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Water Wise Watch - October 2023

05.10.23

Logo_October 2023

This month at Water WiseHouse-1Swimming Sustainably – How Can You Make Your Pool More Water Wise?

As summer looms, water forms an essential part of our lives – how then do we save water during a season of high demand? An answer to this lies in how we view our swimming pools.

The climate in South Africa, specifically its long summers that are characterized by high temperatures, are what make having a swimming pool so appealing. However, these are the same conditions that lead to excessive water evaporation. The average home with a swimming pool uses more than double the amount of water outdoors than a home with no swimming pool – a cause for concern for a semi-arid country like South Africa, that receives less than half the amount of average rainfall in relation to the global average.

A typical swimming pool can hold volumes ranging from 20 000-80 000 litres of water, dependent on the size, depth and design. In a semi-arid country like South Africa, the national average evaporation rate during the summer season is between 6-10mm daily. For a 4 x 3m pool, that translates to around 3600 litres of water evaporated per month, which is 14 400 litres lost during the summer season alone – if you consider a 50 litres limit per day per individual; the amount lost to evaporation during the summer season could be sufficient for a person’s usage for eight months. Shouldn’t we perhaps, consider covering our pools to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation?

Conceivably with a few considerations, we can still enjoy our pools in a water wise way. Here are some tips to have a water wise pool, as easy as ABC:
  1. Invest in a pool cover – it is an effective method to minimize evaporation whilst maintaining the pool’s cleanliness by keeping debris out. The use of a pool cover can reduce water lost to evaporation by 70-95%, depending on the material used. Off the 14 400 litres we could potentially use without a cover, we could now save between 10 000-13 600 litres. 
  2. Consider harvested rainwater – Be mindful when filling your pool with water. Instead of using a hose without control, use a timer to avoid wasting water if you forget to turn it off. An eco-friendly option is to use rainwater collected from your gutter system to top up your pool, reducing the need for additional water from other sources.
  3. Minimize the use of water features in your pool – Inadequately designed water features, such as fountains, can result in substantial water wastage. To limit water loss through such features, choose designs that deliver maximum impact with minimal size, to prevent overspill/splashing.
  4. Create an artificial wetland for backwashed-water – Backwashing can consume more than 30% of your pool’s water. Since this water contains chemicals, it’s not suitable for direct gar den disposal. Instead, consider channeling your pool’s backwash through large pebbles and hydrophytes to create a “bubbling rapids” effect, which effectively neutralizes the chlorine and makes it safe for plants.
 Always be #WaterWise
This month at Water Wise

1694082868709Rand Water’s Water Wise proudly sponsored this year’s SCAPE Trade Show held in Cape Town on the 07th of September 2023. Here, various prominent and upcoming stakeholders in the Green industry (i.e. architects, designers, developers, contractors, engineers, landscape professionals) were present, seeking to share knowledge on how we can bridge sustainability and design, under the theme What If?

Working in the Green industry compels one to truly understand and appreciate the benefits that water affords us, in our landscapes and businesses. Rand Water’s Water Wise brand works closely with various stakeholders in the Green industry to promote water sustainability and conservation particularly via the designing, implementing and maintenance of landscapes that encompass water wise principles.

You can learn more about how you could make your home, business and landscape #waterwise by clicking here

Water Wise gardening ideas

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A healthy lawn, the #waterwise way

In gardening terms, Spring essentially means a new year -  a period where everything receives a breath of new life; flowers blossoms, trees leaf up and birds wake us with beautiful chirping melodies. It is also a period where families meet over braais and children run around outside, enjoying nature. A perfect time to ready your lawn for those perfect weekends with family and friends.

As most grass species go dormant in winter, spring presents one with the opportunity to properly feed and care for these, ensuring that, as summer looms, the lawn is lush and in good condition. The amount of care you need to put into spring maintenance also depends on the condition of the lawn: is there moss? Does it contain a lot of dead grass? If so, it may not be enough to just mow your garden before the spring lawn feed – you may also need to scarify it.

How do we best take care of lawn particularly during a period of level-1 water restrictions effective between the 1st of September 2023 to 31st March? Below we discuss a few things that you can do to ensure your lawn is healthy, green whilst being water wise.

  1. Aerate your lawn
Our lawns experience a lot of traffic, which could result in compacted soils and thus reduced gaseous exchange in the soil; this could also result in poor water infiltration and subsequent nutrient uptake.

       2. Fertilize your lawn to beat moss

Moss is an indicator plant for nitrogen levels, so it will spread quickly through your lawn if the soil is short of this nutrient in particular. Well-fertilized lawns suppress moss by means of vigorous grass growth. If the moss has completely grown over your grass, scarifying it is the best option followed by regular fertilization. Remember to choose organic-based slow-release fertilizers to ensure your lawn is fed over a long period.

      3. Water your lawn well post-fertilization

After applying fertilizer according to the instructions, water the ground well, for the first week, to ensure that valuable nutrients can be distributed throughout the soil. Afterwards, watering can be periodic – ensuring you water between dusk and dawn, particularly with the level-1 water restrictions prohibiting garden watering between 06h00 and 18h00.

     4. Repurpose your greywater

Greywater, a readily available resource in our household, can be repurposed to our lawns. Greywater is essentially wastewater generated from household/businesses/buildings, that consists of no faecal/blood contamination. This water can be derived from hand basins, washing machines, showers and baths. As greywater contains organic matter and subsequent trace nutrients, the resource is beneficial to plants and lawns, improving the nutrient load available to the plant. It is important to understand that greywater quality greatly reduces the longer it is stored thus it is best to use this resource within the first 24 hours of collection, where-after, it should be discarded.

You can learn more on how to care for your garden by clicking here

WW tip of the month

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Check for leaks – A little drop goes a long way

Our water sources are under immense strain currently with predictions outlining that we are experiencing an El Nino event, which essentially refers to warmer, drier conditions, that result in greater evaporation of surface water – higher evaporation = more streams drying up. We can envisage our dams to be affected alike, right?

Leaks are a great water-waster in South Africa, where up to 40% of our potable water is lost through leakages in the system. Our households add greatly to this as a leaking toilet can, on average, waste up to 30 litres of water each hour; in a day that is 720 litres of water; in a month 22 320 litres of water – think of this over a year? This does not only affect your household water consumption volumes but your pocket alike when the municipal bill arrives. How can we play our part and conserve water as best we can?

Below we discuss how your home can be more #waterwise by checking for leaks regularly:

  1.  Check your meter readings

One of the best ways to check if you have a leak in your household is via the monitoring of your water meter. If your water meter is reading unusually high, there could be a water leak. To scale down a leak, turn off all taps, observe if the meter continues to move, if it does there is a leak. Some leaks may, however be minute to observe outright and can compound over time, like a leaking pipe. To check if there is indeed a leak, you can take an initial reading of your meter whilst all taps are closed, after a certain period (i.e. 1 hour), take a second reading, subtracting the second from first – if there is a change, this indicates a leak.

        2. Walkabout inspecting pipes and connectors

A simple walkabout in your household observing pipes and their subsequent connectors can go a long way in assisting you detect a leak. At the connectors, wipe these clean, after a period of time return to see if the pipe is as dry as you left it – if not, this could indicate a leak and thus require you to possibly re-thread the connection.

      3. Using colourants to check leaks in your toilet

As outlined above, toilet leaks can contribute to vast amounts of water loss, if left unattended. It is thus imperative to check on these regularly, largely as these are the most visited area in the household. To check for leaks, add colourant into your pan and leave to sit. Ensure during this period that the toilet is not in use. After a period of time, return to see if the bowl has any of the colourant – if so, the toilet system has a leak and should be attended to promptly.

You can learn more on how to reduce your water footprint by clicking here

Environmental days

images 02 October: World Habitat Day
04 October: World Animal Day
05 October: Energy Efficiency Day
14 October: e-Waste Day
14 October: African Penguin Day
16 October: Sustainability Day
21 October: Earthworm Day
21 October: National Reptile Day
24 October: Int'l Day of Climate Action

Water and environmental news

“… According to a statement sent through email on Tuesday, the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance and groundWork filed the lawsuit at the South African High Court. They assert that the government has not taken any action to reduce emissions from ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited’s largest steel plant, located in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg …”
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Not only power blackouts, Gauteng storm also wreaked havoc with water supply

“… The Gauteng Department of Health said on Wednesday that due to the challenges experienced by Rand Water, which affected numerous areas … however, the situation improved in the afternoon as water started flowing in from the municipal line …”

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eThekwini unveils renewable energy and water reuse pilot plants

“… The City of eThekwini has commissioned renewable energy and water reuse demonstration pilot plants as part of exploring sustainable solutions to address the ongoing energy and water supply challenges it is facing …”

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“… In a bid to avert disaster, these utilities are urging residents to adopt immediate water-saving measures, including reducing shower times to a mere two minutes, reserving toilet flushing for essential purposes, and restricting car washing to weekends using buckets …”

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