savingwater.co.za » water tank

Harvest rainwater and use it in the home

Jon — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:52:35 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 June 2011

Now that winter is here it’s a good time to install a rainwater tank and reduce your home’s reliance on Cape Town’s precious water.

5000 litre tank used to supply home with harvested rainwater

WHY RAINWATER?

A rainwater tank is a great way to make a difference to the environment and reduce your annual household water and sewerage costs.

It’s always a good time to install a rainwater tank, and now makes good sense given our winter rainfall pattern.

The average rainfall for Cape Town is approximately 600mm per annum. 10mm of rain on 100sqm of roof provides up to 1000 litres of stored water. A 100sqm roof will provide a whopping 60,000 litres a year.

Homeowners have the ability to make a great difference to the local water supply simply by installing a tank and system that will allow for the use of the stored water throughout their home and garden.

CHOOSING A TANK

Contrary to belief you don’t need a big tank to make good use of harvested rainwater for your home.

The size of the tank is calculated using the roof catchment area, type of roof, number of people in the home, etc., and the tank can be as small as 1500 litres. Harvested rainwater is drawn down constantly and replenished at each rainfall. So it makes no sense to have 10000 litres of storage capacity when the roof size and rainfall cannot fill the tanks.

Aesthetics may be an important factor when deciding on a tank. Tanks are available in a number of different colours and styles with the most common, and most cost effective, being the vertical round tank that is placed above ground.

Water Rhapsody Rain Runner. Used to harvest clean water.

Systems used to harvest rainwater no longer require that the tank is positioned close or under a downpipe, or outside the lounge window. Tanks can now be unobtrusively positioned at the bottom of the garden, out of sight, with pipe work concealed underground.

Water Rhapsody offers a vast range of rainwater tanks for domestic or commercial use, starting from 260-litre through to 27000 litre tanks, including slimline and underground tanks.

GRAND OPUS

Plumbing a rainwater tank into the house supply can be readily achieved for most established homes, but requires professional expertise.

Water Rhapsody offers their Grand Opus; a solution that ensures your home can run efficiently off an uninterrupted pressurized rainwater supply, with seamless transition to municipal water in the event of a sustained dry period.

With a Grand Opus the home would be assured of water at all times, even in the event of a water outage, for up to 2-days.

Cape Town call to conserve water

Jon — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:58:45 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 06 October 2010

Climate change is already a reality, and the lower rainfall patterns this winter are threatening crops and other livelihoods in the Western and Southern Cape and Cape Town. This is exacerbated by the increase in economic activity in the Western Cape – a positive trend in many ways – which has placed a greater demand on the city’s water resources.

The City of Cape Town is therefore calling on all residents, visitors and businesses to work together to conserve this precious and life-giving resource.

One important way in which everyone can help save water is by adhering to the City’s Water By-Law. The By-Law requires that property owners pay attention to water leaks and fit water-saving devices such as taps, showerheads and cisterns to their household plumbing installations. Other ways to save include reducing the amount of water wastage, not letting water run unnecessarily, recycling water (using washing-up water, for example, to water gardens), reducing water consumption by fitting a controlling device such as a sprayer to gardening hoses, washing vehicles (if at all) by using automatic shut off nozzles on hoses or buckets and by paying for the water that is used.

The City’s Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Strategy also offers an excellent framework for achieving increased water conservation. Among the measures proposed and implemented in this strategy are pipe/meter replacement, leak repairs, pressure management and consumer awareness.

The re-use of treated effluent (which of course undergoes additional filtration processes before distribution) for irrigation and industrial processes, is already being promoted as an alternative means of further reducing the demand on potable (drinkable) water resources. The City is investing in the expansion of its treated effluent reticulation infrastructure in order to increase availability to consumers across the city.

Similarly increased efforts are also underway to promote the use of boreholes, well points, greywater and rainwater harvesting as additional alternative water sources.

The City firmly believes in the principle of ‘practice what you preach’ and will ensure that staff, officials and operations save water at work and at home.

“If we wait until the situation is that bad, it will be too late for us to save water,” says Alderman Clive Justus, Mayco Member: Utility Services. “We need to be proactive as a City and are confident that the people of Cape Town will join us, as they have done in the past, and recognise that together we can all achieve more and at a more rapid pace.”

Source: City of Cape Town

Rainwater Harvesting: market analysis

Jon — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:44:35 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 August 2010

Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting Market in Europe and India provides an in-depth analysis of the rainwater harvesting (RWH) market in Europe and India. This research service analyses the revenues generated by the installation of rainwater harvestings systems in residential, industrial and commercial end-user segments.

Industrialisation and a growing population have given rise to a severe fresh water shortage in many countries. RWH, which involves the collection and storage of rainwater, is an affordable and sustainable solution to this problem.

Although RWH has been practiced for several years, it is only in recent years that countries have given it a serious thought with several passing legislations and offering incentives to promote the concept. A significant driver for the RWH market in India has been the state level legislations that have made RWH mandatory for all new buildings in certain states.

The key driver in Europe has been the steep water prices with several European countries topping the global water tariff list.

Majority of the states in India have passed legislations making the installation of RWH systems in all buildings mandatory. The state of Tamil Nadu was among the first to take this initiative and has witnessed considerable success.

In Europe, countries, such as Denmark and Germany have the highest water tariffs in the world. In addition to the legislations and high water tariffs, certain countries also offer incentives to promote the concept of rainwater harvesting. These initiatives have resulted in significant growth in Europe and several other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France. These are expected to help double-digit growth in the coming years.

However, it has been a challenge to create awareness about the benefits of RWH, declining the level of implementation and thereby, restraining growth in the RWH market in Europe and India. Furthermore, the RWH systems used in India are conventional in their design, involving tedious installation procedures and regular maintenance – an area of concern for the end users. [Note: Water Rhapsody’s Grand Opus is a Rainwater Harvesting System that provides an uninterrupted pressurized water supply that only requires quarterly re-pressurization – a very simple 2-minute process]

In India, water is offered to the general public at a subsidised rate by the government and the water tariffs are relatively low compared to developed nations. There is minimal interest among the general public towards rainwater harvesting as it is more economical to buy the water from the government than incur the costs of installing a RWH system.

The RWH system suppliers need to come up with a unique design that is simple to install, without much civil work and easy to clean. Apart from the government and NGOs, equipment suppliers should also play a key role in creating awareness among the public, especially amongst children, about the importance and the benefits of practicing RWH.

Source: Official Spin

SA dams: a rapidly worsening water crisis

Jon — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:04:23 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 27 June 2010

By Bill Harding, a limnologist (aquatic sciences), who has been involved with issues to do with SA dams since the ’70s

South Africans will be aware that our country is not blessed with abundant rainfall, with an average of only 450mm a year, compared with the global average of 860mm a year.

Without substantial supplies of underground water, we rely heavily on water that is stored in dams. Our reliance on stored water is rendered critical by population growth and industrial expansion. Water resources per capita of population are dwindling.

Brandvlei Dam. Pressure on many dams is increasing, with a considerable portion of their inflows made up of wastewater effluents and urban runoff.

At the same time, pressure on many dams is increasing, with a considerable portion of their inflows made up of waste-water effluents and urban runoff.

The Department of Water Affairs and Environment manages 574 dams, of which 320 are major dams, each holding more than a million cubic metres of water. From this storage, irrigation uses 62%; urban and domestic use equals 27%; and mining, industry and power generation absorb 8%. Commercial forestry utilises 3%.

Evidence suggests that the quality of about 35% of the storable volume is already severely impaired – and nearly all of this in the economic heartland of Gauteng. Water quality is in fact poorest in the areas with lowest runoff and highest contribution to GDP.

Insidious and sinister changes are appearing in some dams, completely unnoticed by routine monitoring programmes. From this it may be reasonably assumed that SA would possess a national programme for reservoir management.

In recent months there have been many reports referring to a water crisis, mentioning the extreme levels of pollution in most Gauteng dams.

It will come as a shock to learn that SA has no such programme. None of our academic institutions teaches limnology (aquatic sciences) as a career subject, and the Department of Water Affairs, custodian of our water resources, has no directorate of reservoir management that co-ordinates appropriate management of our dams.

Curiously, the National Aquatic Ecosystem Health Monitoring Programme does not mention the word “dams”. So what is the condition of South African aquatic sciences?

“South African limnology is in disarray. It is poorly funded, failing to address certain important environmental problems, lacks a cohesive sense of direction and its potential contributions to effective water-resource management are grossly underrated.”

This statement is, in several ways, almost as true now as it was back in 1989 when it was made by one of the world’s most eminent limnologists, the late Dr Bill Williams.

Williams’s report was commissioned by the then Foundation for Research and Development, a unit that existed within the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. It was compiled at the time the foundation was terminating its inland-waters ecosystem research programme, which encompassed a number of projects spanning all aspects of aquatic sciences.

The Williams report was kept secret by its initiators. The foundation considered that “it would be counterproductive to enter into open debate on the issues raised by the evaluation”, yet noted that “the future of limnology activity (is) of concern”.

As with other administrative crises, there is no time available for finger-pointing. The problems must be assessed, sleeves rolled up and the issues practically and pragmatically addressed. The logical question is, “what is the status of South African aquatic sciences now”?

South African limnology post-1989 has suffered a massive decline – especially with respect to lake (dams) science and management. This was in part underpinned by inaction on the part of the Department of Water Affairs.

The emergence of the Williams report, however, suggests that, in the absence of guidance from the scientific community, the department could reasonably assume that there was no cause for concern.

The years following 1990 saw increased direction of funding into river biology and ecology – almost to the exclusion of anything else in aquatic science. Oddly, despite the punctuation of most South African rivers by dams, there have been no calls from the river ecologist fraternity for the authorities to hasten attention thereto.

A wealth of limnological information has been generated by local authorities and water supply agencies. The bulk of this work was born of a self-preservation need to, in the absence of nationally funded support, understand and manage the nature of the water resources being treated and supplied to consumers.

Regrettably, most of this developed knowledge base remains inaccessible. South African limnologists are few and far between, effectively working in silos. Competition for funding is fierce, resulting in a reluctance to collaborate.

There is little to be gained from picking apart why the Williams report was kept secret. It was a far-sighted, unemotional and accurate analysis of limnology in South Africa. Had it been brought into the open at the time, it would have served as the road map to guide limnology into the new South Africa.

We should perhaps draw solace from the notion that it is never too late to learn. Equally so, with scarce water resources, sooner is better than later.

In the absence of a well-funded and cohesive strategic plan for South African limnology, the country will remain ill-equipped to manage its impounded water supplies.

The rapidly worsening condition of South Africa’s dams will soon catapult the problems they pose to the fore. More than ever before there is a need for fully integrated (rivers, wetlands, dams) assessment and management.

Water security risk highest in Africa

Jon — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:16 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 June 2010

African nations led by Somalia, Mauritania and Sudan have the most precarious water supplies in the world while Iceland has the best, according to a survey on Thursday that aims to alert companies to investment risks.

Somalian child drinking dirty water

The ranking, compiled by British-based risk consultancy Maplecroft, said climate change and a rising world population meant that stresses on supplies would be of increasing concern in coming decades for uses from farming to industry.

A “water security risk index” of 165 nations found African and Asian nations had the most vulnerable supplies, judged by factors including access to drinking water, per capita demand and dependence on rivers that first flow through other nations.

Somalia, where just 30 percent of the population has clean drinking water, topped the list above Mauritania, Sudan, Niger, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkmenistan and Syria.

At the other end of the scale, rain-soaked Iceland had the most secure supplies, slightly better than Norway and New Zealand.

“With climate change there is going to be a greater strain on limited water resources in many nations,” Anna Moss, author of the study, told Reuters.

Shifts in monsoon rains and melting of glaciers, for instance, could disrupt supplies with the potential to cause cross-border conflicts. Construction of hydropower dams or more irrigation, for instance, can disrupt supplies downriver.

The study said irrigation accounted for 70 percent of freshwater consumption across the globe. Industry uses another 22 percent.

It said that companies including Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Marks & Spencer, Coca-Cola or Devon Energy were among those seeking to reduce water use.

Water stress was not only a problem in poor nations. Nations such as the United States and Australia have regions that are at risk.

“Countries in Europe, such as Bulgaria, Belgium and Spain, have issues with water stress,” Moss said. Bulgaria ranked 47 on the list, Belgium 50, Spain 68, Australia 95 and the United States 104.

By: Alister Doyle
Source: Reuters Africa

Cape Town out of Water by 2012

Jon — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:49:32 +0000

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

By 2012 Cape Town will be out of water. This is not conjecture.

As early as 1995 Professor Bryan Davies, then Head of the fresh Water Research unit at UCT, predicted that Cape Town would be dry by 2013. Not bad from as far back as that.

Theewaterskloof is the biggest supply dam to Cape Town

Over the six past decades, there has been a drought cycle every six to seven years. The last time Cape Town was in a drought was 2004. I have watched this in Cape Town since 1965 when I can first remember the newspapers reporting the dam levels every day, and this has been the case to a greater or lesser extent for the past forty years.

We have always been able to augment further supply by building an additional dam, but not so anymore. There is not another single place or any more river water that can possibly be found anywhere in the Western Cape for augmenting supply. The Western Cape is simply dammed out of water. The rest of the country is in no better condition, so we cannot go looking elsewhere to steal this precious resource.

Two ways of augmenting supply to Cape Town have recently been mooted by the minister of DWA (Department of Water Affairs) Buyelwa Sonjica, viz. the desalination of sea water and pumping water out of the Table Mountain aquifer. Simply put, both of these augmentation systems are not sustainable, and should not and must not be pursued. The former is too energy hungry, and the latter means pumping fossil water from the TM aquifer. Clearly these are not options for a way of finding water for Cape Town.

What is studiously being ignored by Minister Sonjica is our ability to use less water, as well as ways to augment our own supply. Minister Sonjica will not be found encouraging citizens to harvest water; mainly because this would not mean any revenue for her department.

However for this to work, we need a few things to fall into place, which things will happen sooner than later. These are:

The inability of our city council to process sewerage. This really is the case already with Cape Town City Council only able to process 65% of the effluent running to their sewerage treatment works. The rest of the semi and untreated sewerage runs into rivers etc.
The inability of the Department of Water Affairs (the owners of the water in our dams) to meet the increasing demand for water for Cape Town from the rivers in the Western Cape.
The inability of the City Council to make our drinking water potable. In this regard, there are a burgeoning number of municipalities around South Africa who admit that they cannot clean the water in the pipelines to a drinkable standard. Among other reasons for Cape Town is the growing number of informal settlements in our catchment areas. One only has to look at Hout Bay and the condition of the Disa River – the deadly condition of this water kills every living thing in the river and estuary. The faecal coli (EC) numbers are 9 billion per 100 millilitres of water. Unacceptable standards are any number higher than 350 per 100 ml.
Realization by Cape Town City that there is simply not enough money budgeted in the near and distant future for sewage treatment. We need 6 billion Rand right now to upgrade existing and build new sewage treatment works. There is not more than 300 million (5% of the need) budgeted over the long term budget for the City to use for this purpose.
Similarly realization that based on simple arithmetic how much water we will need by 2012.
Drought. There is conclusive evidence that the Western Cape is being adversely affected by global warming. The effect of this can be seen clearly today. Until thirty years ago the character of winter was that it rained for weeks at a time, cleared up for a day or two, and rained for more weeks. The rain patterns now see us getting one, two or three days of rain followed by a week or two of warm sunshine. This means that every time it rains, the first ten or even twenty millimetres of rain are needed just to saturate the soil before any run off occurs. The total number of millimetres of rain may very well be the same but the way it falls makes an enormous difference. We simply get less run off these days.

What are we able to do about it?

We can augment our own supply. We should harvest rainwater for using during the rainy season.

The system for this is the Water Rhapsody Grand Opus, which starts with the Water Rhapsody Rain Runner to harvest water from the whole of a roof. The harvested rainwater is delivered by an unobtrusive underground pipeline around the building, called a ring main, to water tanks (of which there are a large number of different sizes available). Each Rain Runner from each downpipe tees into the ring main.

Rainwater tanks fill very quickly, but an overflowing rainwater tank is not very romantic, so Water Rhapsody plan cleverly to balance the inflow, volume stored and the amount required in the household.

Stored rainwater is then pumped to the whole household. In practice, the stored rainwater is able to sustain the number of people in an average home / business without any municipal feed for an entire rainfall season, and of course in Cape Town, this is in the winter season.

Capetonians use on average 240 litres per person per day, but by using the WWF award winning Water Rhapsody Systems of Conservation you get to use less water without changing your lifestyle. You will with these systems effectively reduce your daily water use from 240 litres to – at worst 120 litres per day. If you do this, stored rainwater will go much further, getting most householders to be completely “off the grid”. This is certainly true for the rain season, and most of the dry season too. Getting “off the grid” is something we all aspire to, and if we can use all the systems as made and installed by Water Rhapsody, one gets as close to this magic point as is possible.

What we would have done in effect for DWEA and the Municipality without them appreciating us one bit, is to increase the stored water in the dams by a volume of water that is difficult to imagine. It is not just the stored water in one single filling that increases the volume in total, but the yield (which is the number of times the water tanks may be filled and drawn down), and then of course filled again. Should everyone through their own initiative install such a system to harvest, store, and use rainwater, this will make a total annual difference of more than 200 million kilolitres.

This is an amount that I am unable to imagine so for yours and my benefit I have created some analogies:

The volume of the total yield from all the water tanks (total number of times they are filled and drawn down) is the equivalent of more water than the total volume of the second biggest supply dam to Cape Town. The biggest supply dam to Cape Town is Theewaterskloof near Villiersdorp which holds when full 480 million kilolitres, but not all that water is available for us to use.

Another analogy (bearing in mind the fact that the average use of water in Cape Town per household is 28 kilolitres per month), is saving a kilolitre or tonne of water per household per day. Put this water into road water tankers and park them nose to tail, and these trucks would stretch from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Over a whole season, these tankers would stretch around the world (at the equator nose to tail) ten times!

Yet another analogy is to imagine an Olympic sized swimming pool full of water. The amount of water saved would fill 1350 of these pools per day.

Emergency supply. Yet another of the advantages of having rainwater tanks is that you create an emergency supply against future water outages. Water outages are the very next way that our municipality will use to get us to use less water. By having Water Rhapsody to install water tanks to harvest rainwater, for your benefit they will install an emergency supply fed from the municipality, which guarantees the householder of a continuous supply in spite of outages.

Water Rhapsody will provide something for all seasons.

Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor

Rainwater Tanks better option than Berg River Dam

Jon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:16:42 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14June 2010

Berg River Dam

Distributing free rainwater tanks to the city’s wealthier residents in Cape Town would have made more sense than building the Berg River Dam, according to a new study.

The study, commissioned by the city’s Department of Economic Development, recommends that the city subsidises water tanks and solar-powered geysers for low-income households.

Titled “Economic imperatives of environmental sustainability”, it was compiled by an intern, masters student Ross Harvey.

The report says: “It would have been less expensive for the City of Cape Town to provide rainwater tanks for its most-affluent residents (who are by far the biggest consumers of fresh water) than to build the Berg River Dam.

“Given that the Berg River Dam project will provide only temporary relief from Cape Town’s water-supply shortage, this option should still be carefully considered.”

Solar power ’should be mandatory’

Tanks will relieve pressure on the municipality to provide water in the face of increasing demand, says the study.

They could be used as part of an advanced system of water efficiency, using grey water for gardens and toilets.

The Berg River Dam, completed last year, is the biggest component of the R1.5bn Berg water project near Franschhoek, and can hold 130 million cubic metres of water.

The project, a partnership between the Department of Water Affairs, the city and the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, was designed to increase Cape Town’s water supply by just under a fifth.

The study recommends that all renovated and new buildings in the city be fitted with energy-efficient lighting, solar water heaters and rainwater tanks.

“This should be built into policy governing residential and commercial building applications.”

The city’s mayoral committee member for economic development, Simon Grindrod, said a city energy committee, to be established on Thursday, was expected to investigate this recommendation.

He said the national government should urgently pass legislation which would make compulsory the installation of solar-powered geysers in every new development.

Water security flagged as South Africa’s next crisis

Jon — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:44:11 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 June 2010

Trade union the United Association of South Africa (UASA) says that, while government seems to realise the enormity and the seriousness of the country’s water security crisis, the biggest stumbling block remains its apparent resistance to any suggestions from outsiders.

The union is concerned that, similar to State-owned power utility Eskom’s debacle, government will persist in stonewalling any suggestions by outsiders until South Africa’s water resources have been damaged beyond repair.

“UASA demands that role-players, like government and the Chamber of Mines, work together to fund and implement a sustainable solution to the country’s water crisis and stop playing around with the lives and health of people and the environment. We demand accountability from them,” UASA spokesperson André Venter told the UASA Water Security seminar, held in Johannesburg, last month.

The trade union intends approaching the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, with some preliminary proposals in an effort to bring South Africa’s water crisis to an end.

The aim of the seminar was to gain an under- standing of the water crisis and to identify opportunities to provide assistance to government to rectify the situation.

“It is equally important that we communicate this knowledge and understanding of our water security situation in the hope that South Africans will change their ways and adopt zero tolerance towards those wasting or contaminating our water resources,” said Venter.

He added that the union wanted to use the opportunity to be practical, to act and not just talk, since South Africa’s much-publicised water crisis was twofold.

On the one hand, the country’s wastewater treatment plants were in a shocking state. On the other, there was the ongoing acid mine drainage crisis, which was causing irreparable damage to the environment, and immediate and decisive action was needed to rectify both situations.

“The crisis is not to be taken lightly, as water is a scarce and finite resource that must be protected [at all costs]. This is not a time to point fingers. Instead, UASA is taking a firm public stand on the water crisis and, as a first step, took the initiative of hosting the seminar,” concluded Venter.

- Dennis Ndaba
Source: Engineering News

Water crisis time for Port Alfred

Jon — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:06:20 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 03 June 2010

The Ndlambe Municipality has intervened to stave off an impending water disaster in Port Alfred by drastically reducing the pressure in supply pipes.

Port Alfred has less than 3-weeks potable water left.

The decision was taken at a crisis meeting of the Ndlambe council yesterday morning, guided by municipal experts who have warned there is less than a month of drinking water left for the Sunshine Coast town, at the present rate of consumption.

It was implemented immediately, starting at midday, Ndlambe communications manager Khulukile Mbolekwa said yesterday.

At the same time, a team was last night set to work through the night compiling a business plan to present to the government to support a plea for urgent funding for a new desalination plant.

The de-pressurisation measure has been implemented equally, across poor and affluent areas, in Port Alfred and adjoining Nelson Mandela Township, Mbolekwa said. “However the town is an uneven area, with valleys and hills, and it is possible residents in the high-lying areas will be more challenged for supply. They will get water, but supply will be more challenged.”

Port Alfred has only about seven days of drinking water left from its main source, the Sarel Hayward Dam, situated in the catchment above Bathurst.

“Besides this there is a holding dam that is still full, and it will give us the extra days for the total estimate of 15-20 days, perhaps at outside a month,” he said.

“If it does not rain, even with the present restrictions in place – after that we will have no water left. That is why we had to act.”

The initial crisis plan for Port Alfred was to cut water completely through certain periods of the day but the authority realised this would be a mistake.

“Port Alfred’s main underground water supply pipe is very old and if the valves were closed completely, and then opened again, there is a chance the pipe would have broken,” he said. “If that happened we would have had a lot of water going to waste and time spent fixing it again.”

The hope is that the de-pressure strategy will give Ndlambe enough time to build a desalination plant in Port Alfred, he said.

There is already one such plant which serves the other Ndlambe hamlets of Kenton and Bushmans, while Alexandria, Boknes and Cannon Rocks have a back-up supply from a spring in the local dunes.

Bathurst is being served by borehole water but its dams are completely dry and it is in an even worse crisis than Port Alfred. So the plan is that the new desalinator will serve Port Alfred and Bathurst.

“The issue was discussed in a crisis meeting in council this morning. A team has been appointed and given four weeks to come up with something concrete in terms of a desalination plan including possible contractors, costs and the time it will take to get it up and working.”

Asked if Ndlambe could carry the heavy financial and energy cost of a second desalination plant, Mbolokwe admitted that the local authority did not have the money.

“But we are in crisis and we took the decision to go all-out for this thing while applying at the same time to Cacadu (district municipality) and national government for them to recognise this as a crisis situation. National government has asked us to submit a business plan and we are doing this immediately.”

He said Ndlambe had not yet formulated a specific strategy as to how it would solve the onerous electricity demands of a desalinator but this detail would be specified in contractor submissions. “Water is a right, and we have to serve our customers. We understand the costs but we need to solve this problem.”

- Guy Rogers
Weekend Post

Cape Town water and sanitation tariff 2010 to 2011

Jon — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:37:20 +0000

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 02 June 2010

Irrigation water is billed again as sanitation at 70% of water consumption

[click here to see tariff for 2011 - 2012]

The City of Cape Town water and sanitation tariff was approved by Council on 25 May 2010.

As with previous years, the domestic single residential sanitation tariff remains linked to the water tariff at a rate of 70% of water consumption (70% of 50kl = 35kl). This means that notwithstanding the volume of water that is used for garden irrigation, viz. water that is not sent to sewerage treatment, a charge is levied based on 70% of water consumption. (See notes below for domestic cluster** and industrial* / commercial* sanitation rates).

Domestic Tariff (single residential)

Water Tariff

From	To	Rand per kl	Incl VAT
> 0.0	6.0	R 0.00	R 0.00
> 6.0	10.5	R 3.99	R 4.55
> 10.5	20.0	R 8.51	R 9.70
> 20.0	35.0	R 12.61	R 14.38
> 35.0	50.0	R 15.58	R 17.76
> 50.0		R 20.55	R 23.43

Sanitation Tariff (at 70% of water consumption)

From	To	Rand per kl	Incl VAT
> 0.00	4.20	R 0.00	R 0.00
> 4.20	7.35	R 4.67	R 5.32
> 7.35	14.00	R 9.94	R11.33
> 14.00	24.50	R10.87	R12.39
> 24.50	35.00	R11.41	R13.01

Other Tariff (excl Vat)

	Water	Sanitation
Commercial	R9.18	R7.05*
Industrial	R9.18	R7.05*
Schools	R8.11	R7.05*
Flats / Cluster	R8.62***	R9.65**

Notes:

*** Water: Includes bulk metered flats, cluster developments (single and sectional title). A 6kl allowance per unit per month upon submission of an affidavit stating the number of units.
** Sanitation – domestic cluster: Tariff at 90% of water consumption. A 4.20kl allowance per unit per month upon submission of an affidavit stating the number of units.
* Sanitation – industrial, commercial and schools: Tariff at 95% of water consumption.