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Cape Town are 80 days from running out of water

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124

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    #92
    T-Maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 3,139 ✭✭✭T-Maxx


    ^ Bit of a difference between living in a motorhome vs a house.


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    #93
    Deise Vu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,946 ✭✭✭Deise Vu


    VinLieger wrote: »
    Ohh i love people who think Ireland is corrupt compared to SA.....

    You really live a very sheltered and comfortable life

    Corruption is overt in SA, they hardly even bother to try and cover their tracks. The local newspapers consist of a bit of sport, a bit of murder trials, a lot of murders yesterday and the latest on the corruption involving Jacob Zuma and the Gupta brothers.

    It makes you long for Charlie Haughey, Ray Burke and the lads.


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    #94
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,964 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    shaunr68 wrote: »
    50 litres per person per day! I bet we use less than that now in our house. Short showers, two loads of washing per week and toilet flushed twice a day. We lived for a year in a motorhome touring the continent which really opened our eyes as to water consumption. An 80 litre onboard fresh water tank plus 25 litre jerry can carried as "reserve" would last us 2-3 days. The Truma water heater operated on mains or gas and had a tank capacity of 7 litres heated to 70c which was sufficient (mixed with cold of course) for two short showers. 50 litres per person per day is no hardship at all as long as people are careful.

    i believe local councils aim for about 150 liters per person per day in ireland


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    #95
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    nrFz9OH.jpg


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    #96
    backspin.
    Registered Users Posts: 1,091 ✭✭✭backspin.


    shaunr68 wrote: »
    50 litres per person per day! I bet we use less than that now in our house. Short showers, two loads of washing per week and toilet flushed twice a day. We lived for a year in a motorhome touring the continent which really opened our eyes as to water consumption. An 80 litre onboard fresh water tank plus 25 litre jerry can carried as "reserve" would last us 2-3 days. The Truma water heater operated on mains or gas and had a tank capacity of 7 litres heated to 70c which was sufficient (mixed with cold of course) for two short showers. 50 litres per person per day is no hardship at all as long as people are careful.

    Short showers. Is that weekly, fortnightly or monthly?


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    #97
    riffmongous
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    Deise Vu wrote: »
    I was in Cape Town last November. Bizarre that a city right beside the sea that has howling gales blowing in from the ocean every day and a cloud covering Table Mountain most of the time but there is no precipitation. Maybe some meteorologist could enlighten us?

    I was staying in the poshest hotel I ever stayed in my life - The Table Mountain Bay Hotel and there were signs everywhere asking you to reconsider flushing the loo. There seemed to be plenty of money about but it seems they seriously fúcked up when it came to keeping the water infrastructure up to speed with other developments and were slow to take precautions when the drought hit three years ago.

    Just had a quick glance at it, I'd say it's down to the ocean currents. On the west side of SA the current is bringing up cold and most likely dry air from the antarctic regions, while on the east side the current is bringing warm and moist air from equatorial regions.


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    #98
    shaunr68
    Registered Users Posts: 555 ✭✭✭shaunr68


    backspin. wrote: »
    Short showers. Is that weekly, fortnightly or monthly?

    Daily. Your point?


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    #99
    padd b1975
    Registered Users Posts: 10,715 ✭✭✭✭padd b1975


    igCorcaigh wrote: »
    Expensive. I can foresee the Sahara desert covered in solar panels some day (soon?). Would be a huge source of revenue for African countries, if the contracts were sorted out fairly.

    African countries doing something to help themselves??

    Don't make me laugh!


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    #100
    Dakota Dan
    Registered Users Posts: 3,764 ✭✭✭Dakota Dan


    Chrongen wrote: »
    Can you explain why all of the above are NOT happening in countries that DO have water charges?

    Another water-charge sore ass who has buyer's remorse.

    What are you on about? For your information I have a private well and have being paying for water for years.


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    #101
    Bigus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,940 ✭✭✭Bigus


    wakka12 wrote: »
    With current fuel resources/methods water desalination plants are incredibly wasteful and unsustainable. I think I read somewhere that they won't be viable until fusion power technology is available

    And its not that big a deal anyway, there'll always be enough water reserved for drinking water so its not like anybody is going to die. There just wont be any water for toilets/showers/washing dishes

    Corralejo in Fuerteventura Canary Islands , has a desalination plant , driven solely by large wind mills , self contained on one site.

    wind-turbines-and-desalination-plant-at-corralejo-fuerteventura-canary-K3CY3J.jpg


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    #102
    Dakota Dan
    Registered Users Posts: 3,764 ✭✭✭Dakota Dan


    muppetshow1451 wrote: »
    If you can find any reliable source?that could be one of the main problems in Africa and middle east in general.
    There's aquifers around there that they are going to use as a water supply.


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    #103
    shaunr68
    Registered Users Posts: 555 ✭✭✭shaunr68


    T-Maxx wrote: »
    ^ Bit of a difference between living in a motorhome vs a house.
    Not really. The quantity of water required to shower yourself does not increase in proportion to the size of the accommodation. You use no more dishes when cooking and therefore require no more water to wash up, unless you eat more in a house. The only differences I can see are in toilet flushes and using the washing machine. Here we only flush the toilet after a number two and run about two washes a week in the machine which still leaves us well under the 50 litres per day each. I would hazard a guess that our water usage now is only marginally higher than it was when we lived in the MH.


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    #104
    Mena
    Registered Users Posts: 3,180 ✭✭✭Mena


    CruelCoin wrote: »
    An SA friend of mine living in Ireland mentioned this the other day.

    People are relocating to Johannesburg in droves apparently.

    Anyone who’s South African or who knows a South African will also know it would take a zombie apocalypse, drought, thermonuclear war, Armageddon and possibly two additional calamities before a capetonian would even think about considering moving to joburg. Never happen!


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    #105
    El Tarangu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭El Tarangu


    muppetshow1451 wrote: »
    If you can find any reliable source?that could be one of the main problems in Africa and middle east in general.

    South Africa is really, really far away from the Middle East.


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    #106
    dense
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,175 ✭✭✭dense


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    i believe local councils aim for about 150 liters per person per day in ireland

    And when meters were installed and Irish Water was finally able to properly measure consumption, it published a personal consumption figure of 80 liters per person.


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    #107
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,964 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    dense wrote: »
    And when meters were installed and Irish Water was finally able to properly measure consumption, it published a personal consumption figure of 80 liters per person.

    i suspect the figure of 150 is used to take into consideration leakage and other variables, a water engineer from dublin city council informed me of this figure


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    #108
    Lirange
    Registered Users Posts: 2,096 ✭✭✭Lirange


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    Cape Town is one the world's great cities. I was just there in December and the water crisis was really kicking in. You see huge notices in the airport when you land. Pools have been closed since last April/May across the city, they have buckets in the showers to collect water to flush the toilet and even at the beach the water has been turned off.

    But this is only the beginning. Cape Town won't be the last major metropolitan area to face such a crisis over the next decade. US cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas are only one or two below average snowfalls winters from following suit. Lake Mead hit all time record low levels and the drought on the western us states has been going on 16 years now https://www.nbcnews.com/video/lake-mead-reaches-record-low-water-levels-amid-ongoing-drought-320641091566

    Surprised Atlanta is among them as that area of the US is rather wet. Looking it up Atlanta receives an avg of about 1300mm a year. If they have issues it will probably be down to poor water infrastructure more than anything. California and other areas of the southwestern USA definitely have issues but they also have a massive water delivery infrastructure in place there. Despite all the recent publicity and a once in a century drought recently they've never been anywhere near the brink as the Cape is currently. The Cape needs to look into implementing substantial reclamation (apparently 40% of the water consumed in Vegas is recycled).

    Australia is another area at massive risk for water crises in future. The population is growing and given the vast distances improving the infrastructure there is quite costly. They don't have the snowpack to help sustain water supplies that they have in the western US.


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    #109
    dense
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,175 ✭✭✭dense


    Lirange wrote: »
    Surprised Atlanta is among them as that area of the US is rather wet. Looking it up Atlanta receives an avg of about 1300mm a year. If they have issues it will probably be down to poor water infrastructure more than anything. California and other areas of the southwestern USA definitely have issues but they also have a massive water delivery infrastructure in place there. Despite all the recent publicity and a once in a century drought recently they've never been anywhere near the brink as the Cape is currently.

    US infrastructure in general is reported to be falling apart, and has been for some time.


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    #110
    dense
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,175 ✭✭✭dense


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    i suspect the figure of 150 is used to take into consideration leakage and other variables, a water engineer from dublin city council informed me of this figure

    Yes and there's little reason to suspect the leaks in the Cape Town infrastructure are any less than ours!


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    #111
    Vicxas
    Registered Users Posts: 15,290 ✭✭✭✭Vicxas


    Be interesting to see what they do to relieve the pressure in Cape Town.

    Wonder if it would be the first city in a long time to be abandoned.


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    #112
    Lirange
    Registered Users Posts: 2,096 ✭✭✭Lirange


    dense wrote: »
    US infrastructure in general is reported to be falling apart, and has been for some time.

    Some parts of it. But the water infrastructure in the drought vulnerable southwest, particularly California, is so vast and has such an immense capacity that it can, and has, withstood extreme drought much better than any other parts of the world. Listening to some of them complain about some of the water restrictions after the recent drought is like listening to them complain about petrol prices. The Drought abatement measures in California were child's play to the restrictions residents on the cape are enduring at the moment.


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    #113
    Kuva
    Closed Accounts Posts: 870 ✭✭✭Kuva


    Alun wrote: »
    The desalination process, whether using distillation or reverse osmosis, is energy hungry and therefore potentially very expensive. If solar power is readily available and abundant in the location then that goes some way to making it more attractive but otherwise it's not the cheap and easy alternative many might think.

    Solar/wind power WITH storage is cheaper than coal now, coal is dead.

    Germany were paying factories multiple times last year to use more electric as they had ran out places to store export it.


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    #114
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,964 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    Kuva wrote: »
    Solar/wind power WITH storage is cheaper than coal now, coal is dead.

    Germany were paying factories multiple times last year to use more electric as they had ran out places to store export it.

    dont tell the donald, hes still on the 'clean coal' buzz:D


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    #115
    wexie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,480 ✭✭✭wexie


    Kuva wrote: »
    Solar/wind power WITH storage is cheaper than coal now, coal is dead.

    Germany were paying factories multiple times last year to use more electric as they had ran out places to store export it.

    Surely there's some kind of decoupling/clutch mechanism on wind turbines to stop them from generating energy if it's ever not needed?

    Is there?


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    #116
    Lirange
    Registered Users Posts: 2,096 ✭✭✭Lirange


    In terms of population the Cape is also relatively isolated with the population density of the country heavily concentrated in the east and centre of the country. That's a factor that will have been a hindrance to the development and funding of the water infrastructure in that area.


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    #117
    dense
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,175 ✭✭✭dense


    Kuva wrote: »
    Solar/wind power WITH storage is cheaper than coal now, coal is dead.

    Germany were paying factories multiple times last year to use more electric as they had ran out places to store export it.

    This explains why German household electricity prices are the most expensive in Europe and will become more expensive when a storage solution is factored in.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-electricity-retail/german-household-power-prices-at-record-high-verivox-idUSL8N1MZ30X



    Nothing is "Free".

    In fact, factories, as far as I could see, did not and do not benefit from "free electricity".

    They require constant reliable electricity, and the "free" electricity happened for relatively short periods a couple of times over weekends according to one report, and householders received some credit off their highest in Europe electricity charges, as opposed to being paid to use electricity. (2016)

    http://memepoliceman.com/german-renewable-energy/

    Furthermore, as the switch to "free" electricity has seen prices steadily rising, the huge investment costs have to be paid for after all, until storage is sorted out, which will have additional costs, it is having no major affect on reducing emissions.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/10/10/why-arent-renewables-decreasing-germanys-carbon-emissions/#2771363668e1


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    #118
    koumi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 646 ✭✭✭koumi


    Have a mate is SA who does rain dance, will get on the blower asap


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    #119
    matchthis
    Registered Users Posts: 1,870 ✭✭✭matchthis


    They would’ve had a years notice, but took em a long time to work out how long left


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    #120
    dense
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,175 ✭✭✭dense


    koumi wrote: »
    Have a mate is SA who does rain dance, will get on the blower asap

    Do please, time is running out.


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    #121
    koumi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 646 ✭✭✭koumi


    dense wrote: »
    Do please, time is running out.
    You haven't seen anything until you've seen a giant black south african bellowing in tongues from a mountain top, and then watching it start to rain.


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