Water Rhapsody shows Mossel Bay an Alternative Way

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:49:19 +0000

Werner Neuhoff is the dealer in Mossel Bay and has this answer to the plight of Mossel Bay:

The Garden Route drought is far from over, especially for towns being fed from the Wolwedans dam ( Mossel Bay ). The decision has been taken by the Mossel Bay Municipality to spend in excess of R140m to create a seawater desalination plant, to produce an additional 5 mega litres of water a day. This could have been avoided if the municipality were to encourage citizens to harvest rainwater into water tanks and to re-use greywater for garden irrigation or toilet flushing purposes.

Although none of the business has been encouraged to do so, Shell Truckport (Mosselbay) and Bay Car Spa collectively decided to reuse all greywater from their car wash. Water Rhapsody installed a greywater re-use system, which allows them to harvest all the used car wash water (passed through a filtered system) and then the water will be re-used for toilet flushing purposes.

They will no longer draw fresh municipal water to flush the toilets. By re-using the carwash greywater, they are able to save 1,000,000 litres of water a year!

Ryno Van Zyl from Bay Car Spa said: ‘The drought forced us to look at ways to reduce our water usage, but this is something we should have done a long time ago. We are very proud that we’re able to re-use the water and this is something we’ll continue to do, even when there’s more water available. Our water bill has tripled during the last few months, due to the dam levels being below 25%. We are looking forward to your new bill, as we’ll be using 50% less water than before. After seeing the system in operation, I decided to install a similar Water Rhapsody greywater re-use system at my home.’ (22 June 2010)

Drought Report for South Africa December – DWAF

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:54:11 +0000

ISSUED BY: THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AFFAIRS
DATE: 20 January 2010
DROUGHT CONDITIONS PERSIST
The Department of Water Affairs has prioritized support for parts of the
country affected by the prevailing drought conditions due to low rainfall during
last year (2009). According to statistics gathered by the Department, George in
the Eden District Municipality in the Western Cape experienced the lowest 12
consecutive months of rainfall since 1921 and is considered severely dry. The
current conditions started around the month of March 2008.
Having received an annual rainfall of 477mm in the last year which accounts for
only 63 percent of the areas Mean Annual Precipitation (the average amount of
rainfall received annually), urgent measures had to be put in place to deal with
the water shortages including the introduction of severe water restrictions,
sewage water is being re-directed to the purification plants and sea water is
being desalinated to augment supply.
In addition the water storage levels for this area are well below average and
are declining further. The Garden Route Dam: Storage is 30% which is 70%
below the median storage. The Wolwedans Dam: Storage is 37.1% which is 60%
below the median storage and also gradually declining.
Certain parts of the Eastern Cape are under severe pressure and are also
experiencing severe drought conditions; these include Uitenhage under the
Cacadu district municipality, which received a total rainfall of 360mm from
January to December 2009, accounting for only 69 % of its average annual
rainfall. Other affected areas are Grahamstown and Somerset East (Cacadu
District Municipality), Kei Mouth (OR Tambo District Municipality) and Hogsback
(Chris Hani District Municipality) as well as Phalaborwa in the Limpopo
province.
Mava Scott, spokesperson for the department says the Minister’s visit to areas
like Adelaide and Kuruman this week was part of a nationwide drive to find
creative solutions and interventions in the short to long term provision of water
to these communities. “these interventions include soliciting funds to
commission drilling for water/boreholes in the short term, recycling of sewage
water in the medium term but also very importantly the upgrading of the
existing water schemes” he said.
The delivery of water tankers to villages who experienced severe water
shortages in December in the Zeerust area by the Minister constituted one of
these measures to respond urgently to the drought conditions.
Also of critical importance was the issue of water conservation and demand
management especially in these drought stricken areas. Mr Scott added that
consumer behavior in the use of water can go a long way in addressing the
issue of water provision to the communities.
During the 2009 year most parts of the country received normal to above-normal
rainfall with the exception of the southern parts of the Western and Eastern Cape
Provinces, the western parts on the North West Province, the south-eastern parts of
the Limpopo Province and small areas over northern KZN.
The Department of Water Affairs is closely monitoring the situation. Interventions are
being implemented and finalized in other areas. Water Conservation and Demand
management initiatives have been ongoing and these will be intensified.

Water Rhapsody | Water Tanks, Rainwater Harvesting, Grey Water recycling. Green business opportunity » Garden Route

Water Rhapsody shows Mossel Bay an Alternative Way

Drought Report for South Africa December – DWAF