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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.” Continue reading Egypt stands firm on Nile rights
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 10 May 2010
A marine research company has proposed a R1.8-billion project to solve the water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay by tapping ancient water from a huge freshwater source under the seabed.
 Dramatic geologic formations are displayed in the Cape Fold Belt - the folded sedimentary sequence of rocks in the south-western corner of South Africa. In a recent presentation to the Development Bank of SA, Deep Water Research (DWR) from Cape Town said the aquifer – situated 60km off Port Elizabeth – “is larger than the Breede River Dam”. Sucked out hot from at least a kilometre beneath the floor of the sea, the supply would be “very long term and consistent”, it said.
Local experts have raised questions about the proposal, however, pinpointing the need for a comprehensive impact assessment and the need to balance the certainty of finding water in the volumes described against the funds spent searching for it. The security of the resource, the threat of seawater contamination and the geological ramifications should be taken into account, they argued.
In a presentation to the bank at its Midrand headquarters, Hugh Lloyd, a director of DWR, said there were large volumes of fresh water off the South African coast.
“A programme to explore and develop this resource on the coast, where our water resources are diminishing rapidly, has been initiated by DWR.”
The aquifers were revealed during years of oil and gas exploration, he explained. “An exploration well off Port Elizabeth intersected a potentially abundant supply of potable water.
“This resource alone has the potential to be an order of magnitude larger than the Breede River Dam. Such aquifer water resources have potential major advantages over dams as the water is not polluted, doesn’t evaporate, the supply is very long term and consistent, and it can become productive far sooner than a dam.” Continue reading Huge ancient freshwater aquifer under seabed
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 [...]
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. Continue reading Africa: a continent of chaotic urbanization
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 02 May 2010
Just five minutes of exercise a day in the great outdoors can improve mental health, according to a study released on Saturday, and policymakers should encourage more people to spend time in parks and gardens.
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