With water, and electricity being the most vital ‘ingredients’ in ones life, waste still stands out as a killer source.

Johannesburg landfills are filling up rapidly

The City of Joburg (CoJ) has implemented [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 Aug 2011

With water, and electricity being the most vital ‘ingredients’ in ones life, waste still stands out as a killer source.

Johannesburg landfills are filling up rapidly

The City of Joburg (CoJ) has implemented the 2040 Growth and Development Strategy outreach programme which is taking place this week. Water, waste and electricity are the key topics expected to dominate the conversations during the programme.

Conversations around these will be held through seminars and round table discussions involving everyone from residents and businesses to the government, civil society organisations, labour and academics.

“Formal and informal debates will take place with the aim of finding solutions to safeguard our precious resources for future generations,” said Gugu Mathibela of the City of Johannesburg.

An abundance of coal has kept electricity prices very low and has attracted a number of energy intensive industries. City Power and Eskom recently experienced protests related to power cuts, prepaid meters and the increase in electricity prices. These incidents give electricity first preference at the discussions.

Johannesburg’s resource intensity is also defined by the volume of waste it generates. The city is gradually running out of landfill space. Waste dumping in communities has become a serious health concern.

Mathibela said: “With regard to waste management, the City has introduced a refuse recycling project in north-western Johannesburg with the aim of reducing the volume of waste going to land fill sites. These landfills are filling up rapidly, meaning that new landfills need to be found.”

Another critical issue to be addressed is water, Mathibela said. How Johannesburg manages its water supply is of crucial importance to South Africa because Johannesburg contributes over a third of the country’s gross domestic product. She adds that, the CoJ is one of only few major cities in the world that is not located near a natural water source such as a lake, river or the sea.

Recent studies from the University of Johannesburg have proved the safety and reliability of household water. There are three strategic issues which affect water in Johannesburg; water supply, water demand and water quality. To ensure that the City conserves its water, it has implemented water demand management measures. Some of the measures to be considered for the future will be rainwater harvesting; grey water reuse and exploring alternative resources such as ground water abstraction.

“It is however important that households start using water responsibly. To enhance this message the City will commence with consumer demand management programmes which will include raising awareness around the importance of saving water,” said Mathibela.

By: Keabetsoe Matshediso
Source: IOL

The right to food, health and shelter is threatened due to global warming, International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said on Monday.

In drought prone areas it is women who have to [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 Aug 2011

The right to food, health and shelter is threatened due to global warming, International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said on Monday.

In drought prone areas it is women who have to fend for their families

“Climate change affects the economic and social rights of countless individuals. This includes their rights to food, health and shelter,” she said.

The minister was speaking at a consultative dialogue on Women and Climate Change in Limpopo. She said that as climate change will continue to affect humanity, it was key to safeguard the lives of the people that are adversely affected, which are women.

“As incoming president [of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change], I will strive to ensure the centrality of women in all global fora to advance the multilateral efforts to address climate change, which impacts in a very pernicious manner on women, especially in developing countries,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.

Women, she said, are the propellers and carriers of development.

“In flood prone regions, it is women who have to deal with the impact. In drought prone areas, it is women who have to fend for their families ensuring that the children are fed, and that the sick and the indigent are taken care of.

“What we are actually seeing in Somalia are the prolonged consequences of climate change playing themselves out in a context of a country that is torn by civil strife.”

Nkoana-Mashabane said women in the developing world were responsible for the bulk of the food production.

“Women will have to labour harder and longer to ensure their families have food, fuel, and water. It is known that in Africa, women do 90% of the work of gathering water and food, and children, in particular girls, often share these responsibilities.”

The minister said climate challenges cannot be solved without empowering and educating women.

Meaningful interventions to address climate change were now required and Africa needed to adapt in a way which was conducive to the advancement of the emancipation of its women.

“Adaptation must therefore be central to the Durban outcome, with an urgent need for immediate and adequate support for the implementation of adaptation measures and actions, including through the provision of substantial new and additional public financial resources, environmentally sound technologies and capacity building in a predictable and prompt manner,” she explained.

She also added that financing mechanisms must also be flexible enough to reflect women’s priorities and needs.

South Africa will host the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Durban in November.

Nkoana-Mashabane also stated that the participation of women in climate change initiatives must be ensured and the role of women’s groups and networks strengthened, as women are currently under-represented in the decision making process of environmental governance.

“What are the most pressing issues for Durban? Most important is the issue of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only multilaterally agreed legal regime that sets concrete emission reduction commitments to mitigate climate change for developed countries.”

Source: BuaNews

“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 [...]]]> 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.

Water borne illnesses:

Long before modern hi-tech medicine became available industrialized world had been able to contain the water related diseases through good water management. Still some epidemics do occur when the vigil is less. The developing countries have not been that successful. Diseases due to bad hygiene lead the causes of death and blight the lives of the poor. The poor pay for their poverty with their lives.

In addition, the blood sucking water salesmen in these countries take away a large chunk of their paltry income by selling them not good quality water through tankers etc. It is estimated by the WHO that around 3.4 million people, mostly children, die annually of water related diseases. All of these are preventable deaths. Even a simple disease like trachoma, the greatest cause of early blindness, which affects about 146 million people in the world today is a rarity in places where basic water supply, sanitation, and good hygiene prevail.

Study after study has shown that where a community improves its water supply, hygiene and/or sanitation the health improves. For example, diarrhoea can be reduced by 26% when basic water, hygiene and sanitation are supplied. Yet statistics tell a terrible story. Forty percent of the world’s six billion people have no acceptable means of sanitation, and more than 1 billion people draw their water from unsafe sources. Almost 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty are women. Women – especially poor women – are often trapped in a cycle of ill-health exacerbated by childbearing and hard physical labour.

“Safe water supply and adequate sanitation to protect their health are among the basic human rights. Ensuring their availability would contribute immeasurably to health and productivity for development. “Business as usual” is no longer an option. We don’t have enough time to just wait for large infrastructure investments to provide these basic services to all who need them. Several simple interventions are available, such as improving the quality of water in the home as well as improving hygiene education at the household level. Poor people can take charge of their own destinies and improve their lives by applying some of these measures. But they need to know what works and how such interventions can be exploited. People everywhere can use the World Water day on March 22nd to raise awareness of the high level of disease and misery that results from bad and inadequate water sources. People can learn that they need not be victims, but can take matters into their own hands to create good, clean water for better health,” writes Gro. Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO in her letter.

The World Health Organization says diarrhoeal diseases remain a leading cause of illness and death in the developing world. Every year, about 2.2 million people die from diarrhoea; 90% of these deaths are among children, mostly in developing countries. A significant number of deaths are due to a single type of bacteria, Shigella, which causes dysentery or bloody diarrhoea. It is readily controlled by improving hygiene, water supply and sanitation. Although no vaccine exists and antibiotics may be inaccessible to many people, an effective intervention is available. The simple act of washing hands with soap and water reduces Shigella and other types of diarrhoea by up to 35%.

Water Management To Reduce diseases:

The transmission of disease is also rife among vulnerable communities because they live in environments receptive to the breeding of insect vectors that carry parasites such as malaria, filaria and trypanosomes. Most of these need water for part of their life-cycle. 300 million people suffer from malaria and in sub-Saharan Africa alone malaria kills an estimated 1 million people per year, the large majority are children under five. Other malaria hotspots are South and South-East Asia, and parts of South America.

Rice fields may thus be flooded for weeks and become important breeding places for Culex mosquitoes which can transmit Japanese encephalitis. Outbreaks of the disease kill at least 20% of people suffering clinical symptoms – mainly children. Twenty per cent of survivors are left with permanent damage to their central nervous system. Trachoma, another common malady, can be prevented by improving sanitation, reducing the breeding sites of flies and teaching children to wash their faces with clean water. Trachoma caused by microscopic Chlamydia trachomasis remains the leading cause of preventable blindness – with an estimated 6 million people suffering loss of sight and 146 million acute cases worldwide.

Gross inequalities in the reliability and quality of water supply create a market for water vendors and encourage them to use unsafe local well and pipes in urban slums. Anaemia, arsenicosis, ascariasis, campylobacterisois, cholera, typhoid, cynobacterial poisoning, dengue, diarrhea, dysentery, flurosis, guinea-worm infestation, Japanese encephalitis, infectious hepatitis, impetigo, lead poisoning, malaria, malnutrition, tinea cruris infection, scabies, and trachoma could all be due to water scarcity and bad water.

What to do about this?
* In far flung villages, as a temporary measure, sun light could be used to sterilize water. Transparent plastic bottles could be used to fill the dirty water available there and kept horizontally in the sun on a black surface for as long as five hours. This makes the water not only potable but better than many tap waters available in the third world countries! This process is called SODIS.
* Malnutrition affects nearly 20% children in the villages and slums. This plays a major role in illness making the person more susceptible to most diseases. Although great progress has been made in various areas famine and drought make life miserable for millions especially in Africa even now. This needs serious attempt by the world community to redress. Water supply is the key to this effort. For example, 1 000 tons of water are needed to grow one ton of wheat. Solutions include more efficient use of water, recycling and sustainable use of dams and irrigation systems.
* Valerie Curtis of the London School of Tropical Medicine had shown that simple washing hands with soap and water would bring down diarrhoeal deaths by 50%. This was shown in an elegant study in India, the UK, the Netherlands, and the West Indies. Although hygiene is a common value in the world, aesthetic and social values play a greater role than health related motivation. Pesticides in drinking water are another great menace even in the developing countries due to bad agricultural practices.

* In many places, even in the West, the tap water is not of a good quality and is not potable. However, drinking mineral water is no solution. Firstly, the minerals in the water are not absorbed properly and are a waste anyway and, secondly, the water becomes very expensive. Many of them, at least in the developing countries, are not controlled for their quality adequately before being let into the market.

Daily water need for a healthy person:

Although there is no unequivocal evidence, as in many other areas of modern science, it is believed that around two litres of water, eight large glasses, is adequate for most adults. Children need proportionately more water than adults per Kg. body weight. Some others advice 30 ml of water for Kg. body weight for twenty four hours for adults. Reductionist scientists will swear that there is no study to show that one need to drink water at all! I think that is a lop sided view. In hot and humid environment this may have to be increased. Heavy sports and exertion could demand more water intake to avoid dehydration. Too much water could also be dangerous. One rough measure of adequate water intake is the colour of the urine. Clear urine or, at most, very faintly coloured urine denotes adequate hydration. Thirst and dry mouth are very late signs of dehydration. Micturating every three hours is a good sign. Most water intake should be done before mid afternoon to avoid sleep disturbance at night. Tea, coffee and cola drinks are mild diuretics and as such are not replacements for drinking water. On the contrary, they might necessitate more water intake. Adequate water intake would help keep the body weight under control in addition to avoiding constipation.

“The world is a dangerous place to live-not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
Albert Einstein.

Source: Issues and Concerns

Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled, beginning 4.568 billion years ago.

Earth rise

Results [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14 May 2010

Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled, beginning 4.568 billion years ago.

Earth rise

Results of a new study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published this week in the journal Science, indicate that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth’s original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.

“These results have significant implications for our understanding of the processes that accompanied accretion and formation of the proto-Earth, and the means by which volatile-rich materials like water were acquired,” says Stephen Harlan, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences. “Water may have been present since very early in the history of our planet.”

Compared to the solar system as a whole, Earth is depleted in volatile elements, such as hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, which likely never condensed on planets formed in the inner, hotter, part of the solar system.

Earth is also depleted in moderately volatile elements, such as silver.

“A big question in the formation of the Earth is when this depletion occurred,” says paper co-author Richard Carlson of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “That’s where silver isotopes can really help.”

Silver has two stable isotopes, one of which, silver-107 was produced in the early solar system by the rapid radioactive decay of palladium-107.

Palladium-107 is so unstable that virtually all of it decayed within the first 30 million years of the solar system’s history.

Silver and palladium differ in their chemical properties.

Silver is the more volatile of the two, whereas palladium is more likely to bond with iron.

These differences allowed the Carnegie researchers–including lead author Maria Schönbächler (a former Carnegie Institution postdoctoral scientist now at the University of Manchester), Erik Hauri, Mary Horan and Tim Mock–to use the isotopic ratios in primitive meteorites and rocks from Earth’s mantle to determine the history of Earth’s volatiles relative to the formation of its iron core.

Other evidence from hafnium and tungsten isotopes indicates that the core formed between 30 to 100 million years after the origin of the solar system.

“We found that the silver isotope ratios in mantle rocks from the Earth exactly matched those in primitive meteorites,” says Carlson.

“But these meteorites have compositions that are very volatile-rich, unlike the Earth, which is volatile-depleted.”

The silver isotopes also presented another riddle, suggesting that Earth’s core formed about five to 10 million years after the origin of the solar system, much earlier than the date from the hafnium-tungsten results.

The group concludes that these contradictory observations can be reconciled if Earth first accreted volatile-depleted material until it reached about 85 percent of its final mass, and then accreted volatile-rich material in the late stages of its formation, about 26 million years after the solar system’s origin.

The addition of volatile-rich material could have occurred in a single event, perhaps the giant collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized object thought to have ejected enough material into Earth’s orbit to form the Moon.

The results of the study support a 30-year old model of planetary growth called “heterogeneous accretion,” which proposes that the Earth’s building blocks changed in composition as the planet accreted.

Carlson adds that it would have taken just a small amount of volatile-rich material similar to primitive meteorites added during the late stages of Earth’s accretion to account for all the volatiles, including water, on Earth today.

This work was also supported by the Carnegie Institution for Science.

-NSF-

Egypt is refusing to relinquish a drop of its legal right to the lion’s share of Nile River water, despite demands from other African countries for a more equitable sharing agreement.

Source of Nile [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 May 2010

Egypt is refusing to relinquish a drop of its legal right to the lion’s share of Nile River water, despite demands from other African countries for a more equitable sharing agreement.

Source of Nile at Bujagali Falls, Jinja town, Uganda. Photo by 'kanyima'.

Following years of barren negotiations, seven upstream African countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi – are on Friday expected to push forward with a new water-sharing deal to replace an agreement that gives Egypt and Sudan majority control of the water flow.

Egypt has repeatedly cited its “historical” rights to the river, which provides the country of 80 million people with 90 percent of its water needs.

The upstream countries want to be able to implement projects, in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.

A 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan – following Sudan’s independence in 1956 – allocated 55.5billion cubic metres of the Nile to Egypt, and 18.5 billion to Sudan, a combined total of 87 percent of the Nile flow.

Egypt’s water needs are expected to exceed its supply by 2017, according to a government report last year.

“Egypt is exerting efforts with leaders of the upstream countries to persuade them to delay the agreement,” said Hani Raslan, a Nile expert with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. “The only way out of the problem is co-operation.”

Raslan said the Nile Basin Initiative – a basin countries umbrella group funded by the World Bank – had studied 22 projects including energy schemes, saving lost water, and irrigation. “Unilateral signing will abort these projects. And Egypt will object to any project that affects its share.”

Egypt says it is still hoping to negotiate. Failing that, it has threatened legal action. “If certain countries of the Nile Basin sign an agreement without consensus, Egypt will insist that all countries respect international law,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told a local newspaper.

The outcome of the next meeting could unravel the 10-year-old Nile Basin Initiative, which the World Bank credits with helping to keep the countries talking with each other on quotas.

Raslan said an agreement on May 14 that excluded Egypt and Sudan would bring an end to the initiative, a message Abul Gheit says has been delivered to the basin countries. “Egypt has been careful to affirm to the Nile Basin countries and donors that opening the door to signing the agreement means the end of negotiations and an announcement that the Nile Basin Initiative has failed,” he said.

Egypt has proposed helping manage its African partners’ water resources, and vowed to better make use of its own. But some observers say Egypt is not serious about negotiating.

- Sapa
Related article: Egypt declares Nile water an historic right

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

THE taps in Chintsa East have finally run dry and residents are now forced to rely on a limited water supply trucked in to town each day.

Plans are under way to pump water from [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 May 2010

THE taps in Chintsa East have finally run dry and residents are now forced to rely on a limited water supply trucked in to town each day.

Plans are under way to pump water from a borehole at the neighbouring Inkwenkwezi game reserve.

The level of the Chintsa dam has been at zero for a while, and over the last three weeks, Amathole District Municipality (ADM) has had to truck in water. However, last week people in Cefane River Township apparently went without water for three days. Presently, 200 kilolitres of water is being transported to the seaside town on a daily basis.

Local resident Rudi Dahlhauser said he was frustrated with ADM – the Great Kei Municipality’s water service provider – for not informing residents of their long-term plans. “We do have water at the moment, but if just one truck were to break down, plenty of people will be without water,” Dahlhauser said.

“As a small town we are dependent on the (brought in) water, but the people in Cefane River township were without any water over the weekend. “If there is no end to the water crisis … property valuations will decrease and it will have a negative effect on the town.”

When the Daily Dispatch arrived at the Chintsa dam on Wednesday, ADM area manager for the Great Kei region Chuma Mgcodo was evaluating the situation. Mgcodo assured residents that ADM was serious about improving the water supply, and was working on pumping water from a borehole at Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve.

He also confirmed that a tender had been awarded to lay pipes from the game reserve to the water treatment plant in Chintsa. Meanwhile, residents are feeling the pinch. The owner of Schafli Manor guesthouse, JJ Brown, said he felt embarrassed when he had to turn away guests on Monday because he had no water. “For the first time in eight years I had to turn guests away. I’m not even sure if I should take more bookings because there is no guarantee that I will have water.”

Brown added that while he was concerned about the future of his own business, he was equally worried about other residents in the area. “I also had to help some of the people in the township, to give them water, because they had nothing for almost three days.”

Chintsa East Ratepayers and Residents’ Association chairperson, Mike Denison said it was a frustrating situation, but acknowledged that ADM was trying to fix the problem. “We have to appreciate and take cognisance of ADM’s struggle, but this is now an emergency situation.”

- Justin Lawrence
Source: Dispatch Online

The World Economic Forum should send a warning on rapid urbanization to all levels of leadership in Africa. The undersecretary general and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Professor Anna Tibaijuka, made [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 06 May 2010

The World Economic Forum should send a warning on rapid urbanization to all levels of leadership in Africa. The undersecretary general and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Professor Anna Tibaijuka, made this suggestion yesterday.

Squatter Camp outside Cape Town

Speaking during the first opening of the Co-Chairs Press Conference at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Dar es Salaam, she said she hopes that the forum will make it clear that Africa is a continent on the move and in transition where about 70 per cent of Africans have crossed into urban areas.

“This is taking place, I am afraid, in a very rapid and chaotic manner. So Africa has to catch up with this scourge of rapid and chaotic urbanization for the continent to be secure for business and economic activities,” she cautioned.

In this demographic transition it is the women and children who are normally caught in between; the 70 per cent who have crossed into cities and towns are living in squatter settlements without access to safe water and sanitation, “indeed to call a spade a spade without dignity,” she lamented.

Prof Tibaijuka continued to say that Africa is a useful continent where over 60 per cent of the people are below 30 years old. This brings into perspective the question of providing opportunities for young people in education, skills and training.

She said the WEF coming to Dar es Salaam and East Africa generally has to explore the environment of the African continent, not only from the traditional resource perspective of Africa such as in extractive resources, but try to develop Africa for Africans.

“Sustainable development in Africa will have to pick a social perspective in order to secure the interests of the people because then and only then could we flourish,” said Prof Tibaijuka.

She warned that if Africa fails to contain the rapid urbanization, it faces a threat of perishing because it is a recipe for unrest and urban upheaval.

Presenting his thoughts and expectations for the meeting, the founder and chairman of the HCL inforsystems of India and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2010, Mr Ajai Chowdhry, said his expectations are on how all participants can collectively bring together their knowledge and experience to build the next Africa.

“India has a billion people; so does Africa. We have very similar problems; therefore we could have similar solutions which we in India can bring into Africa,” he said.

He said the first area is in helping create effective institutions and inside that create transparency and good governance. He explained that India has done a lot by technology intervention in e-governance which can easily be brought to Africa.

He said when India votes over 700 million people participate by using electronic voting machines and the results come out the following day.

He said the whole issue of mindset empowerment, which is also being discussed at the WEF by fundamentally looking at the poor, is the only way to ensure that the poor do not remain poor by providing information. In this regard only technology intervention is a sure way to achieve the desired results, he said.

He said information available at the village level in India has dramatically changed the lives of the people.

For his part, the chief executive officer of Old Mutual South Africa, Mr Kuseni Dlamini, said Africa has suffered from a historical legacy of Afro pessimism. He hoped that the meeting will have informed and concrete conversations that will enable Africa turn the corner in terms of pervasive negative perceptions that it has to go through.

He said in order for Africa to turn itself around it needs to focus on how it builds capacity to ensure that the continent has got institutions that can deliver to the needs of Africans.

“We also need to ensure that we got the right capabilities to enable Africans start and run companies that can succeed not just in Africa but also in the world stage,” said Mr Dlamini.

He said the vast amount of arable land that Africa is endowed with, if effectively and collectively utilized, the continent can be able to curb the crisis of food shortages not just for Africans but also supply food to the rest of the world.

- Ray Naluyaga
Source: The African Seer

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