“We can say that residents and visitors to the city of Johannesburg needn’t fear about the quality of water supply to city,” the utility’s laboratory support manager Russel Rimmer said.

Speaking at a briefing on the R3.1-billion program of improvements and replacements within the city’s 10,000 kilometer water mains network, he said they conduct more than the legally required number of sample tests on supplies they receive from Rand Water, and were confident that the city’s supplies were safe.

“We do over 40 tests on the samples to be 100 percent sure of the water quality,” he said.

“Sometimes we are even scared to brush our teeth and we go out [in Europe] and buy a bottle of water. So, our water is safe.”

They had recently won the “Blue Drop” award from the department of water affairs which said the city had the cleanest water nationally and ranked among the world’s best.

It is estimated that 1.1 billion people globally rely on unsafe drinking water sources and that as much as 80 percent of waste water is being discharged untreated in developing countries.

A report found that if no action was taken, projected population and economic growth would lead to global water demand that was 40 percent in excess of current supply by the year 2030. – Sapa

If you are passing by villages like Sri Kolayat, Khajuwala, Pugal or Bajju near Bikaner, security guards protecting tanks or even ponds are a common sight. These are places where water is scarce and theft rampant.

Shyam Lal, from Khajuwala, says the guards even keep animals away from quenching their thirst in the local pond. “There are 8,000 villagers and they depend on this water body. So, we have hired four security guards to protect the pond round the clock. And the pond is also drying. It hasn’t rained here properly for nearly five years.”

Guards also ensure that no family gets more than its share. Each family’s quota is decided based on the number of members in the household.

“Often, villagers take away water using pipes and electric motors. But we keep check round the clock and keep outsiders and stray animals away from the water tanks,” said a guard.

A senior police official told TOI that cases of water theft for the purpose of irrigation was higher compared to stealing of drinking water. He claimed the police are also doing their best to keep water thieves at bay but the villagers prefer to let private guards do the protecting. Even if it means pooling in hard-earned money to pay for it.

Photograph by: JORGE SILVA

Opposition MPs warned of a crisis in the state of South Africa’s water affairs, pinning the blame for it on mismanagement.

Your department has let South Africa down, and seriously so,” Democratic Alliance MP Annette Lovemore told Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.

Lovemore, speaking during debate on the water affairs budget vote in the National Assembly, called on the minister to show “vital, critical and urgent leadership to address the current shocking level of mismanagement of our water resources”.

Ground and surface water quality in South Africa was deteriorating fast, and people had died after drinking polluted water, she said.

“We are sitting on a time bomb. This is a water-scarce country with a growing population and outdated infrastructure designed to serve a small portion of citizens who live in the privileged areas.”

Holomisa said government had failed in the past 15 years to bring the infrastructure in underprivileged areas on a par with privileged areas.

• Collect grey water from your bath,sinks and laundry and use these for irrigating your garden. You can invest in professionally installed and fully automated grey water recycling system for this purpose.

• Schedule your garden irrigation by watering less frequently, but for longer periods of time – this way, the water will sink deeper into the ground, encouraging a deeper root system and stronger plants.

• Plant indigenous and water-wise plants in your garden – try avoiding planting plants that require a lot of water. Lawns are especially bad culprits, requiring up to four times more water than other plants.  Try and reduce the amount of lawn in your garden with paving and creating more flower beds.

• Make sure your irrigation system is not leaking and spraying where the water is needed and not on the road or pathways.

• Dont let your pool backwash water go to waste, you can use a Water Rhapsody Pool Backwash system to clean the water and send it straight back to your pool.

• Cut down the amount of water flushed down the toilet pan. Toilets use about 30% of the total water used in a household. An old-style single flush toilet can use up to 13 litres of water in one flush. Install a Water Rhapsody Multiflush and control exactly how much water you need to flush the pan.  This could save you a whopping 7,300 litres of water each year.  The Mulitflush device will pay for itself within a couple of weeks!

• Make a point of checking to see if there are any leaks in the toilets or taps throughout your house. You can check if your toilet is leaking by adding a few drops of food dye to your cistern – if the colour seeps into the bowl, you have a leak. A toilet leak or a dripping tap can both waste up to 30 litres of water an hour, and this adds up to 10,000 litres every year. Get them fixed – the cost you will save on water over a 12-month period will more often than not cover the plumber’s bill.

• Only use your dishwasher or washing machine when they are fully loaded.

• Don’t wash and rinse your dishes under running water – rather fill a sink with soapy water, wash them, and then rinse them in a sink of fresh water.

• Use two buckets instead of the hosepipe when washing your car, this can save up to 300 litres of water each time.

Ben Polley is convinced.

The home builder installed a grey water system last year in the Manitoba Street heritage home he and wife Jen Woodside were renovating.

“Since we’ve installed it we have required zero city water for toilet flushing,” Polley said.

“Grey water” is used water leaving sinks, bathtubs and washing machines. Such water is collected, disinfected and stored in tanks, and then used instead of clean water to flush toilets.

“Most people would agree we don’t need potable water for toilet flushing,” Galliher said, adding reusing grey water can reduce water consumption by 30 per cent, and save homeowners accordingly on their water bill.

The funding will be used to support field testing, which will be done largely by University of Guelph engineering students. Researchers will monitor water quality and survey homeowners to track their satisfaction with the systems, as well as completing cost analyses and examining potential energy savings.

The city’s goal, depending on the study results, would be to install 200 residential grey water reuse systems by 2019.

Polley said he has been “intentionally negligent” with the system at his house to simulate the worst-case scenario of not performing regular maintenance on the system, which mostly involves cleaning out the filter.

He said when the system is not maintained, effluent is simply bypassed into the regular wastewater system “so it’s sort of foolproof. The worst case is you simply don’t realize the benefit from having it.”

Polley said there are a lot of eyes on Guelph to see if the program works, and rightly so.

“This could decrease home water use by 30 per cent if they are mandated to be installed in new homes and retrofitted into existing homes,” Polley said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t all be using grey water.”

Its best-case scenario it projects a water shortfall in two decades of 2.9 billion cubic meters, rising to 3.8 billion cubic meters if moderate climate effects are taken into account and 5.4 billion cubic meters with accelerated economic growth. Currently water supply is about 15 billion cubic meters.

But it says South Africa can close the gap provided it adopts a mix of solutions, chiefly infrastructure investment in water transfer schemes.

State-owned water utility Rand Water said last month that it faced a R5bn funding shortfall between 2010 and 2015, when it would invest R8.6bn to augment infrastructure.

The report, which looked at demand and supply in China, India, Brazil and South Africa, found that under an average economic growth scenario, world water requirements would surge to 6.9 trillion cubic meters – or 40 percent more than current accessible, reliable supply.

Desalination, the removal of salt from sea water, is listed among South Africa’s most expensive options. Van Olst said many people regarded desalination as a “silver bullet” but its carbon footprint was very high and transport costs restricted its use to coastal areas.
The report calls for strong co-ordination and co-operation between water users.

Van Olst believed water would be “high up” the agenda of National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel’s commission.

Manuel earlier this month noted that while alternatives existed to generate energy, there were none for water!

Africa should resist a course of “water for profit” in favor of water “as a right”, but he cautioned: “We’re living on earth in 2009 with the same amount of water that was available in 1900, meanwhile the global population has quadrupled”.

Police and volunteer workers will give out 2,000 bottles over the next two weekends when festive parties are at their peak.

Student actors from The University of Bolton will also be pretending to be drunk to illustrate how a heavy night could end.

The moves are part of the Think Safe, Drink Safe campaign, which will launch in Bolton town centre tomorrow.

“I don’t think that anyone can complain about bottled water, which is to help remind people about responsible drinking. Those who drink responsibly are less likely to be victims of crime”  Inspector Phil Spurgeon said.

Beijing

recycling in a bid to ease water shortages in the city. By subsidizing low-income residents, officials say the price hike will not impose an excessive financial burden on ordinary people.

Authorities say Beijing is short in water resources. With an average of less than 300 cubic meters of water resources for every citizen, the city’s water resource level is far lower than the 1,000 cubic meter international standard. Over the past decade, the water supply shortage has been aggravated by 9 years of drought. Officials say the price hike has three main goals.

First, to establish and perfect a water-pricing mechanism that makes sufficient use of price leverage in the allocation of water resources.

Second, to strengthen sewage treatment capacity. The increase in the sewage disposal fee will be funneled into the treatment of wastewater. By 2012, the city should make use of 80 percent of its used water, up from 57 percent in 2008.

Third, to encourage water conservation. The higher water fee will be used to set up a fund to support and encourage resource-saving, environmental protection and improved water use efficiency.

Authorities also say that subsidies will be given to those covered by a low-income social security network amounting to 10 cubic meters per household per month. Other measures include the imposition of stricter oversight of water-supply companies to control cost, and to improve service standards for residents.

THREE GOALS OF WATER PRICE HIKE

1. Establish and perfect a water-pricing mechanism that makes sufficient use of price leverage in the allocation of water resources.

2. Strengthen sewage treatment capacity. By 2012, the city should make use of 80 percent of its used water, up from 57 percent in 2008.

3. Encourage water conservation. Set up a fund to support and encourage resource-saving, environmental protection and improved water use efficiency.