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SA works on water security

Publish date: 18 July 2017
Issue Number: 516
Diary: Legalbrief Environmental
Category: Corruption

As SA continues to feel the effects of a severe drought, the government is doubling down on efforts to ensure water security, including hosting conferences, building international partnerships and research initiatives and courting the private sector, writes Legalbrief. SA has committed to work with all international agencies and governments to ensure water security. According to a report on the SA News site, the commitment was made during the opening of the 6th International Hydrology Programme (IHP) Africa National Committees Meeting in Port Elizabeth last week. Acknowledging the role hydrologists play in the water sector, Water and Sanitation deputy DG: Planning and Information, Deborah Mochotlhi, said: ‘The African continent and the world at large is battling with drought effects, particularly developing countries. Climate change challenges need increased joint efforts by everyone, governments, international organisations, business, water sector stakeholders and the general public to work together to find ways to manage this problem.’ The IHP was established in 1975 as the single intergovernmental cooperative programme devoted to the scientific study of freshwater and to formulating strategies and policy for sustainable management of water resources globally. The head of science at UNESCO’s Southern Africa regional office, Dr Peggy Oti-Boateng, said SA had done well in addressing water issues. According to a report in The Herald, she said: ‘SA is identified as a champion in driving water-related programmes through the IHP.’

Full SA News report

Full report in The Herald (subscription needed)

Still with water security: Dam levels remain critically low in the Western Cape‚ in spite of the recent rains in the province‚ said Cape Town mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg. According to a BusinessLIVE report, residents are urged to continue using water sparingly as dam levels currently stand at 25.4% with the last 10% not safe for consumption. Limberg said that dam levels were very low for this time of year. With the implementation of level 4B water restrictions in July‚ the City of Cape Town aims to bring down collective water use to 500m litres a day and 87l/person a day. Currently the collective water use stands at 619m litres a day. ‘Our plans of potentially partnering with the private sector to create a short-term emergency water supply‚ using desalination‚ storm water capture or aquifer extraction‚ are also progressing,’ Limberg is quoted in the report as saying. ‘Last week was the closing date for responses in terms of the request for information to the private sector which we issued to see how partnerships can help us with our short-term emergency supply schemes. All submissions will be analysed from this week onwards. More information on the submissions received and the future processes will be made available at the appropriate time‚’ Limberg said, according to the report.

Full BusinessLIVE report

While the Netherlands would not immediately be regarded as a water-scarce country, it does have water issues which are not dissimilar from those in SA. According to a report in The Herald, the Department of Water and Sanitation last week received valuable insights into water resource management from experts at the Rijnland Water Authority in the Netherlands when they visited Nelson Mandela Bay to share tips on governance and technical expertise. The Kingfisher Programme, a memorandum of understanding between the department and the Netherlands Government, seeks to establish nine catchment management agencies – one in each province. Kingfisher project leader Bart Schaub and team member Kees Bodegom – both from the Rijnland Water Authority – are assisting the department specifically with the establishment of the Mzimvubu-Tsitsikamma Proto-Catchment Management Agency, which will operate in the Eastern Cape.

Full report in The Herald (subscription needed)

Seventeen years of work aimed at purifying mine wastewater could start paying off close to home for the University of Cape Town. According to a TimesLIVE report, the freezing technique developed to separate diluted salts from water is about to start producing 500 000 litres of drinkable water a day at an Mpumalanga coal mine. And it could also be used to treat the brine produced by water desalination‚ which is being considered as a short-term solution to Cape Town’s water shortage. ‘One of the biggest drawbacks of desalination as a solution for Cape Town’s water crisis is what to do with the hypersaline brines that will be produced. (This) offers a potential solution‚’ Alison Lewis‚ UCT’s dean of engineering, is quoted in the report as saying. The first full-scale working unit will soon be operating at Glencore’s Tweefontein colliery in Mpumalanga. It has been built with the input of postgraduate UCT chemical engineering students‚ 40% of whom have devoted their theses to freeze crystallisation in the past decade. The Tweefontein unit‚ which consists of scaffolding and several three-storey metal tanks‚ has been built by water treatment company Prentec. Managing director Peter Gunther said the technique would become a standard way of recovering valuable materials from waste.

– TimesLIVE

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