City of Cape Town adds Water Rhapsody to water saving tips list

“Install a multi-flush mechanism in the toilet. A multi-flush device allows the user to choose exactly how much water goes to waste when pressing the handle.”

“Collect rainwater for re-using on the garden or washing the car.”

The City of Cape Town environmental resource management department has added Water Rhapsody products to their list of water saving tips.

Water Rhapsody is dedicated to water conservation in a fight against imminent water scarcity. They are the leaders in greywater reuse and recycling systems for both garden irrigation (drip irrigation systems included) and toilet flushing.

Other products include state of the art rainwater harvesting systems, pool backwash recycling tanks as well as the Multi-Flush, a toilet flushing devise that allows the user to flush according to their production.

Wind Farm to Replace the Old Athlone Power Station

What a great idea by the City of Cape Town. This area of Cape Town is well know for being extremly windy and would lend itself very well to Wind power.

South Africa’s leading energy supplier has announced that, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town, it will be converting the old Athlone coal fired power station into a wind farm filled with eight new 1.5MW wind turbines.

Proposed Athlone wind power station

It indicated that the implosion of the old power station is a symbol of its commitment to clean energy and plans to convert all existing coal fired powered stations into renewable energy sources by 2016.

Public Relations Officer Mark Schoon explained the rationale: “Although cheap in terms of money, coal fired energy is currently the most polluting form of energy generation as well as being the heaviest user of water. Emissions from coal-fired plants have substantial impacts on both air quality and global climate change.”

Some 92,8% of South Africa’s power is derived from coal, a higher percentage than most countries, according to Engineering News. And much of South Africa’s transport fuel is also derived from coal, making the domestic economy one of the world’s most carbon heavy globally. In the last financial year, according to the publication, Eskom burnt some 122,7-million tons of coal and produced 224,7-million tons of CO2 equal to just over 50% of the country’s total CO2 emissions. This ensures that South Africa maintain its position as the 12th highest polluter in the world, just above Mexico.

Athlone coal power station

“Coal fired power plants also emit substantial amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a precursor of fine particulate and acid rain, and of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a precursor of tropospheric ozone as well as particulate, in addition to producing other pollutants such as mercury and solid waste.” Schoon remarked that all these problems could be rectified by using various forms of alternative energy sources, resulting in significant improvement in health care and environmental impacts and cost. “It is time to make a switch to clean energy”

The Athlone station was commissioned in 1962 and was operated by the City of Cape Town. There are currently thirteen coal fired power stations in South Africa, ten of which are in operation and all run by Eskom. Most are situated in Mpumalanga.

For more information and to send comments please contact the Public Relations Officer at Eskom. Tel. 08600ESKOM and SMS to 082 941 3707 and email to western@eskom.co.za

Original story: Green Times

Cape Town rainfall, a garden / landscaping nightmare

Cape Town gardeners will resort to desperate measures this summer to protect their landscaping form extinction. This is because Cape Town’s rainfall has now entered a lower that average rainfall pattern (Drought cycle).

In the grips of a drought cycle (source: DWAF)

For those of us with good memories we will still remember the concerning water restrictions Cape Town faced during the summer of 2004. This is a historic drought cycle that challenges Cape Town every 6 years. This year is certainly no exception the rule.

After the previous drought cycle The City of Cape Town dammed up its last river (Berg River) in an attempt to provide sufficient water for its residents in the years ahead. Although the general consensus among water conservationists is that this additional supply is by no means sufficient to supply Cape Town with water for the dry summer months. What makes the matter worse is that the dams around Cape Town have not filled to capacity due to the low winter rainfall.

Cape Town residents can expect an increase in water charges by at least 30% this season if not worse as water restrictions are enforced. As a means to cut back on costs household will seek alternative ways to irrigate their garden. The popular solutions to the water crisis is to find a free source of water. This includes sinking a wellpoint or irrigating with greywater. However wellpoints are well know to run dry during drought cycles as the winter rains have not recharges the ground water levels.

All you need to know: Borehole and wellpoint water

Over the past few years there has been a shift in the mentality amount garden owners about tapping into ground water for irrigation purposes. The initial attitude was one of complete abundance, almost as if the ground several metres below us is soaked in water.

Irrigating with borehole water

I call this the “sponge in a bathtub” mindset. The sponge floats with top just sticking out above the water line. Stick a straw into the sponge and you would be able to suck the water out of it.

In recent years this mindset has been shown to be fallacious as many wellpoint and borehole users have learned their lesson the costly way. Within months, for some, after sinking a bore hole their water supply has dried up. Drilling companies are no longer able to guarantee hitting water, nor are they able to guess how long the ground water will be available.

Some have stuck to the old unsustainable mentality and have decided to just drill deeper. Hoping to hit water again. The problem lies in the nature of gravity. Ground water is always drawn deeper into the earths crust. The more “straws” we stick into the sponge the faster the water level drops.

Now you may have heard the counter argument that rainwater replenishes ground water supplies. This is only partially true. Cape Town has several underground aquifers, some shallow and some deep below the surface.

The shallow aquifer (Cape Flats Aquifer) can sometime be seen above ground, during times of high rainfall, and may lie as deep as 10 metres below ground at certain locations. This ground water source is replenished when it rains every year.

Other ground water sources form part of the the Table Mountain Group Aquifer which lies much deeper. It is not uncommon for these borehole pumps to be sunk 80+ metres below. The problem with accessing this source of water lies in the extremely gradual recharge rate. This recharge rate is in terms of hundreds of years and not just one single year compared to the Cape Flats Aquifer. It is therefore not surprising that many shallower boreholes (20 to 40 metres) have dried up in recent years. Sucking water from this depth is unsustainable and costly. (Typically R1000 per meter + cost of the pump)

I would not be surprised if you you know of a friend or neighbour who’s borehole has run dry in recent years. This is often the same story we hear from clients struck by the misfortune of their wellpoint or borehole drying up. For them we provide a sustainable solution to their water problem that still allows them to enjoy the bounty of their garden. It is true that we will not be able to supply thousands of litres of water to irrigate large water thirsty gardens daily but with our systems your garden is assured of water every day as long as you are still bathing, showering and doing laundry.

The cost of a borehole could be R40,000 + with the uncertainty of not knowing whether you will hit water or if it will dry up in the next year of two (and it probably will) or you could spend between R8500 and 12K on a greywater system and be guaranteed water everyday for many years to come. (Terms and conditions: Bath, shower, wash hand, clean laundry. I need to mention that.)

What choice will you be making this season as summer threatens the existence of your garden?

Water scarcity leads to water outage in Mossel Bay

I suppose to many this might come as a shock that such a large part of the country could be faced with water outages. I have been surprised the Southern Cape area has managed to continue supplying water to their residents. That said,  it was their “rainy” season and their dams at least managed to maintain their low water levels.

The municipality of Cape Town might not be faced with a similar situation this summer but if history is anything to go by then summer 2011/2012 could slam water outages on the Mother City. One never know but it is only hind sight that is the perfect science.

I don’t have the nerve to wait till the dam levels start dropping and rainfall pattern decrease before investing in a water conservation our water augmentation system. I really like the luxury of a running tap.

This extract from The Weekend post.

MOSSEL Bay, already under the whip as the prolonged drought in the town threatens the water supply to the PetroSA gas to liquids refinery, is facing more bad news following a new calibration of the Wolwedans Dam level.

The Water Affairs Department, the dam’s owner, says the level is in fact 16.62%, and not the 18.5% initially calibrated.

Although 34mm of rain had fallen in the dam’s catchment area last week, the municipality said it had not been enough to make a significant difference.

If the dam level drops to the 10% mark or below, PetroSA will not be allowed to extract water for its refinery, which means it might have to shut down.

Based on the latest calibration, Mossel Bay has 20 days’ less water than previously thought, but this excludes the 200Ml of water below the gauge plate of the dam, which could be purified to a quality suitable for human consumption.

“This was obviously disappointing news and puts the municipality under even more pressure in an already difficult situation.

“More than 100000 people who live in the urban areas and are dependent on the municipality for their water face the risk of being without water altogether if the dams should run dry,” the town manager said.

7 Gardening Myths

Do you sometimes wonder if your green thumb is browning around the edges?

You follow conventional wisdom, but you just don’t get the results promised. You mulch this and fertilize that, yet your garden doesn’t thrive. It’s enough to make you want to hang up your hoe.

Well friend, you may be victim of garden myth.

As an avid gardener, I’ve tested many common theories of gardening, and I’ve discovered that quite a bit of that gardening wisdom isn’t so wise.

It’s easy to understand how those tried-and-true gardenisms have acquired their accepted status. The need to condense experience and information in our expanding gardening world has led to an oversimplification of complex gardening experiences.

Add to this the ever changing world of gardening and the influence of marketing that inevitably sways gardeners’ habits, and it’s no wonder we’re confused.

Here are the top 7 well 8 myths that may be keeping your garden from becoming the pride of the neighborhood.

• Reading is believing

Myth: The information found in gardening books or on a plant container’s label is the final word on this plant’s care.

Fact: Two words — micro climates. Not only is the general information on plant care applied across the entire spectrum of zones it can be grown in, lumping high veld with coastal, but it also can’t distinguish between the staggering diversity of micro climates contained within even one city.

Resolution: Talk to your local nursery professional or ask your neighbors what experiences they’ve had with a particular plant or category of plants.

• Greywater irrigation stinks

Myth: Recycled water smells and in bad for plants

Fact: Recycled household water contains low amounts of nutrients, this low dose of nutrients and absorbed into the soil daily and will allow you to fertilize less often. Greywater might never replace the need to fertilizer however.
Using greywater to irrigate your garden does not add unbecoming odours to the outdoors, easy maintenance prevents any occurrence of malodours.

Greywater naturally contain low levels of soaps that keep the bugs away. This point leads me to the next myth.

Resolution: Stop wasting clean drinking water on your plants, they thrive in the dirt. Is the water you were splashing around in the bath not good enough for your lawn? Go green and start recycling your wash water.

• A bug is a bug

Myth: Aphids are a pest you should always get rid of.

Fact: Recent thinking is improving the lowly aphid’s standing. Aphids attract beneficial predators to your garden, where they eat not only the aphids but other harmful bugs. Think of aphids as benign appetizers to draw these beneficial “hunting” insects to your garden.

Resolution: Hose off excess aphids or use a mild soap solution to wipe off an infestation, but don’t aim for an aphid-free garden.

• Indigenous, Indigenous, Indigenous

Myth: Conscientious gardeners plant only indigenous.

Fact: Gardeners frequently ask for indigenous plants, believing they must plant only indigenous plants to have a drought-resistant and responsible garden.

The list of such plants available in the trade is a short one. However, there are non-natives, called Bay friendly plants, that offer the same virtues — they are noninvasive, drought tolerant, and hardy. The list of these plants includes a much wider range of offerings.

Resolution: Grow plants that are well suited to the area you live in. Plants that would be able to thrive with minimal irrigation. Cape Town is blessed with a wide variety of local plants that are will suited to our climate.

Photo magic

Myth: Our gardens can look like the photos in garden magazines.

Fact: Umm, no. Those gardens looked great on the day the photos were shot and not for much longer. That’s OK. Gardens are in constant change, and we should embrace the inherent wildness of nature.

Nobody seems to read “Your results may vary” on the bottom of the page.

Resolution: Use the pictures as inspiration, then create your own vision. Enjoy the journey. You’ll get the occasional picture-perfect moment and then it will change and grow into a different photo op.

Stronger is better

Myth: A more potent fertilizer is a better fertilizer.

Fact: This is a particularly pernicious fallacy. Chemical fertilizers and generally any product with a percentage above 10-10-10, are bad for the environment. But they’re not great for the long term health of plants, either.

Plants may respond to the potency of the mix, blooming more quickly and fully, but in the long term, these chemicals will leave the plant depleted. It’s been compared to a sugar rush: immediate euphoria then a crash.

Resolution: Use widely available organic or nonchemical fertilizers, which also have the benefit of being slow-release formulations.

Who needs it?

Myth: I don’t need to fertilize my plants if they look healthy.

Fact: All plants need nutrients on a regular basis. Unless you’re growing vegetables, where you can add soil amendments at the beginning of each planting year, you’ll need to top dress or add fertilizer of some kind to feed your plants.

This is especially true for heavy feeders, such as fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, and potted pots that have a limited volume of soil and thus a limited amount of nutrients.

Resolution: As a general rule, fertilize your plants four times a year. An all purpose blend will be fine, though there are mixes for acid-loving plants and for citrus and fruit trees. If your plants are having trouble flowering, try a 0-10-10 blend.

Eternally yours

Myth: Plants live forever.

Fact: It’s understandable that we all get attached to plants in our garden, and even develop relationships with them. But even with our best efforts, plants have a natural limit to their life span.

Sometimes people are relieved to be informed that they’ve done nothing wrong, that a plant has just reached its natural end. Even us humans don’t live for ever.

Resolution: In a wider sense, sometimes it’s better to replace a sickly plant than keep it on life support. Remove long suffering plants, or plants that no longer fit that location’s needs, and start fresh. This replacing can even be invigorating.

Water utility workers strike ~ no more water…

There I was thinking that Cape Town and the rest of the country would be hit hard my water scarcity due to natural causes but I was wrong. With the planned water utility workers strike, a water crisis will be cause by mass demonstration and not the forces of nature. Are we really able to rely on the government to supply us with water???

The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) threatened on Friday to create a “serious water crisis”, saying their members in the water sector would go on strike on Monday.

Samwu national spokesman Tahir Sema said the employer organisation, the South African Association of Water Utilities (Saawu), has offered the unions a nine percent wage increase, while they wanted between 11 and 13.5 percent.

“We rejected the nine percent offer and will go on strike on Monday, which means that the water supply throughout the country will be affected.”

He said about 50,000 workers, from administrators to mechanics and technicians, would strike.

Sema could, however, not give an indication to what extent the industrial action would affect water supply to consumers.

“The water supply will be affected, but we can’t say to which degree. That will only be assessed once the strike starts.”

Distribution of water to municipalities would be affected.

“If water workers strike, the tap is closed.”

Sema advised the government, through Saawu, to return to the negotiating table and “negotiate a proper increase in good faith”.

“We advise them to concede to workers’ demands, which are both legitimate and reasonable.”

Sema said union members were also upset because managers had received “hefty salary hikes”, while ordinary workers have not had an increase at all in more than a year.

Saawu represents 18 water boards. It could not immediately be reached for comment.

Source Times Live

What to consider when rainwater harvesting

Over the last few months there has been a influx of new businesses selling rainwater harvesting systems. This is no surprise to me as we have been warned of the drought cycle underway. Cape Town will be forced to once again enforce water restrictions as a means to control demand. With the population growth that the City has experience throughout the previous years, the change exists that there will be water outages, not just water restriction.

Many of the new start-ups are still smoothening out the glitches and gaining practical experience with every job they start. These new start-ups might be winning the price war. You might have yourself a nice looking water tank in your garden but ask yourself:

If you have not got the following as standard items in your installations,

a)    An emergency supply of municipal water in the water tanks so that the user is guaranteed of water 24/7/365.

b)   Relief from the need for a hot water cylinder dripper.

c)    A balanced water system preventing one from receiving scalding water at one moment, and cold water the next in the shower.

d)   A means of re-inflating the pressure vessels.

e)    A very neat way of reverting to municipal water by easy to operate user friendly instructions.

f)     An override box consisting of all the operating valves to make an elaborate system simple.

g)    All the safety gear of very high quality to make sure that your precious water is not lost to a municipal shut off or municipal leak.

h)   Everything that the municipality might require and more to comply with any regulations.

i)      Back up of technical know-how.  On matter stretching form plumbing, irrigation ecology, water conservation and sustainability.

have you got the system that South Africans have been endorsing for over 16 years? You can still choose Water Rhapsody?

Cape Water Solutions is a proud partner of Water Rhapsody and a premier supplier of Nell and Jojo Tanks. Contact you dealer for you emergency water supply.

SA running dry – economy threatened

If urgent steps are not taken, South Africa will run out of water for future economic growth within the next five years.

This is among several alarming expert opinions contained in the second edition of “The Environmental Handbook: A Guide to Green Business in South Africa”, launched in Cape Town this week.

In a guest foreword to the publication, WWF SA chief executive Morne du Plessis warns that water availability is one of the “decisive factors” that will affect the country’s economic development.

“At current consumption rates, our demand will outstrip supply by 2015,” he says.

The handbook notes the effects of climate change and increasing water stress are now being felt in South Africa.

“We’re already at crux point with water, with only two percent of our supply in reserve — and, unlike the energy situation, there is no alternative to the resource we’re using,” it says.

“Many of our water resources are being polluted by industrial effluents, domestic and commercial sewage, acid mine drainage, agricultural run-off and litter.

“At current population growth and economic development rates, it is unlikely that the projected demand on water resources in South Africa will be sustainable into the future.”

Source: Times live

Of the many cities around South Africa, Cape Town will be one of the earliest victims of water scarcity. Cape Town water consumption is said to out strip its supply by as 2012, and with the area entering into its historical drought season many will be left unprepared.

Competition in water conservation

The rapid growing awareness of “green” issues around Cape Town has given rise to hopeful “experts” are entering the water conservation scene. They seem to be crawling out from the woodwork but this is not the first nor do I think this will be the last time hopeful entrepreneurs will be entering the market.

Six years ago when Capetonians were in the grips of the Cape drought cycle the same phenomena occurred.  Many new companies claiming to be experts in the field of water conservation cropped up. Very few survived beyond the initial need to conserve water in the high of the drought cycle.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Water Rhapsody is a name that popularised household water conservation (greywater and rainwater systems) with over 3000 installations to date around the Greater Cape Town area. Over the 17 years that Water Rhapsody has been serving the community we have been called in to replace many a system installed by our competition. Our systems have been installed for prominent figure (Professor Kader Asmal) and at institutions like the University of Cape Town and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

Historically Cape Town enters a drought season every six years and this years is proving to be no exception. In the height of 2004 water restriction, Water Rhapsody had a 6 week backlog of clients desperately wanting to protect their gardens from near extinction.

With summer well on its way and showing signs of water scarcity, new “experts” are crawling out the woodwork. You get to choose Water Rhapsody or the competition. You’ll be exempt from water restrictions while the industry leader, Water Rhapsody will still be there offering you support and peace of mind knowing that your system will work for many years to come.

Contact your dealer for further details and your free quote.