Greywater systems

With the increase in Universities that already have greywater systems installed, this shows that the technology is no longer only seen as an environmental/greening experiment but that the reuse of greywater is aknowledged by academia as a viable means of saving water.

Certain Univercities across South Africa have installed greywater systems so they could test the proposed saving. However, no South African University has implemented a greywater system that allows all students on their campus to educate themself, first hand, what the possible norm will be like once severe water shortages strike our country.

Click on the link to see how different universities across Amemica rank on the matter of greywater reuse.

“It seemed logical that since South Africa is a water scarce country, the issue of water consumption and conservation should be among the first to be considered,” Duvenage says. “At Avis, we wash over 2500 vehicles a day.  In 2007, in first examining our water usage at our main high volume vehicle cleaning facilities, we realised that by installing intensive water-recycling technology, we could reduce the amount of water used by over 90%, from over 200 to about 20 litres per wash. The ‘final rinse arch,’ in the car wash process required clean water, whereas recycled water could be used during the ‘pre-soak’ and ‘shampoo’ stages, which, is where most of the water is needed,”  The clean water supply during the final rinse arch keep the system topped up and supplied with fresh water.

The used “grey” water per wash is diverted into soak-pits to remove sediment, where after it is passed through a high pressure centrifugal force to remove fine particles and cleans the water to well below 4000 ppm, a very good standard for this process.

One would think that 90% recycling should be sufficient, but not so at Avis.  The next step was a plan to harvest rainwater from the rooftops of adjacent buildings to replace the municipal water supply in the final rinse arch of the car wash process.  Bulk underground reservoirs were installed to capture the rainwater run-off and a valve system was introduced to the wash bay machines to automatically shut off the municipal supply and replace it with harvested rainwater, thereby making the main Avis depots water-neutral during the rainy season.

Source: Green Times

Download the comparison chart below to identify which party is already looking after the needs of our future generations yet to come.

Comparison of South Africa’s major Political Parties’ 2011 Election
Manifestos

I wanted to know which of SA’s political parties had the best
environmental policies, so I did some investigation. While all the major
parties’ Election Manifestos concentrated on poverty alleviation, job
creation and service delivery, they were all disappointingly silent on
environmental and climate change issues. Of course, issues of poverty
and job creation are of paramount importance, but politicians are
failing to see the very strong links between the protection of our
environment and the well being of our people.

Water and air pollution impact the health of all communities and it is
the world’s poorest that are going to be the most affected by the
effects of climate change; water scarcity, sea level rise, drought, food
shortages, floods etc. A more holistic approach to poverty reduction and
development is needed, one that would take into account a transition to
a low carbon economy for SA which would not only reduce our country’s
carbon footprint but also create jobs and sustainable livelihoods.

For more detail on how all our parties fared, see the attachment.

And so when you place your cross on the ballot paper next week to shape
the future of our country, why not also make a change in your own life
to help shape the future of our planet.
————————————————–
Isaac Abboy
Geography Division
School of Environmental Sciences
Memorial Tower Building
Howard College Campus
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Durban 4041
SOUTH AFRICA

View political party environmental manifestos

The decision by Anton Bredell, Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, comes after the developer spent R250m on the project over the past eight years, having obtained all the requisite approvals right up to the final hurdle.

Lagoon Bay golf estate

Bredell had to give final approval for the subdivision and zoning of the 651ha piece of land. But he turned it down based on a combination of factors.

LagoonBay, an investment worth R5bn, would have created up to an estimated 17 000 jobs over ten years in the construction phase and 1 650 permanent jobs thereafter.

The development between the Maalgate River and Glentana would have included a five-star hotel with conference facilities, two 18-hole golf courses and 1 800 houses. The plans also included new houses on 25ha for 37 poor families living on the Hoogekraal farms and without access to electricity or water.

Bredell told Sake24 that he was totally convinced that he had made the proper decision and that he was comfortable with it.

Although he was sensitive to the issue of job-creation, he said that was not the only factor and an important consideration was always the availability of water.

He said a golf course’s average daily water consumption ranges from 1.2m to 3m litres. This amounts to 36m to 90m litres a month, which is enough
to supply 6 000 to 15 000 households with free water a month. South Africa has almost 500 golf courses. Greater George already has 12 top-class courses.

Furthermore, the development is 14km outside the heart of George, and Bredell questioned whether the municipality would be able to deliver affordable services sustainably over that distance. An additional factor is the 37 smallholdings involved, which is land that could be used to produce food, he said.

LagoonBay chief executive Dr Werner Roux said developers were being misled. They had had to go through every process, chronologically and successively, to get to the rezoning, only to be disappointed at the final hurdle.

He said the land on which the development was planned had lain fallow for the past 20 years without any economic contribution being made towards the inhabitants. And the provincial and national departments of agriculture had approved the project.

In July 2010 the George municipality had approved the subdivision and zoning of the land.

As far as the water situation was concerned, LagoonBay had reached an agreement with the municipality to pipe waste water to the premises, where it would treat it for consumption. It had also agreed to provide the municipality with 5m litres of potable water every day. Roux said the project had had the full support of the Department of Water Affairs.

He said LagoonBay would not leave the matter there, and would request the formal reasons for the minister’s decision, after which the decision would be contested in court.

Source: Fin24

Are our dams reliable? I thought that in the Western Cape they fear water scarcity because of a lack of more / bigger dams.

I suppose this statement does not pertain to the acid mine drainage area?

THERE were still problems in optimally developing and managing ground water as part of South Africa’s total water resource, the Water Research Commission said yesterday .

While legislation provided a set of regulatory tools to manage ground water, the challenge was implementation, said hydrogeological resource analyst Fanus Fourie.

Fourie was among a panel of experts who spoke on the status of the national ground water strategy initiated in 2007.

He emphasised the need for water management institutions to be structured in such a way that ground water development and management could be optimally achieved.

“The most recent scientific estimates placed ground water in South Africa in the same league as the country’s stored surface water resources. The challenge is adequate institutional functioning and support,” he said.

He also pointed at the need to manage ground water as part of the total resource.

“Ground water is a safe, clean and reliable supply and thereof addresses the national priorities,” he said.

Source: Sowetan

Municipalities are only think in terms of building bigger dams and desalination (water augmentation). This way they make more profit. If there is water scarcity then their profits skyrocket.
Municipalities have no real incentive to encourage citizens to recycling greywater, harvest rainwater, reduce toilet flush, reuse pool backwash, or minimize garden irrigation.

One thing is for sure: There are somethings money can’t buy, water security.

As experts warn that SA could run out of water by 2020, get ready for ‘electricity-style’ hikes, writes Sipho Masondo

Though the exact increases are yet to be calculated, the impending increases would be similar to the astronomical electricity tariff hikes that hit South Africa early last year.

The proposed increases follow last month’s warning that South Africa will run out of water by 2020 if nothing is done to supplement water resources.

Speaking on the eve of World Water Week (March 20-26), Water Affairs acting director-general Trevor Balzer said South Africa’s cheap water resources have been used up and that government was looking at ways to address the problem.

“We are currently undertaking a study to establish the cost of water into the future. There is no doubt that the cost of water will be more expensive.”

Balzer said the government had plans to continue delivering free water to indigent households and that the study, which will be submitted to the cabinet before the end of the year, would reveal the new tariff structures.

Richard Holden, a business analyst at water parastatal Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, said the water tariffs municipalities charge for potable water is not enough for infrastructure maintenance and replacement.

The result, he said, was that funding constraints would lead to continuous infrastructure collapse, including pipes rusting and bursting.

“The infrastructure is old and needs to be replaced, but there is no money. Water tariffs are too low. We will go the same route as Eskom [by introducing huge tariff hikes],” said Holden.

He said the number of pipe bursts would increase and if not repaired and replaced, could result in high losses that would ultimately be detrimental to consumers.

A means of curbing one-off drastic increases, said Holden, would be for municipalities to implement water conservation campaigns and introduce gradual water price increases now.

If municipalities fail to implement this system, infrastructure would collapse completely and there will be “no money to fix the problem”.

“There is a crisis brewing. It is like the acid mine drainage, like Eskom, and like the toll roads. These issues are well known but it seems like we have to have a crisis in order to deal with them,” Holden said.

The system, he said, was not sustainable as the current tariffs do not take into account the full costs of operations, depreciation, maintenance and replacement.

Currently, most municipalities charge between R3.80 and R4.70 per kilolitre of water. But Holden believes this should be increased by between R3 and R4.

SA Institute of Civil Engineering water division chairman Dr Chris Herold said most water infrastructure in South Africa is well beyond its 50-year lifespan.

“We are approaching a 10-year backlog. It’s old and getting older.”

South Africans must brace themselves for steep water tariff increases in the coming months, water experts have warned.

Department of Water Affairs spokesman Linda Page said bulk infrastructural requirements and maintenance backlogs across South Africa amount to R1.3-billion. According to a presentation made in parliament by the department in January, municipalities owe water boards a whopping R1.7-billion.

Herold said crumbling infrastructure manifests itself in the large amounts of water, which cities cannot account for.

The City of Johannesburg, he said, lost between 35% and 40% of its water last year as a result of crumbling infrastructure and general household wastage. In the 2009-2010 financial year, the City of Cape Town could not account for about 83.4million kilolitres of water.

Source: Times live

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

All three depend on an equitable share of quality water from the Okavango River, the fourth largest in Africa, running 1,600 kilometres from Angola to its inland delta in Botswana.

In other parts of the world, conflicting interests like these, against a backdrop of uncertainty due to climate change, have led several observers to predict water wars might lead to water wars. But the three countries are putting in place a cross-border plan to manage the river.

A trans-boundary diagnostic analysis of the basin led to a strategic action plan which encompasses national priorities. To this end National Action Plans (NAPs) are currently being formulated in the three countries.

“The realisation has dawned that issues in the basin are much larger than just the river that runs through it,” says Steve Johnson head of the USAID funded Southern African Regional Program (SAREP) that facilitates the NAPs.

“The topics range from trans-boundary management to biodiversity aspects, to water supply and sanitation, livelihoods, flood preparedness and HIV/AIDS,” he said.

“Livelihood strategies are critical and we have to look at diversifying economic opportunities, such as promoting tourism where realistic. It’s a challenging process, a balancing act to find equilibrium between the different needs of the three countries,” says Ebenizãrio Chonguiça, executive secretary the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) that coordinates the trans-boundary river management.

“Angola is pursuing a much needed development agenda after the war, where other countries are perhaps looking at building on the existing benefits” says USAID regional environmental program manager Steve Horn. “The challenge is to establish a constructive dialogue within a science-based decision framework.”

Of the 15 river basins in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) OKACOM is a pioneer in establishing a common understanding on sharing benefits. Rather than being a top-down institution, it evolved from informal cooperation between the countries into a commission with more authority.

“What use of the river constitutes the best return on investment?” asks Chonguiça. “Is it agriculture? Is it tourism? How do we convert the river’s capital into improving living conditions for the people?

“Feasibility studies based on the best available technology have to answer these questions. Whatever the national needs are, water supply and sanitation and ecosystem integrity have to be leading in this quest.”

There will be trade-offs in this process, says Johnson. “If a country wants to start projects that might negatively impact downstream there should be some kind of compensating mechanism.”

A unique process of community consultation underlies planning. Consultants went into villages and asked the people to tell them what the river meant for their daily lives. “It became clear that water supply and sanitation and early warning systems for floods were the most important issues for communities. Especially with the flood-prone character of the basin,” says Johnson.

The people living along the banks of the Okavango River in Angola, Namibia and Botswana are among the poorest in all three countries.

“People have been living in the river basins for millennia. But as areas become more populated the opportunity for them and their livestock to move to higher ground is limited. This leads to conflicts between humans, between livestock and humans and between livestock and the abundant wildlife in the area.”

Part of the trans-boundary decision-making process will be a dynamic decision support system that accurately supplies data on conditions of the basin at any given point in the season.

Johnson: “Good data needs to be available to correctly evaluate the resource that the river offers. This system, consisting of a number of databases, would recommend a course of action to SADC on projects that countries want to start. This of course, without duplicating efforts that are already in place.”

As an example he points to Namibian hydrologists that have secured access to NASA satellite images which they use to warn the region about impending floods.

Towards the end of March, according to Laura Namene of the Namibian Department of Water Affairs, the three countries will meet in Maun, Botswana, to harmonise the national priorities in an overall strategic plan for the basin.

“The point is to develop a common understanding of the conditions in the basin as a whole,” says Chonguiça.

There may still be cities around the country that have water in plenitude. However, this is becoming the exception. It is essential that we as a nation start practicing water saving efforts now to conserve water for the future. Either way we may still face a water crisis in the years to come but by being mindful of this problem we can do much to delay it if no new technologies are not discovered.

A paper by the South African Institute of Civil Engineering water division chairman, Dr Chris Herold, alleges that farmers steal about 175-million cubic metres of water from the Vaal, contributing to a significant reduction in the river’s yield.

“The water demands on the Vaal River have long exceeded the assured yield of the catchment. It has been publicly stated that by 2013, the water demand on the Vaal River system will outstrip the available yield,” Herold said.

“What is not commonly known is that this is based on achieving a 15% saving in water demand. To date no noticeable saving has been realised.”

This implies that we are already living with a 2% supply deficit in the Vaal system, and by 2013 we will face a 6% supply deficit, which would rise continually until 2019, when it would reach a staggering 11%, said the paper.

Compounding the problem is water lost through infrastructure leakage, which has reached crisis proportions as municipalities are consistently failing to meet water demand management targets.

“In addition to the lack of achievement of water demand management, and maintenance targets by local authorities, the collapse of water supply and sanitation infrastructure is well into crisis mode in many, if not most, rural areas,” the paper says.

“Undue vacillation on the part of municipal decision makers appears to have played a major role in the failure to achieve water demand management,” said the paper.

“Not only has this placed national water supply systems at risk for years, it is also extremely short-sighted given the large economic advantage to be gained from curtailing the water losses.”

The Department of Water Affairs imports water – albeit at a premium – from the Lesotho highlands to supplement water flowing into the Vaal and to dilute pollution.

But Garfield Krige, a water expert at African Environmental Development, said: “We are using tomorrow’s water today to clean up the mess by the mines.”

Source: Times live

He said the shortage had gone on for several months and could become life threatening, since the town was in an arid part of the country.

Jansen van Rensburg attributed the crisis to poor maintenance and planning and accused the municipality of gross mismanagement.

“The installation of pipelines and maintenance of other infrastructure was simply neglected.”

The organisation gave the municipality until 4pm on Tuesday to meet its demands to resolve the water shortage.

“If the municipality does not reinstate residents’ access to water, AfriForum will assist the community of Springbok in launching a legal action.”

The municipality could not be reached for comment.

Source: Times Live

Drought like the one Springbok is currently experiencing is expected to hit major cities, even Cape Town, towards the end of 2011 and continuing through 2012. Concerns about water scarcity in the Western Cape are practically being ignored by authorities. No few community leaders are speaking out about forthcoming water shortage.

“It is as if Cape Town has encompassed itself in a ignorant water bubble, one that might pop any second.”

In the Western Cape, higher winter temperatures are causing the quality of deciduous fruit crops to deteriorate

In the Western Cape, higher winter temperatures are causing the quality of deciduous fruit crops to deteriorate

Climate change is an inconvenient truth, as former US vice-president Al Gore put it, but one that business and government ignore at their peril.

“We’re not just talking climate change, but major risks,” says Santam’s strategy unit head, Vanessa Otto-Mentz. The risks are many, ranging from food security to extreme weather events.

Driving climate change is global warming that “continues unabated”, warns US space agency Nasa , which reports that 2010 was the world’s hottest year on record, as was the past decade.

These changes can be attributed to emissions of greenhouse gases related to human activity, says Alec Joubert, director of climate consultancy Kulima Integrated Development Solutions. He adds that the outcome will depend on how much these emissions will grow or be cut. It is widely accepted that without major cuts the global average temperature will rise by up to 6°C by 2100.

The impact of climate change is already being felt in SA, says Deon Nel, a CSIR climate specialist. In the Western Cape’s Eden district, which includes Mossel Bay, George and Knysna, there has been a 2°C rise in average winter temperatures since 1940, he says. This is causing concern, in particular among hop farmers as it is affecting the crop’s growth. Elsewhere in the Western Cape, higher winter temperatures are causing the quality of deciduous fruit crops to deteriorate, says Otto-Mentz.

Average winter rainfall is also projected to decrease in the Western Cape as cold fronts shift further south, says Joubert. Cape Town, which is nearing the limit of its surface water, is assessing underground water sources.

All of SA will see rising temperatures, but inland areas will be the worst affected, says Nel. According to CSIR studies, given moderate to high growth in greenhouse gas emissions, the coast is likely to warm by around 1°C by 2050 and 3°C by 2100. The interior temperatures are expected to climb by about 3°C by 2050 and 5°C by 2100. SA’s current average annual temperature is 16,6°C.

Nel says these rising temperatures will have many consequences, including greater reliance on underground water, which will increase energy use. Joubert says the outlook for crops is one of more failures, which could approach one in two seasons in the 2090s if climate changes are as severe as some are predicting.

Putting it bluntly, Philip Thornton of the International Livestock Research Institute told a climate conference at Oxford University in 2009: “The prognosis for agriculture in sub- Saharan Africa in a five-degree [temperature increase] world is truly appalling.”

But climate change goes way beyond agriculture. Nel says rainfall intensity is likely to increase across SA, increasing flooding and infrastructure damage risk. The temperatures of the world’s oceans are also rising, ice masses are melting fast and sea levels are rising by 3,28mm annually, according to Nasa estimates. The threat to low-lying coastal areas is clear. Less obvious is a rise in the severity of weather-related events. “The increase in [coastal] storm activity and severity is likely to be the most visible impact [of climate change] and the first to be noticed,” warns the CSIR. Among the most vulnerable areas are Cape Town’s Table Bay, Saldanha Bay, Port Elizabeth and the developed areas of KwaZulu Natal’s coast. Santam CEO Ian Kirk says insurance risk is rising in a number of coastal areas.

Despite climate change’s dire consequences, annual UN conferences aimed at lowering emissions have achieved little more than promises from governments. At this year’s conference, to be held in Durban, the vested interests of the 193 UN member countries will again be competing with the need for a more binding legal agreement based on common sense.

Source: FM

If crops become more reliant on underground water sources, these underground water sources will surely dry out even faster. Climate change also interferes with the Western Cape Rainfall pattern. These changed allow less rainwater to fill underground water sources as most of the rainwater runs into channels and rivers and pose increased flood potentials.

It is essential that water conservation practices are in place should we wish to avoids the dire consequences of water scarcity and climate change.