Water RhapsodyConservation systems

Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor founder and proprietor of Water Rhapsody

Water related problems

• Our Rivers Dammed to Extinction • Boreholes drying up and collapsing. Beaufort

West• Corruption and nepotism is rife in municipalities• Mines: Radio active outfall and AMD decant• Daily raw sewerage spills• Downstream municipalities have to clean river

water from upstream sewerage treatment failures.

What is the remedy for that

Current Environmental Disasters

• Over extraction of water has lead to estuarine destruction: mouths no longer open.

• Phosphate pollution• Groundwater polluted.• Riverine species exterminated.• Polluted rivers left to those downstream to clean

up water intended for potable purposes.• Explosion of bottled water industry with its own

health risks.Is there a remedy for that?

End of road for augmentation

• We have in South Africa no sustainable augmentation scheme to provide more water.

• Proposed are: desalination • Extraction of fossil water. Both unsustainable and expensive No further large scale augmentation left.

What is the remedy?

Today

Pipelines • Grey water black water all in one pipe.• Where rainwater goes and the pool

backwash.• Flooding and canals – hardened surfaces

WWF view 30% wastewater untreated.

If there is a remedy who has it?…

Lost Water / Unaccounted for Water

Lost WaterAccounted For Water

Where water goes in Cape Town City(Unaccounted for water excluded)

Home, 60%

Industry, 16%

Commerce, 10%

Municipal, 10%

Ships at sea, 4%

Where water goes in the Home

Toilet Flushing29%

Grey Water - bath, shower, hand basin,

laundry33%

Drinking & Cooking

3%

Irrigation35%

Where water goes in the home - courtesy CTCC

Solution

Here is the remedy for that…But first who wins?

• A win-win solution for all: • The municipality• DWA• The homeowner• Energy supplier• Environment: ameliorate the deteriorating effects

sewerage polluting our rivers

First: Reduce demand

First:• Garden Rhapsody: Grey water Re-using System• Multi Flush: Minimizes water required for

flushing:• Poolside Tank: Re-use of swimming pool

backwash water returning pool backwash water back to the pool.

• Second Movement: Re-use of grey water for toilet flushing

Second: Augment supply:You take control

• Water Rhapsody Grand Opus: harvesting rainwater for general use.

• Water Rhapsody Poseidon Advantage. To recycle grey water from whence it came. E.g. car wash water/ laundry

Ownership of water supply is yours..

Now work on Policing:

• Deflate blue/green drop reports : • Just get municipalities to introduce

sewerage upstream from intake…• Apply appropriate tariffs.

Instant results

• Water demand reduced by 50% at worst• Sewerage effluent reduced by 90% at

worst: • Demand for water reduced to zero for the

rainy season.• One has a constant and reliable source of

plentiful safe water for domestic, commercial and industrial use.

• You don’t change your lifestyle!

Unaccounted for or lost water ELIMINATED:revolutionary improvement(Spin off )

Reduce Pressure! • On an exponential scale of 1.2 – reduction of the

water pressure in supply pipelines reduces lost water. What For?

• To eliminate burst pipes.• Obvious benefits to municipality saving on repairs.• Municipality needs do nothing else:• We would be forced to pressurize own water supply• Natural spin off to enforce rain harvesting.

Hypothetical water 50% saving in Cape Town

50%

savingDomesticMunicipalCommerceShips at seaIndustry

Sewerage saving

87%

savingDomesticMunicipalCommerceShips at seaIndustry

Spare capacity!

• For future housing• Commerce• Industry• Growth

Agreed in all new low income developments.

• We need 30 000 houses per year per metropolis to catch up. We don't have

• The water• The energy• Means to treat the sewerage• The money so:

The Water Rhapsody Cure Will

The cureWater Rhapsody systems will:• Provide water that one has not paid for go so

much further; • Reduce daily use from 280 litres to 120 litres

per person per day whatever the supply• Provide rainwater for supply and then:-• Municipal water becomes augmentation only.

Garden Rhapsody Grey Water Re-using System

Water Rhapsody Grand Opus

• Stored rainwater pumped to whole household

Spin off benefitsof the cure

Not normally associated with WDM are the following cause and effect:• Remove the need for canals.• Introduce fish in the sea?? Kob steenbras leervis grunter stumpnose

• Save falling levels of aquifers thus:• Extending the life of boreholes.• Save energy for desalination.• Rising sewerage mains and cost of treatment

works

Future cost for water

• New water supply could cost 300% more.• Abusers soon to pay R150 per kilolitre • At least we will have water if everyone

uses less.

Boreholes

• Boreholes no matter where you drill them nor how you manage them will lower the water table.

• Management of boreholes historically has been putrid. Beaufort West was allowed even encouraged to drill for new boreholes in spite of some of them completely drying up.

Demand Management the way forward

• As a water poor region of the world.• The Department of Water Affairs:

– Sells water for a living– Practically ignores demand management, thus– Tacitly encourages use of water.– At best gives lip service to water saving .– Ironically is in the same cabinet portfolio as Environmental

Affairs so will not look to the long term management of water through the eyes of demand management.

– Will only require of a water board/municipality to provide a saving when all sources of water are exhausted. THEN:-

Water RestrictionsThe cure cause and effect

• Only applied when dams are empty? • Gives millions of Rand for white elephant

desalination plants that:• either simply don’t work, or • they are too energy hungry to use.• When the drought ends these are simply

abandoned. • Demand management tools never stop saving.

Cost of Desalination

Why do municipalities abandon their prized desalination plants.The best practice desalination plants:1. R8.00 per kilolitre to desalinate sea water.2. Energy cost: 4 kilowatt hours per kilolitre.3. The plants cost huge sums in capital4. The energy required is not sustainable.5. Municipalities claim that they lose money for the

supply of water at present and desalination makes their losses worse.

Water Sustainability an allusion or possibly a reality?

• Supply management is not sustainable: Demand management of water is sustainable.

• Water Rhapsody have provided the means to use less water for which the late Kader Asmal called in the Western Cape Systems Analysis:

Ways should be found to augmenting supplyWays must be found to use less water.

Reference by Kader Asmal

Professor Kader AsmalFormer Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry

11 February 2010To Whom it may Concern:Garden Rhapsody Grey Water Re-using System

It is very rare that a product, in this case, a new product gives so much satisfaction. We were one of the first to have this system installed. My officials at the Department of Water Affairs in Pretoria – I was the Minister at that time – warned me against this system as it would destroy my garden. As a matter of fact, the grass and the shrubs have flourished. During the drought about four years ago, when there were severe restrictions on garden water use, mine flourished because of the grey water. The service is excellent, even putting up with a smiling face with the idiocies of the owner, in this case me, who could not unravel the pipes. I have no hesitation in commending this system, its service and delivery, not only as a good example of water conservation and for beautifying the garden, but also as an excellent example of entrepreneurship.Yours sincerelyProfessor Kader AsmalFormer Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry