Capewatersolutions » Sewerage

Sewage has hit the fan (The Green Drop Report)

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:07:14 +0000

The much awaited Green Drop Report has finally been made public. I am not astounded by the report as I suspected the countries sewage systems to be highly inadequate. The official findings of the report are shocking and raises many questions. What would it take to raise public awareness of a smelly business, one the we tend to avoid at the first smell of bad odour.

Wastewater Treatment Plant

The findings of the green Drop Report:

Of the 449 treatment plants assessed, 7% were classified as excellently managed, and 38% scored between 50% and 89% when measured against the set criteria.
Only 449 of the 852 municipalities in the country were assessed because many did not “adhere to the call” for assessment, weren’t “sufficiently confident” to be tested, or were unable to provide enough information.
45% of the plants assessed scored above 50%.
One of the plants not assessed was that of the Madibeng Municipality in North West. Raw sewage is flowing into the Hartbeesport Dam, which falls under the municipality’s jurisdiction. (The municipality’s water and sanitation head, Lerato Sabidi, said the department “knows why we could not comply”.)

Dr Mark Graham, a water scientist who has extensively tested pollution in South African rivers, said the Green Drop report and the state of the country’s sewage systems was “critical”. He said the management of sewage was “intermediately linked” to the quality of the country’s drinking water and that unless the situation was remedied, drinking water quality would ultimately be affected.

Source: Times live

South Africa would need about R23-billion to prevent the country’s wastewater treatment works from collapsing, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Thursday, at the launch of the long-awaited ‘Green Drop’ report.

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Where are the Water Affairs representitives?

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:46:24 +0000

At a recent government infestructure development media breefing, no representitives from the Department of Water Affair were present. This behaviour adds fear to the concerns of waste water treatment plants around the country.

This story from Times Live

“Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica is on a state visit [to the United Kingdom] with the president… Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone [else] in the room,” government communications official Neo Momudu told journalists at Parliament, who had posed questions on the issue.

She apologised, and said questions raised would be forwarded to the department.

The absence of anyone from water affairs comes against a background of reports that only 32 of about 980 waste water treatment plants around the country comply with regulatory requirements for the safe discharge of treated sewage water.

According to a document distributed at the briefing, an amount of R195 million was allocated for the 2009/10 and current financial years “for the upgrade and refurbishment of municipal waste water treatment works”.

One question raised was whether this was enough to solve the problem.

It has been reported that levels of E. coli bacteria – caused by the discharge of untreated sewage – have risen dramatically in recent years in many river systems around the country.

Among other things, the briefing document states: “It must be noted that South Africa is reaching the limits of its fresh water resources and therefore a concerted effort towards water conservation is needed quite urgently.”

The department has been sitting on a copy of a so-called “Green Drop” report for the past several months. The report contains an analysis of sewage treatment plants around the country.

In January this year, the Democratic Alliance speculated in a statement that the months-long delay in its release was “primarily due to its shocking content”.

Sources within the department, who declined to be named, have confirmed to Sapa there are “major problems” at sewage treatment plants around the country.

In a written response to a question earlier this year, the department said the delay in issuing the report was due to it “finalising our consultation” with affected municipalities.

“A rushed release of this report would not do anything towards solving whatever problems must have been identified,” it said at the time.

For household water saving ideas and systems click on these links for more information, grey water reuse, rainwater harvesting.

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Contact Alje van Hoorn for obligation free quotes on grey water reuse and rainwater harvesting systems.

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Methane moves to front burner

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:42:39 +0000

Methane gas may be getting more attention soon as a renewable energy source and a way to contain odor issues, which have plagued livestock farms wastewater treatment plants and land fills.

The other biofuel

Methane has been the also-ran in the biofuels race, despite a years-long record of being used in some interesting ways to save energy and reduce odor and greenhouse gases. It does not compress easily, so it cannot be retrofitted onto vehicles the way propane units can. But it does have its strengths.

It can heat farm shops during the winter and fuel gasoline generator sets to supply electricity, all while making use of bio-wastes such as manure and food garbage and reducing the odors normally associated with them.

Ounce for ounce, methane can deliver more energy than ethanol.

Basic digesters

Methane digesters use anaerobic or oxygen-free decomposition to convert manure into methane gas. Without oxygen, bacteria in the manure decompose the organic matter and produce a biogas composed of about two-thirds methane and one-third carbon dioxide.

With an endless supply of manure, sewage or decaying matter on earth, the use of methane as a green energy alternative could become a viable energy source in the near future.

For green ideas on water saving systems contact Alje van Hoorn.

Click these links for obligation free quotes on grey water reuse systems and rainwater harvesting.

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Solutions to save South African water

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:03:07 +0000

In an article that was published by The Times Live, 2010 Jan 25, Anthony Turton, vice-president of the International Water Resource Association, laid out 3 of the largest challenges facing South African water.

The three major challenges are:

Acid mine drainage. Unless precautions are taken now old gold mining voids will fill and start to decant large volumes of highly saline, extremely toxic and, in some cases, radioactive, water into our major river systems. The cost of environmental remediation is estimated to already exceed the gold reserves left in the ground
Eutrophication management. This challenge is dual sided. First our sewage systems need a upgrade, the current cost for these upgrades are estimated to be at R18-billion. Secondly, we need to lower the phosphate levels of treated sewage leaving wastewater treatment plants. Higher concentrations in phosphates give rise to the blue green algae booms and waterbody toxicities that we have experience over the past several years. (Rietvlei)
Management of endocrine disruption in our stressed aquatic ecosystems. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals include a wide range of compounds that affect [the body's] endocrine system in all creatures that live off affected water bodies.

Unfortunately most South Africans are unaware of the role they can play in the second challenge, eutrophication management of wastewater.

When it comes to finding simple solutions to the first side to this challenge of sewage system upgrades, the main issue is municipalities are already running a tight budget and are struggling to find funds, yet alone funding for a R18 billion upgrade. The role that we as South Africans can play is to limit the amount of water we send to the treatment plants. (Toilet flushing, and Grey water.) Here I refer to water demand reduction by reusing water. It is the quantity of waste water that these plants struggle to cope with, not the quality of this water mix.

The other side of this challenge involving eutrophication, the phosphate and nitrogen levels in water. Phosphates are largely found in laundry detergents, the main purpose they serve is as a water softener and do little in the cleaning process. In many municipalities the water we receive is already soft and phosphates are not needed. A solution might be to switch to a phosphate free laundry detergent. The rule of thumb is, if the box doesn’t state it is phosphate free, it will contain phosphate. A phosphate free brand that I would recommend is Eco-Soft.

For household water saving ideas and systems contact alje@capewatersolutions.co.za" target="_blank">Alje van Hoorn

For quotes on grey water reuse systems and rainwater harvesting, click here.

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Methane gas, a worse pollutant than CO2

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:13:52 +0000

Carbon dioxide has been blamed for being the lead catalyst in global warming, however the latest scientific findings are showing that methane gas is much more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. It’s been calculated as being 60% worse than carbon dioxide. And that’s just part of the trouble.

Methanogens are micro-organisms that rely on anaerobic respiration (breathing without the need for oxygen), to produce methane. They play an essential ecological role in the decay, or breaking down, of organic matter by bonding excess hydrogen molecules to carbon molecules in the absence of oxygen and then releasing them into the atmosphere in the form of methane (CH4).

Methane molecule

Methane gas comes from all sorts of sources including wetlands, rice paddies, livestock farms, wastewater treatment plants, coal mines, and garbage dumps. Where ever decay takes place there is bound some level of be methane production.

To curb the life threatening effects of global warming and a potential for massive climate change much needs to be done to minimize the detrimental effects of excessive methane levels in the atmosphere.

An effective solution for reducing the methane production of wastewater (grey water and sewage) and wastewater treatment plants, is to minimize the amount of water used for ease of transportation / flow.

To do this here are 2 simple solutions just to name a few.

Use less water when flushing toilets.
Reuse the greywater produced in the home before it is added to sewage and pumped to the wastewater treatment plants.

Read my next blog entry (2010 January 29th) on the role water plays in facilitating anaerobic respiration and methane production in wastewater.

Take action now and order your water saving system today. Contact Alje van Hoorn about greywater recycling and multi-flush toilet flush systems.

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Shocking wastewater treatment raport

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:22:13 +0000

In 2008 the South African department of water and environmental affairs launched a “Green Drop” certification program for all wastewater treatment works (WWTW) across the country. This was in an effort to improve the operations of these plants so as to minimize the impact they have on the water bodies the treated effluent get discharged into.

Currently it appears that only 32 of South Africa’s approximate 970 wastewater treatment plants comply with requirements for safe treated effluent discharge, a mere 3% compliance. This low level of compliance is leading to extreme levels of pollution in or water bodies across the country. Some of these water bodies are the same sources that feed our municipalities with drinking water.

It is our civic right to know the extent of dysfunction our municipal sewage treatment plants are being operated at and we has a right to demand the Department make public its plans to address the problems.

The table below provides a summary of just a few of the findings:

Province	% of WWTWs with non-compliant effluent quality	% of WWTWs with flows that are unknown or that exceed design capacity
Free State	99	77
Northern Cape	96	87
Eastern Cape	Approximately 89	95
Gauteng	Approximately 67	84
Limpopo	95	95
North West	100	95
Western Cape	Approximately 19	29
Mpumalanga	Approximately 90	89
KwaZulu Natal	Approximately 77	50

With the countries current infrastructure completely overwhelmed by the quantity of sewerage being pumped to the treatment plants, and the lack of funds available for upgrading these plants to handle the current load, it would only make sense that the public be asked to assist in water conservation to curb this escalating problem.

As much of South Africa’s sewage is water born, a possible solution is to minimise the fresh water being added to the wastewater from toilet flushing and greywater (bath shower, basin, and laundry). By reducing or eliminating this water, significantly less strain will be placed of our already struggling wastewater treatment plants.

For more information regarding reduced toilet flush system (Multi-flush) or grey water recycling contact Alje van Hoorn.

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Flushing E-coli into Hout Bay’s Disa River

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:10:18 +0000

The Disa river in Hout Bay is the only river left that rises in the slopes of Table mountain that has not been extensively canalized in by concrete. This is what makes the river and its wetland a viable wild life reserve. Unfortunately it is being flooded by overflowing sewerage drains pumping this wild life sanctuary full of E-Coli and sewerage discharge.

Overflowing manhole

Since 1970 45% of all fresh water eco-systems have been destroyed and now the Disa River is under threat. City health officials have urged residents and visitors, and their pets to refrain from using the body of water. This includes swimming, playing and of course drinking.

The over flowing sewerage is caused to the out dated sewerage system that is no longer able to handle the increased amounts of waste water (grey and black water) flowing though the system.

A possible solution to this dilemma would be to reduce the greywater that is passed through this system. This can safely be done by reusing Grey water (Shower, bath, hand basin, and laundry water) to flush toilets and irrigate gardens. As a secondary benefit this eco-friendly solution would also reduce a households fresh water footprint, and lower municipal water bills.

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