 2011-07-01 22:16 –Johannesburg –South Africa’s sewage works are a disaster waiting to happen,trade union Uasa said on Friday. “The shocking state of the country’s waste water treatment plants [are] in need of an urgent high level intervention,”Uasa spokesperson Andre Venter said in a statement. The absence of intervention is “gradually feeding the disaster which is slowly but surely creeping up on us”,he said. Venter was reacting to the latest Green Drop Report released by Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa on Thursday. The report measured the state of wastewater treatment plants in all nine provinces.
It indicated that less than half of South Africa’s 821 sewage works were treating billions of litres of effluent they receive each day to safe and acceptable standards. While it awards Green Drop status to 40 plants –up from 33 in 2009 –it warned that another 460 plants (56%) were either in “critical state”or delivering a “very poor performance”. Venter said some of the problems stemmed from a lack of human capacity and infrastructure. The current financial and managerial situation was also an issue for concern. “Citizens all over the world are not keen to pay for sewage removal.”On the positive side,Venter commended the department for “a tremendous amount of good work”that was being done. He cited an example of the department’s innovative plan to reward municipalities that effectively manage their water treatment plants. Of the 821 plants,a total of 40 –those awarded Green Drop status –were in an “excellent situation”. Seventy-eight were “good”,and 243 delivered an “average performance”. – SAPA It is indeed very worrying that our precious,scarce water resources are being so badly polluted and wasted. The thought of millions of litres of untreated sewage flowing into our river systems everyday is a sickening one. We can only hope our government stop ignoring the severe threats facing our water supply,including untreated sewage,acid mine drainage,wastage,mismanagement,ageing infrastructure and sheer scarcity. Without clean fresh water nothing and no one can survive. The least one can do as an individual is try to conserve as much water as possible,as well as augment supply during the rainy season. This can be achieved using our Water Rhapsody conservation systems including our rainwater harvesting and grey water reuse systems among others. By collecting rain water from the roof and channelling it into a water tank before re-pressurising and pumping it back into your home for all uses can make you entirely independent of municipal supply through most of the rainy season. Our grey water reuse,toilet multiflush and swimming pool backwash recycling systems conserve water year round taking pressure off municipal supply and resulting in huge savings on water bills. Check out our product demonstration link to see how our innovative systems work.  Jun 27 2011 18:13 Sapa Cape Town –There is no risk of acid mine water flooding the deep basements of high-rise buildings in the Johannesburg central business district,according to a geo-technical risk assessment study released on Monday. “The study has just been completed,and it was concluded that no risks of mine water flooding any basement structure in the CBD of Johannesburg exist,”the Mine Water Research Group,headed by Professor Frank Winde,said. The research group is based at the North West University’s campus in Potchefstroom. The study is highly critical of the acid mine drainage (AMD) report prepared last year for the government by a team of specialist scientists,and presented to an inter-ministerial committee tasked to deal with the threat of rising mine water under South Africa’s biggest city. Among the risks identified in the government report is that the rising water could lead to the “flooding of underground infrastructure…close to urban areas”. It also warns,among other things,of increased seismic activity,the threat of groundwater contamination,serious negative ecological impacts and localised flooding. The research group said it was difficult to avoid the impression that the government report was “a premature,somewhat hasty response to a largely media and interest group-driven campaign that appears to have inflated,misrepresented and exaggerated possible risks associated with the filling of the mine void”. On the flooding risk posed by the rising mine water to buildings in central Johannesburg,it finds no evidence for this. “Using the pile levels of the ABSA Tower East as the deepest of the bank buildings considered in the Johannesburg CBD,it was calculated that the maximum elevation to which the mine water table can rise in the Central Basin mine void is 90 metres below the base of these piles. “For the new admin building of Standard Bank,which according to the latest issue of ‘You Magazine’is already being flooded,the safety margin is 106 m,”it says. The risk-assessment was commissioned by the two banking groups. While the study focuses mainly on assessing the flooding risk,it also examines other aspects of acid mine drainage. Here,too,it differs in its findings from the government report. “The main findings of the Winde report differ in a number of crucial aspects from the AMD report tabled to the cabinet. “This includes newly-identified ingress sources,a slower rise of the mine water table resulting in a later date of decant (despite the unusual heavy rains in late 2010 and early 2011),a significant reduction of the expected decant volume (with possible implications for proposed treatment options) and much less severe impacts of the untreated decant water on the quality of receiving streams.”It calls for “a more sustainable,low-cost,low-energy solution”to the problem,“as opposed to the currently proposed high-cost,high-energy,pump-and-treatment-option likely to be subsidised ad infinitum by society”. The government has set aside R400m to build pumping stations and treatment works to deal with the acid mine drainage problem. The study says decanting mine water should be seen as an opportunity. “Given the shortage of water in Gauteng,the most water-stressed province in South Africa that relies heavily on water imported from Lesotho at great costs,the anticipated decant from the mine void should be seen not as a threat,but rather as an opportunity of using water which for a couple of years went unused to fill the void. “Untreated acidic mine water has been used in the past by municipal sewage works in the Central Rand to aid nitrate digestion…Given the number of sewage works in Johannesburg,and the volume of sewage to be treated,this alone could perhaps accommodate most,if not all,of the decanting water,resulting in no treatment costs,while saving clean water otherwise used for this purpose.”This was but one example of other possible uses for the water. “In this context,it appears that the AMD report to the inter-ministerial committee and the cabinet,concerning the Central Rand,lacks a thorough analysis of available data and leaves many crucial aspects superficially covered. “This includes key issues such as the volume of the expected decant,the compilation of sources of the ingressing/decanting water,water quality and relationship to rainfall,the rate of rise of the mine water table and date of decant,as well as the spectrum of associated risks,”it says.
If indeed there is a more cost effective and smarter way to reuse or get rid of Acid mine water we are all for it. However it must be noted that when it comes to our water supply we certainly can not afford to take any chances. South Africa’s and particularly Gauteng’s water supply is under constant threat from pollution,misuse,mismanagement,ageing infrastructure and sheer scarcity to name but a few on top of rising acid mine water. Water after all is everything. Water is life,there is no substitute for it,and nothing can survive without it. This is why conserving this precious resource needs to be a top priority for every single being. With Water Rhapsody conservation systems one can effectively save copious amounts of water by installing our rainwater harvesting,grey water reuse and other clever systems. We have clients with a monthly municipal water bill of less than R20 during the rainy season. Saving water is both easy and rewarding;contact us to see how you can conserve water on a daily basis in both your home and business!  2011-03-27 18:42 –Mariechen Waldner,City Press –Johannesburg –More than one third of 231 local municipalities do not have the capacity to perform their sanitation functions,a new study by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has found. The report,discussed at a United Nations water conference in Cape Town,includes a comprehensive survey of South Africa’s levels of water pollution.
It also tracks access to clean,safe water and sanitation. And it warns that South Africa is heading for disaster unless it tackles the problem of water pollution,including its failing sewage treatment systems. It found that the situation was so bad,it called for waste-water facilities that did not comply with their licences to be prosecuted.
Water quality,the report stated,was excellent in metropolitan areas,but in many rural areas and towns,drinking water quality and waste-water effluent quality were frequently below the standards set. In some areas,short-sighted planning resulted in bucket eradication schemes causing deterioration instead of improvement in the provision of sanitation. In some Free State settlements the replacement of buckets with waterborne systems left residents with no sanitation at all. The water supply was insufficient to flush toilets. In other places,large increases in sewage inflow volume led to overloading of waste-water treatment works and pollution of downstream river systems. The estimated current replacement cost of municipal water services stock,according to the report,is R169bn (R103bn for water and R66bn for sanitation). Much of this infrastructure “is not in a fit state to continue delivering high-quality and reliable water services”. The widely held belief in South Africa was that water service “backlogs” concerned those who did not have access to services in the past. Yet other needs “far surpass” these,the report said. This included the rehabilitation,replacement or provision of neglected sanitation infrastructure. The capital required to address infrastructure backlogs made up 17% of total infrastructure requirements,the report stated. By comparison,the rehabilitation or replacement of neglected infrastructure ran to “a staggering 49%”. The failure of many municipalities to deliver reliable sanitation services was mainly due to poor leadership and inadequate budgets,skills and experience. Many health problems were the direct result of the collapse of existing sanitation systems. Untreated,polluted drinking water was a major contributor to diarrhoea-related deaths and diseases,the report said. Johan Erasmus,operational manager of Mahlatsi Enterprises,a firm contracted by the department of water affairs to monitor water purification plants in Mpumalanga,warned that many of them were in a “disastrous” state. These municipalities,he said,never took seriously their duty to deliver clean water and proper sanitation to people. “They never budgeted money for this;not for maintenance and also not for new plants. In many cases we discovered that the town manager had not even purchased the chemicals needed for their water purification plants.” He added that very few of the water and/or water purification plant officials he had to deal with had the qualifications or the experience to do their jobs properly. “None of the water purification plants was up to standard because the personnel were not up to standard.” The result,he said,was “horrifying” –raw sewage running down the streets of small towns like Evander. Bethal’s water,he said,was so bad that farmers could not use it for irrigation. –City Press At this rate it seems the only way to secure clean and safe water for home use is to take matters into your own hands. Water Rhapsody’s clever rainwater harvesting system enables one to augment their own water supply during the rainy season. With the use of water tanks,pumps,pressure vessels,our rainrunners and other parts our system is designed to re-pressurise and pump the water back into your home for daily use. With the aid of some clever filtration systems you can drink the water too. This means in Gauteng where we have a good 6 odd months of rain each year you can be almost entirely independent of a municipal supply. This is a most rewarding practice and reduces municipal water bills saving money too. Our toilet multiflush system is simple but highly effective saving huge amounts of water. This system also takes pressure off sanitation works with hugely reduced sewage effluent flowing into ageing municipal infrastructure. Click on our product demonstration link to see how our rainwater harvesting system works,as well as our grey water reuse system for irrigation,grey water reuse for toilet flushing,toilet multiflush and swimming pool backwash recycling systems.  the mine shaft at Gold Reef City 2011-03-24 18:01 –Johannesburg –The acid mine water problem affects small parts of the North West,the Free State and the Northern Cape in addition to Gauteng,the province’s local government MEC said on Thursday “Gauteng is the heaviest affected province due to the mines operating from some time back…but it touches on the North West,the Free State and the Northern Cape,”Humphrey Mmemezi said at a media briefing in Boksburg. “These are mainly the provinces affected,”he said. The West Rand,near Mogale,was the worst affected area in Gauteng. Mmemezi said the problem was being tackled at local,provincial and national level. His department and the water affairs department visited the West Rand on Wednesday to “share plans”on how the problem would be handled. In a report presented to the Cabinet in February,a group of experts found that millions of litres of rapidly-rising acid mine water under Johannesburg would start flooding the lower levels of the Gold Reef City tourist mine early next year. Environmentally critical –Shortly thereafter,this acid mine drainage,as it is known,would pass through an “environmentally critical”level –with potentially devastating consequences –before starting to flow out on the surface. The report was titled Mine Water Management in the Witwatersrand Gold Fields with Special Emphasis on Acid Mine Drainage. It warned that if the water is allowed to continue to rise,it would start “decanting in low-lying areas in the vicinity of the ERPM Mine in Boksburg and possibly elsewhere across the Witwatersrand”. Before this,it would “flood the underground mine operated as a tourist attraction at Gold Reef City”. This could happen by March next year. The government has set aside millions to tackle the problem. Mmemezi said a task team was advising the inter-ministerial committee on the problem. He said there were “clear steps already”in place to tackle it. He said the situation could not be seen as a “crisis”. “Water levels are not a level where it is a threat to us,”he said. Mmemezi was briefing the media after mayors reported to him on their terms in office,which conclude in May. – SAPA It is clear that denial about the severity of the situation on the part of Government will continue until the day ‘proof’ such as the Gold Reef City mine shaft flooding with acid mine water happens. By then Gauteng will be in the throws of a crisis and it will be too late. Water is South Africa’s scarcest resource,and there are simply too many things threatening the little we have,with acid mine drainage and general pollution being on top f the list. We enable people to save significant amounts of water on a daily basis,as well as to augment supply during the rainy season. This achieved using our rainwater harvesting,grey water reuse,toilet multiflush and swimming pool backwash recycling systems. Conserving water at home is the best an individual can do to make a difference. With Water Rhapsody saving water is simple and rewarding.  a 5000L JOJO water tank with some of the components that make up our rainwater harvesting system 2011-02-21 20:29 –Cape Town –Agricultural union TAU SA is to report the SA Police Service (SAPS) to the Public Protector and the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) because of a lack of progress made with charges laid by the union. “Broken promises,insufficient or no feedback and apparent foot-dragging to protect ministers has brought TAU SA to the point where there is no other alternative than to take strong and quick action against the SA Police Service,”TAU SA deputy president and chairperson of the National Water Forum Louis Meintjes said on Monday. There had been “absolutely no tangible progress with the criminal charges laid against three Cabinet ministers in May last year in connection with their failure to take action to prevent the pollution of clean water,thus making it virtually useless for agricultural purposes”,he said in a statement. “It is a constant struggle to obtain even basic and proper feedback from the SA Police Service as to where the investigation stands at present,and what progress has been made.”On May 7 2010 charges were laid against the ministers of water affairs,mineral resources,and agriculture at the Brooklyn,Pretoria Police Station. “After much effort,a meeting was held on August 25 with Major General Taioe and Colonel Louis Bester of the SA Police Service. “It was at that time agreed that Colonel Bester would undertake to coordinate the investigation,given that the charges covered a fairly wide geographical area,”he said. Feedback from Bester was obtained only on October 7,and on October 29 he reported that the dossier had been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. TAU SA had made further requests and a meeting was finally held on December 10 between the TAU SA,the National Water Forum,SAPS and the water affairs department. It was decided,among other things,that the department would make available specific guidelines by January 10 2011. That date came and went without any progress in discussions,Meintjies said. “We received no feedback whatsoever from Colonel Bester or Ms Govender of the department of water affairs. “We made enquiries on January 14 and again on February 9,and in the latter instance,we didn’t even receive an acknowledgement of our enquiry. “We have therefore no other alternative than to take this example of untrustworthiness and indifference further.”A full report and request for further action was now being sent to the office of the Public Protector,as well as to the Independent Complaints Directorate. Meanwhile,water pollution continued unabated. “It is high time this situation be considered a matter of public urgency,and we hope that if an example is made of a person or persons responsible for this by being charged,and the strongest possible punishment meted out to this person or persons,then things might begin to happen,”he said. –SAPA We salute TAU SA for their persistence in seeking justice and more importantly change in the way our water resources are managed…or rather mis-managed. South Africa is a highly water scarce country and the way this resource is polluted and wasted without penalty is nothing less than criminal. The water situation in SA is the single biggest threat to all businesses and the well being of all citizens. No one and nothing can survive with out water and the crisis will reach a peak but too soon. It is frustrating that our government simply brushes the facts under the rug and seem to simply ignore the problem,taking no responsibility to try salvage the little we have left before it is too late. This is why every individual must start to appreciate the true value of water and make a concerted effort to save as much of it as possible on a daily basis. We here at Water Rhapsody offer simple solutions through our clever water conservation systems. Our rainwater harvesting,grey water reuse,toilet multiflush and swimming pool backwash recycling systems are so effective you can see the results with up to a 90% reduction on your municipal water bills. Not only will you save money,but you can become much more self efficient whilst saving the most precious substance on planet earth. TAU SA,again,we salute you,may your struggle end in success for the good of all South Africans! |  Against a global rainfall average of 870mm per year,South Africa receives a pitiful 450mm,making it the worlds 30th driest country. Water Rhapsody,with 15 years experience in water conservation,is number 1 in South Africa in Grey water recycling systems and Rainwater harvesting systems. Water Rhapsody a WWF Green Trust award winner can save us up to 90% of our municipal water bills |
