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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 17 January 2011
By: Mike Muller - Former director-general of water affairs and forestry, a registered engineer and a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits Graduate School of Public and Development Management.
South Africa’s real water crisis is that the stuff is just too damn complicated. What do you think about when you worry about water? Can you afford to pay your water bill?
 There is normally some water in the Komati because downstream Mozambique vigorously defends its rights to a share of their water. Is the water in the tap safe to drink? Is there even water in the tap? Or perhaps what you really want to know is when you are going to get a tap?
If you run a business, is the quality and reliability of the water good enough for your needs? Do you even know where your water comes from?
Different South Africans face very different water challenges as a few cases will show.
For a taste of an immediate water crisis, start in the municipality of Nkomazi between Kanyamazane, Malelane and Komatipoort. Through the cane fields south of the N4, you are in rural South Africa, with half a million people living scattered across what used to be the homeland of KaNgwane.
There is normally some water in the big rivers, the Komati, Lomati and Crocodile, because downstream Mozambique vigorously defends its rights to a share of their water. That’s just as well because if you ask anyone what their water problems are, you will be told that, too often, the pipes are dry.
Even when the water flows, it may not be safe to drink. Here the problem is not the water resource, the water in the rivers, but rather the water services, the water in the pipes. Even where there is infrastructure, its management is an impossible task in an area with too many users and not enough supply. Continue reading South Africa’s water challenges differ for different people
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 02 January 2011
Residents of the drought-stricken Karoo town of Beaufort West will start using recycled sewage water when the town’s direct water reclamation plant starts operating next week.
 Gamka Dam - the main reservoir at Beaufort West - has dried up The first plant of its type in South Africa, it has some local residents turning up their noses, but the plant became necessary to ease the plight of the town’s roughly 8 000 households hit by the water shortage.
Municipal officials say the demand for water has grown and the drought has been exacerbated by climate change.
The town’s main reservoir, the Gamka Dam, has dried up, forcing municipal officials to introduce a water management scheme.
The municipality was forced to cut supplies to households, while tankers supplied them with five litres of drinking water a day. Water tankers containing borehole water are available around the town for washing water.
A Stellenbosch-based company, Water & Wastewater Engineering, was commissioned to design, build and operate the plant to treat effluent from the town’s sewage treatment works.
Managing director Pierre Marais said water reclamation entailed taking treated effluent and purifying it to a drinkable standard.
The purified water will be pumped directly into the town’s reservoir. Continue reading Karoo direct water reclamation plant a first for South Africa
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 10 December 2010
Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
The Water and Energy Summit currently underway in KwaZulu-Natal is bringing into sharp focus the country’s water problems and possible solutions are being tabled on how to best deal with the situation.
 2010 has not been a good year for water in South Africa 2010 has not been a good year for water in South Africa, with drought posing a serious challenge in provinces, including the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa is already on the list of the 30 driest countries in the world. When poverty is added to the mix, the consequences become dire.
Acting Director General for the national Department of Water Affairs, Trevor Balzer, said water has to be at the centre of all development plans, especially South Africa’s socio-economic goals.
He said government’s current budget allocated to the Water Department is not sufficient to address the water provision backlog.
Balzer stressed the importance of municipalities effectively managing their water and energy systems, and appealed to ratepayers and civil organisations to not withhold fees from municipalities, even if they are aggrieved with service delivery.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize has challenged his province to proactively deal with the challenges of water shortages. He will request all municipalities to submit to his office their plans on water and energy resource management.
Additionally, he wants input from local, provincial and national government on these plans, with the aim of moving towards a single plan for water management. Continue reading Summit tackles SA’s water issues
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 November 2010
Farmers around the world are adopting new ways of producing food that both help cope with climate change and reduce farming’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new FAO website on ‘climate-smart’ agriculture published today.
 Rice is the 2nd largest emitter of the greenhouse gas - methane Burkina Faso’s Yatenga province is being reclaimed through the use of an improved version of traditional “planting pits” known as zaï – now lands which were once barely productive are achieving yields five times greater than before.
In northern Cameroon, traditional varieties of millet, sorghum and maize had low resistance to water scarcity and production there typically suffered in the face of lowered rainfalls and droughts. Starting in 2006, Cameroon’s national agriculture research institute developed improved varieties of these crops, and with support from FAO established farmer seed enterprises and got them into farmers’ fields, where today they are producing good yields in spite of unfavourable conditions.
In Mozambique, smallholder farmers are getting paid for sequestering carbon through the adoption of various agrofoestry practices and reducing deforestation and degradation of forest lands.
Farmers in Vietnam are being encouraged to use special “digesters” that transform farm waste into biogas used for daily cooking and lighting needs and also create nutrient-rich slurry for fertilizing fields.
And on Bohol Island, in the Philippines, improved infrastructure has helped improve water management and stabilized rice production, while rice farming techniques that use less water were introduced, stretching local supplies still further – and reducing production of greenhouse gases in the paddies.
“A shift to climate-smart agriculture helps advance several important goals: doing so will not only help shield farmers from the adverse effects of climate change and offer a way to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester atmospheric carbon, but can also improve farm yields and household incomes,” said Alexander Mueller, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources. Continue reading Farmers adopt ‘climate-smart’ agriculture
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 12 July 2010
“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” Robert Frost.
This planet is mainly a mass of water and only a small portion of it is land. Despite all that only a minute share of water in the planet (2.5%) is potable. Most of the latter is locked up as ice while only one per cent is available in lakes, rivers and underground water tables for human consumption. Human body is 65-70% water. Therefore, human health and life on this planet depend on water to a very great extent. If one understands this one could easily comprehend how important it is to keep the water balance adequate to remain healthy all through one’s life.
Water makes up more than two thirds of the weight of the human body. Human brain is made up of 95% water; blood is 62% and lungs 90%. Even as little as 2% drop in body water could trigger dehydration. This is not easily made out as thirst is a rather late symptom of dehydration. Early signs include day time fatigue, fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with mathematics, difficulty in focusing on small print and the computer screen, and muscle pains.
Water is very essential for many of the body functions just as oil and petrol are needed for a car to run. Every cell function needs water. Water serves as a lubricant, it forms the base for saliva, makes up the fluids that bathe the joint capsule, controls the body temperature, regulates metabolism and helps maintain the normal healthy bowel motion. In addition, adequate water intake is essential to keep diseases at bay. Even common cold, sore throat, and ‘flu like illnesses could be prevented to a great extent with adequate hydration to keep the mucus membranes healthy to resist the onslaught of viruses. The minor illness syndromes, mentioned above, are the ones that cause the largest sick-absenteeism in the world every day causing billions of dollars loss to the industry. Continue reading Water and Human Health
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