New water restriction tariffs hit Cape Town: what you need to know

[Slootvreter]

We shouldn't be ****ting in our drinking water anymore anyway. It's retarded. Society needs to adapt and change to use less clean water for things other than cleaning and drinking.

This is true.

 

[Zoomzoom]

We shouldn't be ****ting in our drinking water anymore anyway. It's retarded. Society needs to adapt and change to use less clean water for things other than cleaning and drinking.

The water in the dams etc is clean enough to drink, that won't change just because you think we shouldn't use that water for things other than drinking; so where are you going to get 'dirty' water from to use just for sanitation?

 

[DeathStrike]

think he means something like using filtered waste water for toilets. ie. grey water.

 

[crysis]

This video sure helps drive the point home:

https://www.facebook.com/dailymaver...URbQGUgPL2HmiXUX3C38jOolASxGf51qtgFvmjTYqUObk

 

[Gordon_R]

Arresting headline this morning in the Cape Argus: https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/no-money-for-capes-watercrisis-plans-11714550

There is no money!

This is the blunt message from both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government to questions about when their water augmentation plans will yield results to avoid “Day Zero”.

Government officials and the portfolio committees on co-operative governance and traditional affairs, water and sanitation and agriculture met yesterday to discuss the interventions made so far to avoid a shutdown of the water supply in the province.

Graham Paulse, the acting head of department for the provincial Local Government Department, said their biggest challenge was funds.

“We don’t have the funding for all the augmentation schemes, but we have to plan for it. We don’t have enough money for tankers and trucks for when the taps run dry in areas like Beaufort West or Kannaland (Ladismith),” Paulse said.

Xanthea Limberg, the mayoral committee member for water services, said her department had prioritised money but it was being held up by the National Treasury to start a third adjustment budget.

While the City is applying for loans and waiting for funds, the water crisis worsens and Day Zero, when the taps run dry, approaches.

“We have funds that we can work with from cash reserves and other money we have prioritised in our department. We already have the Green Bond, and from it R2billion is available to us. We have used some of that money on our waste-water infrastructure, which is a big part of our resilience plan. The challenge comes in that all the projects need operational funds, too,” Limberg said.

She said they had written to Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba to have a third adjustment of the City’s budget to make money available for water projects.

“We have not heard anything from the National Treasury as yet. We also have other concessionary loans (applications) at the moment,” she said.

There was a unanimous message that the government needed to prioritise more money for the drought-stricken province as the authorities struggled to keep up with costly capital projects.

Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said the government would do everything possible to avoid Day Zero.

“We will never allow a situation of a total shutdown,” Mokonyane told the joint sitting. “It is extremely important to avoid dry taps in homes and irrigation systems for the agricultural sector because of the economic and social impact not having water would have,” she said.

 

[C4Cat]

think he means something like using filtered waste water for toilets. ie. grey water.

Yes, grey water would be easiest as you could set up a system that automatically and behind the scenes fills up the toilet cistern with used bath water, shower water or dish washing / laundry water. All you need is another cistern to collect the grey water which can then feed the toilet cistern as necessary. One bath/shower alone is enough water for quite a few toilet flushes. A cistern the size of your geyser would work fine.

Ultimately, a waterless toilet would be ideal though - Buckminster Fuller patented one in 1938 as part of his dymaxion bathroom:

The waterless “Packaging Toilet” separated urine and excrement, and shrink-wrapped the latter to be picked up for composting or fuel. The fact that it was waterless was a big deal—ordinary toilets use around 2,000 gallons of drinking water, per person, per year.

https://overcupbooks.com/blogs/over...-ode-to-buckminster-fullers-dymaxion-bathroom

Because the excrement is shrink-wrapped there is no smell and it's hygienic. You have a truck that comes around and collects your toilet bin once a week and takes it to a biofuel power generating plant where it is converted into electricity. Of course this sort of idea can't work if just one person wants to do it, it requires implementation on a large scale.

 

[xrapidx]

Listened to Helen Zille on Cape Talk - just one excuse after the next. Apparently politics is more important than lives.

No money - yet they have money for various BS things, like renaming roads.

 

[mercurial]

Listened to Helen Zille on Cape Talk - just one excuse after the next. Apparently politics is more important than lives.

No money - yet they have money for various BS things, like renaming roads.

And marketing campaigns.

 

[theratman]

Listened to Helen Zille on Cape Talk - just one excuse after the next. Apparently politics is more important than lives.

No money - yet they have money for various BS things, like renaming roads.

100% the crisis isn't something new and moaning about funding after the insane rate increase is BS.

 

[xrapidx]

100% the crisis isn't something new and moaning about funding after the insane rate increase is BS.

Go look at the Blouberg beach front, millions was wasted there - and look at the state its in.

 

[schumi]

The Cape Town suburbs where water rationing is happening

Cape Town - Nine city suburbs have already experienced water outages, in addition to lowered water pressure, following the City’s commencement of its Phase 1 critical water shortages disaster plan.

The areas were Camps Bay, Parow, Constantia, Bishops Court, Wallacedene, Fairfield Estate, Capri Village, Platte- kloof and Woodstock.

Xanthea Limberg, Mayco member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services and Energy, said the City’s latest five-day pressure report reflects that at times during these five days there had been low pressure or no water reports associated with pressure reduction/rationing in areas across the city.

More at : https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/new...s-where-water-rationing-is-happening-11732183

 

[schumi]

#WaterCrisis: Thousands of jobs at risk

CApe Town - A purée factory has temporarily closed, 5 0000 agricultural jobs are at risk, millions will be lost and more businesses could soon face closure.

The Western Cape’s worst drought since 1906 is taking its toll on the province’s economy and its most vulnerable citizens.

According to a survey of members conducted by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, nearly 49% of companies have reported the drought crisis has now become a threat to their survival.

Janine Myburgh, president of the chamber, said the survey also found the crisis had caused 23% of responding firms to postpone or halt new investments in their businesses.

“It is clear that we have a major crisis on our hands and it is time to slash the red tape and take emergency measures. Unless we do so without delay we will suffer long-term damage to the economy and the reputation of the city,” Myburgh said.

More at : https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/watercrisis-thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-11737075

 

[Geoff.D]

Maybe there is method in the madness here? Artificially exploit a natural crises, to get all those foreigners to pack their bags and move back to where they came from and then quickly get a Trump Style Wall built to prevent the re-invasion after the crises is over. :twisted:

 

[Azg]

#WaterCrisis: Thousands of jobs at risk



More at : https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/watercrisis-thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-11737075

One of the main reasons for delaying the building of desalination plants (despite the fact that Cape Town was projected to suffer water shortages by 2019 even with normal rainfall) was that the water would be "too expensive". Now I wonder which is more expensive - water cuts, queuing for drinking water, company closures, job losses, ,loss of investor confidence etc vs the desalination plants.

 

[MidnightWizard]

Article from Daily Maverick

Looks pretty frightening

http://features.dailymaverick.co.za/cape-of-storms-to-come

What happens here indicates what could happen to the rest of the country

IF / HOW Cape Town handles this drought will give an idea of how a similar high level disaster elsewhere in the country will be handled ( or NOT )

 

[MidnightWizard]

VOLUMETRIC !

What you're trying to achieve is the equivalent of filling up Theewaterskloof with a catchment area that is about 100x smaller (and yes, I'm factoring in the fog and moisture collection). Not gonna happen

Any idea of the dimensions of Table Mountain -- down to a depth of about whatever the height is ?
Perhaps a clever geologist can work it out for us -- the volume and how much water could be stored

Anyway
Have a look at this video -- watch -- ALL THE MOISTURE getting blown OVER the mountain

[video=youtube;qpGi8R_Xbdo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpGi8R_Xbdo[/video]

 

[MidnightWizard]

All the fault of JvR

OK
I have worked it all out now -- the fault of JvR

[video=youtube;1hwwk3zdA1A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hwwk3zdA1A[/video]

Seem he had more sense than the current bunch -- in charge of -- the City ....

 

[Rouxenator]

Ambitious : http://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/...our-plans-to-use-zero-municipal-potable-water

 

[spiff]

A construction company already worked out what thst would take. It was something in the order of millions of truck-loads of silt and sand.

So that wasn't an option.

right so they saying it's cheaper to buy a desalination plant that relies on eskom power to secure our water for the future instead of a few million to dig an existing dam deeper to hold more water to see us through dry seasons.

 

[MrGray]

Let's be clear, the current water crisis is man-made and a result of pure mismanagement and failure of planning. It should not be necessary to live in a state of permanent water insufficiency and it certainly should not be "the new normal" to have to shower in spurts in a bucket and not flush the toilet. Israel has very little natural surface water but they have an abundance of potable water due to proper planning and implementation of technology. We should not regress to living in the caveman era and just shrug our shoulders about this "new normal". Is this really what 6000+ years of technology and civilization have come to? It is a shocking failure on the part of the politicians we trust (and pay handsomely) to maintain our civilization, and if Cape Town really does become the first major metropolis in modern history to completely run out of water due to their incompetence they should hang their heads in shame for all time, no matter how much they point their fingers at their citizens for actually using the services for which they pay rates and taxes.