Cape Town's groundwater plan targets 'impossible'

[friedpiggy]

@Thor We do have the brains. The problem is that we keep electing public officials who were born without ears.

 

[Archer]

Summed up pretty well except that the water crisis is purely due to the inactivity of the DA Council which did fokal during the years that it was brewing.

All that is left now is for the Council to call in a witchdoctor to drum up some rain.

I'm curious, in which years was this brewing? Dams were overflowing for 3 or 4 consecutive years before this drought which is a 1 in every 1000 year event (and note that typically cities design for 1 in 33 year events...). Would you as a taxpayer have been happy to spend lots more money on water projects that at the time would have looked completely unnecessary? Ya, I'm sure you would've been 100% ok with it... These hindsight goggles sure are cool though

 

[Gaz{M}]

Thing is, we can't say 1 in a 1000 years anymore. Climate has changed. We can't predict what future rainfall will be like. Our models are based on historic trends which no longer apply.

That said, a city with zero backup is pretty vulnerable. The population in the WC will also continue to increase.

 

[SweetFennyAdams]

There is a plan to extract the hot water expelled from Koeberg's No 1 and 2 reactors and pump 1300 kilolitres of water directly into a desalination plant built next to it. This hot water will require significantly less electrical energy to be desalinated.

Heaven forbid if there is a reactor leak.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/ar...s-through-desalination-2017-05-29/rep_id:4136

 

[akescpt]

We've delayed for too long. We had five years more or less of kicking our heels and that's been [a] very frustrating experience."

this is why the DA must bear some responsibility for this situation. why did they undertake that study if there wasn't a concern about the water situation already? it then takes them 5 years to actually start acting on the recommendations of the study. blameless? hardly.

 

[qscwbt]

I'm curious, in which years was this brewing? Dams were overflowing for 3 or 4 consecutive years before this drought which is a 1 in every 1000 year event (and note that typically cities design for 1 in 33 year events...). Would you as a taxpayer have been happy to spend lots more money on water projects that at the time would have looked completely unnecessary? Ya, I'm sure you would've been 100% ok with it... These hindsight goggles sure are cool though

well said.

 

[air]

well said.

+1, gift of hindsight

23 46 13 10 11 3 - last weeks winning Lotto numbers (not)