Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, Defenders of Wildlife, White Oak Plantation, NSERC Canada and NordForsk provided other support for the research.

Source: NSF

According to a new study by WWF and German development bank DEG, the shortage of freshwater is not only becoming more and more of an ecological risk, but it also is rapidly becoming a [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 April 2011

According to a new study by WWF and German development bank DEG, the shortage of freshwater is not only becoming more and more of an ecological risk, but it also is rapidly becoming a major business growth risk – one that investors need to take into account.

Access to sufficient water of adequate quality is of considerable economic significance.

Assessing Water Risk: A Practical Approach for Financial Institutions, states that climate change, population growth and increasing living standards are contributing to the rising pressure on existing and already scarce water resources, particularly in developing countries. In Southeast Asia and Africa, for example, water shortages constitute a threat to entire ecosystems and to the living standards of the population.

“The availability of water also is becoming a development bottleneck for companies. With the water risk filter we have now developed a new tool to identify such risks to companies and to offer support in water management,” said Dr Peter Thimme, head of DEG’s department for Sustainable Development/Environment.

Access to a sufficient quantity of water of adequate quality, he added, is therefore of considerable economic significance.

“Our intention is to provide the conscientious investor with the knowledge to work with clients toward more sustainable water management, with the aim of mitigating both business and environmental risks,” according to the study.

“Business risk stemming from a company’s relationship to water can be broken into three broad, inter-related categories: physical – as a result of too little, too much or polluted water; regulatory – with dwindling availability and increased pollution, the regulation of water is bound to become stricter; and reputational – public and media awareness of water and how companies are handling this resource is on the rise.

The report goes on to state that “all of these risks can cause disruption of supply and, in worst cases, termination of business operations.”

According to DEG and WWF, 191 out of over 300 companies studied as part of the report showed high potential business risks related to freshwater. Concrete support measures to mitigate these water risks will now have to be initiated, according to the report.

”Sustainable use of water is a responsibility of companies to eco-systems and the local population, which is dependent on this water,” confirms Martin Geiger, head of Freshwater at WWF Germany.

In particular, the report shows that the agribusiness’ are at a particular risk since they sector accounts for 70 percent of global water consumption. If countermeasures are not taken now, water-intensive agricultural produce may become scarce in the future and the companies concerned may face economic risks, according to the report.

The newly developed water risk filter system in the report is intended to identify water-related risks at an early point in time so they can be considered in investment decisions.

The tool also outlines possible courses for action for companies from different industries and regions, which may be threatened by water shortage or pollution, either directly or in their supply chain.

DEG is planning to support the implementation of individual business approaches to improve the situation in a follow-up project financed by funds for technical assistance from the bank. The development finance institution in turn hopes this will cushion the ecological and economic impacts of the ongoing water crisis.

Additionally, the project produced more than 80 detailed and comprehensive country fact sheets on individual water situations and mappings.

Source: WWF

Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth’s natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, WWF said on Wednesday.

In 2007, [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 October 2010

Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth’s natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, WWF said on Wednesday.

In 2007, Earth’s 6.8 billion humans were living 50% beyond the planet’s threshold of sustainability, according to its report, issued ahead of a UN biodiversity conference.

“Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb CO2 waste and keep up with natural resource consumption,” it warned.

If everyone used resources at the same rate per capita as the United States or the United Arab Emirates, four and a half planets would be needed, it said, highlighting the gap in “ecological footprint” between rich and poor.

The “Living Planet” report, the eighth in the series, is based on figures for 2007, the latest year for which figures are available.

It pointed to 71 countries that were running down their sources of freshwater at a worrying, unsustainable rate.

Nearly two-thirds of these countries experience “moderate to severe” water stress.

“This has profound implications for ecosystem health, food production and human wellbeing, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change,” WWF said.

Species in decline

Signatories to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are to meet in Nagoya, Japan, from October 18-29 to discuss ways of addressing Earth’s dramatic loss of species.

The UN named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. Under Target 7b of the Millennium Development Goals, UN members pledged to achieve by 2010 “a significant reduction” in the rate of wildlife loss.

Biologists say many species, especially mammals, birds and amphibians, are in headlong decline, their numbers ravaged by habitat loss, hunting or the likely impact of climate change.

The WWF said biodiversity showed a dramatic loss overall, but one with sharp disparities.

Between 1970 and 2007, an index of biodiversity health showed a global fall of almost 30%, it said.

In the tropics, the decline was 60%, but in temperate regions, there was an increase of 30%.

Temperate zones – the first parts of the world to industrialise – may be starting from a lower baseline of species loss, which could explain the gradual improvement in recent decades.

Improvements in pollution control and waste management, better air and water quality, an increase in forest cover and greater conservation efforts may also be making headway in some temperate countries, the WWF said.

- Sapa

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 [...]]]> 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.

“The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson rivers flowing for more than two years. It could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days,” Muenchow said.

The island will enter Nares Strait, a deep waterway between northern Greenland and Canada where, since 2003, a University of Delaware ocean and ice observing array has been maintained by Muenchow with collaborators in Oregon (Prof. Kelly Falkner), British Columbia (Prof. Humfrey Melling), and England (Prof. Helen Johnson).

“In Nares Strait, the ice island will encounter real islands that are all much smaller in size,” Muenchow said. “The newly born ice-island may become land-fast, block the channel, or it may break into smaller pieces as it is propelled south by the prevailing ocean currents. From there, it will likely follow along the coasts of Baffin Island and Labrador, to reach the Atlantic within the next two years.”

The last time such a massive ice island formed was in 1962 when Ward Hunt Ice Shelf calved a 230 square-mile island, smaller pieces of which became lodged between real islands inside Nares Strait. Petermann Glacier spawned smaller ice islands in 2001 (34 square miles) and 2008 (10 square miles). In 2005, the Ayles Ice Shelf disintegrated and became an ice island (34 square miles) about 60 miles to the west of Petermann Fjord.

Source: University of Delaware

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 [...]]]> 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.”

The water in this and other aquifers comes from rain that has fallen for millenia on the sponge-like Cape Fold Belt. The belt includes various inland ranges as well as coastal mountains like the Groendal (near Uitenhage), Van Stadens and Tsitsikamma, and also outcrops in central Port Elizabeth. This rain sinks into fractured sandstone and quartzite and seeps gradually down through cracks in the Table Mountain group rock to the coast.

It emerges in local landmarks like the Uitenhage springs, and was the catalyst for the establishment of the old Swartkops spa baths. It, however, also flows out beneath the seabed.

With South Africa now gripped in a severe, long-term water crisis, DWR had created a programme to explore and develop this submarine resource, Lloyd said. Programme milestones include the development of “a concept hydro-geological model together with broad-based engineering and economics”, and a memorandum of agreement with the Water and Environmental Affairs Department to explore for water along the entire South African coast.

The company had also gained access to data compiled by the Department of Geosciences and the national Petroleum Agency, he said.

“The department has written a letter of intent to DWR to purchase 130 million cubic metres a year from DWR in the Eastern Cape.”

DWR had further reached an agreement with the world’s leading companies in the field of oil and water exploration and sea spring water, he said. Including the Port Elizabeth site, there are at least five possible sites worth exploring off the country’s south and east coast as well as others off the Western Cape and Namibia.

“Each project comprises a well farm and facilities delivering 50 million cubic metres of water a year.”

Lloyd said the capital cost for each extraction project would be R1.855-billion, and it would take about 2½ years to get each project up and supplying water.

Preliminary financial analyses of the project generally indicate “it is very robust and viable”.

“It has the potential of being repeated many times both in Southern Africa and world-wide.”

Wilderness Foundation director Andrew Muir – a former Herald Citizen of the Year, who has raised concerns about unregulated drilling – said a strategic environmental assessment was needed to consider the full costs and benefits of the project. The assessment would need to include the laying of the site-to-shore pipeline, the effect on geology and marine ecology, and the energy consumption of such a huge drilling operation.

“We support any initiative to try to find an alternative water source, but the full picture must be carefully considered.

“I do not know about any projects like this world-wide. Would the proposed extraction be sustainable? What will happen environmentally and geologically if we take this water out?”

Retired senior geologist Dr Russel Shone said he was unaware of any successful project of this kind anywhere else in the world.

Table mountain group rock was very hard and it was doubtful the fractures would collapse if the water was sucked out of them, he said. The water in the fractures could be as much as 400 million years old.

But even if a large slab of this rock was pinpointed, it would be very hard to determine how much water it held, he said.

“The table mountain group rock is the sponge. By using seismic data and bouncing shock waves they can determine how much of this rock there is and how far down it is.

“But the water is in the cracks in the sponge – and just how fractured is that particular rock? It would be very hard to say. It’s the great enigma of this geology.

“It sounds to me like these guys are flying a kite.”

Consideration needed to be given to the motivation and benefits behind the project, he said.

“Drillers drill holes and they get paid even if nothing is found.

“We must ask if the project is economically feasible – that’s the cost of looking for the water and then, even if it is found, of drilling for it in difficult marine conditions. Water is a basic human need. It’s not like petroleum, where costs can be recouped when it is sold.”

Even if fresh water was found, there was a danger that as it was extracted, it would be replaced by seawater, he said.

“There is a chance that this salinity can then leak out of the fracture at another point.”

Lloyd said “some private funding” was already available for the project and the hope was that the government would now buy into the project through either the Industrial Development Corporation or Development Bank of South Africa, both of which had been approached. “The next step will be to speak to Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.”

Pressed on how sure he was of achieving supply, he said DWR had a “borehole core”, obtained from years of exploration in the area for oil and gas.

“This core tells us the volume of the fractures – and PE looks very good. What we still need to know is whether the fractures are wide enough to get the flow rate we need.”

There would be no danger of seawater seeping into the aquifer because fresh water was lighter than seawater and it naturally pushed the seawater out, he said.

- Guy Rogers
Source: Weekend Post

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 [...]]]> 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].

Prior to the grey-water tank are two 2 mm sieves that collect any solid materials which find their way from the hand-basins. These sieves are cleaned once a week. Prior to the sieves are two chlorinators that disinfect the grey-water to kill any micro-organisms. “The grey-water tank had to be kept small so that water is used immediately” says Dr Adesola Ilemobade, project leader at the WITS School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The tank has two submersible pumps for directing water to the toilet when the toilet is flushed, using a switch within the toilet cubicle. Necessary measures were also put in place to avoid backflows.

The first phase of the pilot project is currently used to flush one female and one male toilet at the WITS Hillman Block. “If accepted by South African municipalities, the project will be beneficial to many water-scarce communities” says Dr Ilemobade. “At this stage the reuse of black water (sewage) is not considered due to the potentially higher public health risks” he adds.

A survey that was followed by a massive user awareness campaign at WITS, UJ and UCT indicated a high level of optimism amongst staff and students with the installation of a dual grey- and drinking water reticulation system on their campuses.

Dr Adesola maintains that the unit will offer several advantages including: the reduction in participating households’/institutions’ drinking water bills; in areas without waterborne sewerage, grey-water reuse may improve the performance of septic tanks; grey-water reuse supports the growth in greener water strategies; and water conservation.

“The next installation is in progress at a 16-room unit of the Student Village residence at the University of Johannesburg Kingsway Campus where the collection of grey-water will be extended to showers and baths within the unit” says Dr Ilemobade.

“Municipalities constrained by finance will be better empowered to provide unserved communities with drinking water systems since the costs of the system will be reduced as a result of the reduced demand for drinking water due to grey-water reuse” says Mr Jay Bhagwan, a Director managing the study at the WRC. It will further cause reduced effluent discharges to the environment, leaving streams to their natural flow regime.

Source: SA Water Resource Commission

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 [...]]]> 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 Dam is the largest dam in SA. Increasing dam storage capacities is not a panacea to addressing our water challenges. Photo by 'InsideSouthAfrica' under Creative Commons licence 2.0

“We welcome continued reform on taxes that reflect the cost of greenhouse gas emissions to both the environment and society,” says Dr Morne du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa. “An emissions tax on passenger vehicles, slightly modified from last year’s proposal, will incentivise a preference for efficient cars.”

While the raising of the fuel levy will no doubt be an unpopular measure, WWF welcomes it. Ideally such revenues should be used in reducing fuel consumption in the country through, for example, increased subsidies for public transport – a measure that would also help protect the poor somewhat from the increasing cost of transport.

“Our national response to climate change is not in contradiction with a focus on poverty reduction and stimulating economic growth. On the contrary, the development and support of the necessary local industries to support a move to renewable energy would create a wealth of green jobs,” said Du Plessis.

“WWF welcomes the increased spending on the maintenance of water infrastructure and, specifically, the crumbling sewage works which are a major source of pollution of our rivers and wetlands. However, while increasing water supply capacity is vital, there is no mention of the amount of funding available for protecting our key freshwater catchments – the source of our water. Increasing dam storage capacities for example is not a panacea to addressing our water challenges if we do not adequately protect those rivers that supply water to the dams in the first place.”

“The environmental sector has yet to really be exploited to drive economic growth, create jobs and, subsequently, reduce poverty,” Du Plessis concluded.

Source: WWF

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 [...]]]> 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 up in stacks on a desalination plant in Sicily, Italy (Photo: Shutterstock)

The Department of Water Affairs spokes person Linda Page, who was quoted in Eleanor Momberg’s article ‘Sea may be solution to the water crisis” (Sunday Independent 31 January 2010), mentioned some of the advantages of desalinating water, but she had failed to mention any of the many negative impacts associated with this practice.

In 2007, WWF International released the report Making water: Desalination – option or distraction for a thirsty world? The report showed that some of the driest and thirstiest places in the world with large populations were turning to desalination. These include countries such as Australia, the Middle-East, Spain, India and China which have already made investments in this infrastructure and are using it to diversify their water supplies.

According to the report, desalinating sea water is an expensive, energy-intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way of accessing water. This practice has many negative impacts on the environment, some of which include brine build-up, the destruction of prized coastal areas and a resultant reduction of emphasis on the conservation of rivers and wetlands. Many of the areas of most intensive desalination activity also have a history of damaging natural water resources, particularly groundwater.

In a time where climate change is starting to cause notable effects on South Africa’s fresh water supply it seems ironic, at best, to address this symptom of climate change by adding to the cause (through a process which contributes large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions). Such “vicious circle” approaches make little sense.

Desalination, at best, is a short-term solution and nothing can replace the need for proper management of our freshwater ecosystems; through inter alia, the removal of alien plants, which are sucking up 3,300 million cubic metres of our precious water supply each year.

WWF believes that ensuring sustainable water sources begins with protecting natural assets such as rivers, floodplains, and wetlands. These natural systems purify and provide water as well as protecting against extreme or catastrophic events. Resource planning needs to come before large infrastructure planning.

Source: WWF

Source: wierievents

Water is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all known forms of life.

In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14 February 2010

Source: wierievents

Water is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all known forms of life.

In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapour or steam. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and is found mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapour, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation.

'do you believe in always' courtesy of Wendy Cook ©2006 W.Cook

Oceans hold 97% of surface water, glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds 0.6%. A very small amount of the Earth’s water is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.

Clean, fresh drinking water is essential to human and other life forms. Access to safe drinking water has improved steadily and substantially over the last decades in almost every part of the world. There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita.  However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability.

A recent report suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70% of freshwater is consumed by agriculture.

The most important use of water in agriculture is for irrigation, which is a key component to produce enough food. Irrigation takes up to 90% of water withdrawn in some developing countries and significant proportions in more economically developed countries (United States, 30% of freshwater usage is for irrigation).

Water fit for human consumption is called drinking water or potable water. Water that is not potable can be made potable by filtration or distillation (heating it until it becomes water vapour, and then capturing the vapour without any of the impurities it leaves behind), or by other methods (chemical or heat treatment that kills bacteria).

Sometimes the term safe water is applied to potable water of a lower quality threshold (i.e., it is used effectively for nutrition in humans that have weak access to water cleaning processes, and does more good than harm). Water that is not fit for drinking but is not harmful for humans when used for swimming or bathing is called by various names other than potable or drinking water, and is sometimes called safe water, or “safe for bathing”. Chlorine is a skin and mucous membrane irritant that is used to make water safe for bathing or drinking. Its use is highly technical and is usually monitored by government regulations (typically 1 part per million (ppm) for drinking water, and 1–2 ppm of chlorine not yet reacted with impurities for bathing water).

This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. Currently, about a billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water and sanitation during the 2003 G8 Evian summit. Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water and over a billion without access to adequate sanitation. Poor water quality and bad sanitation are deadly; some five million deaths a year are caused by polluted drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that safe water could prevent 1.4 million child deaths from diarrhoea each year. Water, however, is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth. Water-poor countries use importation of goods as the primary method of importing water (to leave enough for local human consumption), since the manufacturing process uses around 10 to 100 times products’ masses in water.

In the developing world, 90% of all wastewater still goes untreated into local rivers and streams. Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world’s population, also suffer from medium or high water stress, and 17 of these extract more water annually than is recharged through their natural water cycles. The strain not only affects surface freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes, but it also degrades groundwater resources.