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Water

TCTA Vresap commercial paper programme increased to R500m

By: Simone Liedtke 20th April 2018 The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) has increased the commercial paper programme for the Vaal River Eastern Subsystem Augmentation Project (Vresap) to R500-million. Vresap comprises a 120 km pipeline from the Vaal dam to the Knoppiesfontein diversion structure near Secunda to augment the... →

Department shares Vaal dam water regulatory best practice with Nigerian group

By: Marleny Arnoldi 18th April 2018 The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) on Wednesday hosted a delegation from the Nigerian government’s integrated water resources management commission at the Vaal dam, in the Free State, to undertake a technical study tour and share water regulatory best practices. The study tour comes as... →

Photo by Marleny Arnoldi
Vaal dam

Nanoclay technology being developed as possible means to treat AMD

By: Anine Kilian 17th April 2018 The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is developing low-cost polymer-based adsorbents for the removal of toxic pollutants such as heavy metals, anions and organics, from wastewater, that could be applied in the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is the outflow of... →

CSIR developing water treatment, biodegradable plastic solutions

By: Anine Kilian 17th April 2018 Most of the plastics used in South Africa are nonbiodegradable, especially in the packaging industry, and end up in landfills, posing environmental threats and health concerns, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) polymer modification group leader Dr Avashnee Chetty says.... →

Cape Town's water plan is too narrow, says expert; advises long-term plan

By: News24Wire 17th April 2018 UCT academic Dr Kevin Winter says the City council's proposed 26.9% water price hike, which has drawn howls of protest from Capetonians, is not big enough to shift the city out of the water crisis in the long term. "I think the increase is not nearly enough. I am sure the City is going to have to... →

Rand Water threatens to cut water to Emfuleni municipality over R419m debt

By: News24Wire 11th April 2018 Rand Water has announced that it will once again reduce the bulk water supply to the Emfuleni Local Municipality after it failed to reach a settlement on the payment of the municipality's R419-million debt. Rand Water's Justice Mohale said in a statement on Wednesday that the entity was taking... →

Why April rainfall is key to stave off Cape Town's Day Zero

By: News24Wire 9th April 2018 In three weeks’ time experts will be able to say with some certainty whether Cape Town is likely to get enough rain this year to avoid a Day Zero scenario in 2019. After three dry years and months of severe water restrictions, everyone in the drought-stricken area wants to know whether we will... →

Three-nation talks on Ethiopia dam fail to reach agreement

By: Reuters 6th April 2018 Talks in Khartoum between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt to resolve differences over a dam Ethiopia is building ended early on Friday without agreement, the Sudanese foreign minister said. Egypt and Ethiopia are at loggerheads over the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam, a $4-billion... →

Saldanha fresh fish processing plant invests in desalination solution

By: Schalk Burger 6th April 2018 A water treatment plant built at JSE-listed sea food company Sea Harvest’s internationally accredited Saldanha Bay operations, in the Western Cape, treats effluent and sea water and provides all the water the operations require, says Sea Harvest operations director Terence Brown. “The most... →

SALDANHA BAY DESALINATION PLANT ImproChem designed and built the advanced water treatment plant for Sea Harvest within 16 weeks

Drought-stricken South Africa faces water infrastructure funding shortfall

By: Natasha Odendaal 4th April 2018 A new report estimates that South Africa will need to invest about R70.4-billion a year in water infrastructure investment over the next decade to address water scarcity and provide reliable water to all people, businesses and industries in South Africa. The ‘Water 2018 – Market Intelligence... →

Kenyan fund targets $15m green bond for water projects

By: Reuters 4th April 2018 A nonprofit organisation plans to issue a 1.5-billion shilling ($15-million) bond this year to fund Kenyan water utilities. Robert Bunyi, chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Pooled Water Fund, said on Wednesday it aimed to launch a 15-year instrument and to have it certified as a green bond. →

Cape Town water consumption 'stabilised' - deputy mayor

By: News24Wire 4th April 2018 Water use in the City of Cape Town has stabilised at lower levels compared to the beginning of the year, Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson said on Wednesday. The decline saw Cape Town dam levels drop by only 0.3% last week, he said. Dams supplying the city now stand at 21.8%. "Our collective consumption... →

Cape Town dam levels continue to dwindle, despite the recent rains

By: Natasha Odendaal 3rd April 2018 The few days of “good rainfall” experienced by the Western Cape is not enough to fix a system that has received three years of below average rainfall. The average dam levels in the region continue to decline, falling to 17.6% by April 2, from 24.3% a year ago and 18.22% last week. →

Upgrade of shiploaders at Durban harbour completed

30th March 2018 Consulting engineering solutions provider Bosch Projects has recently completed the upgrade of two shiploaders at the Durban harbour. The shiploaders have been used to load sugar onto vessels at the South African Sugar Association’s sugar terminal for over 50 years. →

DURBAN HARBOUR The shiploaders needed to be refurbished in line with Transnet’s upgrade of berths at Maydon Wharf

WSP finalising port projects in Africa

By: Jessica Oosthuizen 30th March 2018 Multidisciplinary engineering consultancy WSP Africa is involved in several port-related projects across Africa, some of which will be finalised this month, says WSP Africa maritime director Andre van Tonder. WSP is undertaking the yearly National Port Plan review for State-owned freight utility... →

ANDRE VAN TONDER WSP’s maritime skills and expertise are globally marketable and we are involved in many projects locally and abroad

US power group touts microgrids ‘as the way forward’

By: Simone Liedtke 29th March 2018 Decentralisation, through the implementation of microgrids, could be the key to improving grid resilience, US-based electricity supplier Illinois Power Company and Tucson Electric Power Company CEO Charles Bayless told an audience in Johannesburg this week. The design of microgrids, which... →

Cape Town water consumption drops by 43m litres

By: News24Wire 28th March 2018 Capetonians have managed to get water usage down to 522-million litres per day over the past week – 43-million litres less than the previous week's water usage. The City of Cape Town still requires Capetonians to reduce collective usage to 450-million litres per day or 50l per person per day. "We... →

SMEs increasingly worried about water shortages

By: Natasha Odendaal 27th March 2018 The ongoing drought and subsequent water shortage has become a top contender in what is keeping small business owners awake at night. In a similar manner in which load-shedding had worried small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) up until 2015/16, and even 2017, the looming significance of water... →

Maputo faces possible water crisis

By: African News Agency 27th March 2018 Mozambique’s capital Maputo could follow Cape Town’s water crisis with the El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean which is responsible for the current drought in southern Africa effecting Mozambique this year, the country’s National Meteorological Institute has warned, AllAfrica has reported.... →

Makhura establishes water war room for Gauteng

By: Natasha Odendaal 23rd March 2018 Premier David Makhura has established a war room to ensure Gauteng’s own taps do not run dry amid a drought that has devastated many provinces in South Africa, particularly the Western Cape. Following a Premier’s Coordinating Forum, held on Friday, he said water security in South Africa’s... →

Gauteng urged to use water sparingly or face its own ‘Day Zero’

By: Simone Liedtke 22nd March 2018 In light of government recently declaring the drought and water crisis plaguing the country a national disaster, the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWS) has urged Gauteng water consumers to use resources sparingly. DWS water sector regulations director Mangwani Mabada cautioned on... →

Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWS) Water Sector Regulations Director Mangwani Mabada discussing awareness surrounding Gauteng’s precious water resource during a tour at Roodeplaat Dam, north-east of Pretoria. Video and editing: Nicholas Boyd.

Investment needed in strategic water source areas – WWF-SA

By: Creamer Media Reporter 22nd March 2018 As South Africa struggles with the most devastating drought experienced in decades, the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) is calling for more investment into the country’s strategic water source areas to ensure the best yields are achieved from living landscapes. Spending more... →

Cape farmers lose 25% of orchards, vineyards as result of drought – expert

By: News24Wire 22nd March 2018 Drought-stricken farmers in the Western Cape have had to abandon at least a quarter of their high-value vineyards and deciduous fruit orchards because of a lack of water for irrigation. This has had a knock-on effect on rural employment, with the loss of about 30 000 seasonal farm worker jobs... →

Water treatment, desalination plant to meet Sea Harvest’s Saldanha water needs

By: Schalk Burger 22nd March 2018 A water treatment plant built at JSE-listed sea food company Sea Harvest’s internationally accredited Saldanha Bay operations, in the Western Cape, treats effluent and sea water and provides all the water the operations require, said Sea Harvest operations director Terence Brown on Thursday at... →

SEA HARVEST SALDANHA WTP

UCT scientists convince city to drill cautiously into aquifer

By: News24Wire 20th March 2018 The City of Cape Town's emergency groundwater drilling programme will be formally scrutinised by an environmental monitoring committee. This is to ensure boreholes are located in ecologically-acceptable areas and are operated responsibly, according to a GroundUp report. The programme, that... →

Association urges producers to meet standards

By: Simone Liedtke 16th March 2018 There is a strong need for all bottled, or packaged, water producers to comply with stringent legislation and meet globally benchmarked standards to prevent gross disservice to the bottled water industry and the consumer, says South African National Bottled Water Association CEO Charlotte Metcalf. →

CHARLOTTE METCALF The quality of municipal water in South Africa is high, but it does vary daily

Engineers urged to assertively infuse social debates with technical insight

By: Terence Creamer 15th March 2018 Engineers have been urged to become more assertive in keeping political and social debates around water, as well as other infrastructure issues, more technically informed. Delivering the South African Academy of Engineering open lecture in Johannesburg this week, Wits University School of... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Wits University School of Governance professor Mike Muller

Economy faces paralysis if govt does not act urgently on water crisis – report

By: News24Wire 15th March 2018 If the government fails to respond to the country's critical water situation, South Africans could face a situation similar to the energy crisis that nearly paralysed the economy, according to a Water Research Commission report. "To avoid a state of national panic, similar to that which occurred... →

Cape Town increases use of treated effluent water to boost water security

By: African News Agency 15th March 2018 The City of Cape Town on Thursday said the use of treated effluent water would increase water security in the city as approval had now been given for the supply of up to 10-million litres of treated effluent to various businesses from collection points across the city. According to the City,... →

MPs move to set up inquiry into water department collapse

By: African News Agency 14th March 2018 Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday resolved to forge ahead with a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of the water and sanitation department. In a joint meeting of the water and sanitation portfolio committee and the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), MPs decided... →

Blue Scorpions called in as Limpopo municipality faces its own Day Zero

By: News24Wire 14th March 2018 The Waterberg District in Limpopo is facing its own Day Zero, with just 49 days of drinking water left. The Department of Water and Sanitation says it will deploy the Environmental Management Inspectorate (EMI), better known as the Blue Scorpions, to the area to conduct validation and... →

South Africa’s drought declared a state of disaster

By: Natasha Odendaal 13th March 2018 South Africa’s persistent drought has now been declared a national state of disaster under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, an elevation from the initial disaster reclassification issued in February. The declaration will mobilise technical and financial resources by all spheres of... →

Cape Town's taps can still run dry despite Day Zero scrapping - experts

By: News24Wire 12th March 2018 The politicians may have scrapped Day Zero – but water experts say this does not mean Cape Town's taps won't run dry. It is still as likely to happen as it was a week ago. →

UCT academic joins UN special envoy to discuss Cape Town’s water future

By: Marleny Arnoldi 9th March 2018 University of Cape Town (UCT) academic and Future Water Institute lead researcher Dr Kevin Winter was part of a team of experts that joined United Nations (UN) climate action special envoy Mike Bloomberg – founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term mayor of New York – on a tour of the... →

Photo by Reuters
Climate and weather variability has raised new uncertainties

Day Zero in Cape Town will not happen in 2018, says DA's Maimane

By: African News Agency 7th March 2018 Day Zero will not occur in 2018 and this means taps will stay open, provided Cape Town residents continue consuming water at current levels and there is decent rainfall, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said on Wednesday. Maimane was speaking at a press briefing at the party’s... →

Photo by Duane Daws
DA leader Mmusi Maimane

Western Cape dam levels drop even more

By: News24Wire 5th March 2018 The latest average level, for dams across the Western Cape, is 20.83% - compared to 30.09% for the same time last year - MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Anton Bredell said on Monday. "At this stage, the water situation in our 30 municipalities is... →

South Africa needs to adopt strategic water plan to avoid deteriorating supply

By: Anine Kilian 5th March 2018 South Africa’s water crisis is having a significant impact on economic growth and on the wellbeing of South African citizens, Department of Water and Sanitation DDG Trevor Balzer said on Monday. Addressing delegates at the Consulting Engineers of South Africa Infrastructure Indaba, in... →

Photo by Duane Daws
Trevor Balzer

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