Help the Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC) work towards achieving healthy and sustainable catchments in Makana. One important way of keeping our catchment healthy is to stop sewage leaks.
Help the Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC) work towards achieving healthy and sustainable catchments in Makana. One important way of keeping our catchment healthy is to stop sewage leaks.
The KCC has a website where sewage leaks, pipe bursts, illegal dumping and other health-threatening problems are recorded (kowiecatchmentcampaign.org.za/hotspot_map.html) but they need your help to update it.
Over the next few weeks the KCC is making a special effort to spot sewage problems and update the map with information, and hopefully, photos.
They will then gather all this information and pass it through to consultants who are working closely with Makana Local Municipality to help them in their efforts to sort out the situation.
Awareness is the first step to solving a problem. Remember – if you are aware of a problem but do not report it, it is likely to become a bigger problem!
So, if you are aware of sewage leaks, please help the KCC by sending the following info:
•What is the problem? A broken pipe? Sewage flowing from an inspection hatch? Sewage flowing but you’re not sure of the source? A bad smell from a stream?
•Where is the problem? What road? What’s the nearest street corner?
•How long has there been a problem? Is this the first time you noticed it? Does it get fixed then happen again? Has it been like that for ages?
Contact Laura on 083 228 0046 or ljforster1@gmail.com
Please continue to use MobiSAM to report water leaks and outages:
www.facebook.com/mobisam.net , info@mobisam.net or www.mobisam.net
Water Shortages Worldwide by 2040
Aarhus University researchers say that soon, we won’t have enough water in the world to meet demand for the production of electricity. They warn that we are in for tough times if the energy and power situation does not improve before 2040.
How to solve the problem? There are six general recommendations for decision-makers around the world:
•Improve energy efficiency
•Better research on alternative cooling cycles
•Registering how much water power plants use
•Massive investments in wind energy
•Massive investments in solar energy
•Abandon fossil fuel facilities in all water-stressed places (i.e. half the planet) More info:sciencedaily.com
Renewable Energy
The current debate on South Africa’s energy policy hinges on promoting renewable energy. What is the cost of the feed-in tariff system?
A recent study concluded that wind energy is still the most cost effective.
Photovoltaic solar technologies with big, dark silicon panels still need improving.
But researchers are working hard to develop new materials that are less costly to produce and offer greater energy efficiency.
In the meantime, there is no doubt that a solar water heater is a great way to save money! More info:
solargeysers-sa.co.za/solar-water-heating-industry-news.asp
Solar Flares
Solar flares are probably to blame for some disruptions to our cell phone networks in recent weeks.
According to the Southern African National Space Agency (Sansa), a sudden release of stored energy from the sun – known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) – produces a burst of radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays.
These tend to interfere with communication systems like radio, GPS and DSTV, but do not harm humans and other life, thanks to the earth's protective magnetic field.
Rhodes University Visiting Research Professor, Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell, is the Managing Director of Sansa Space Science.
Sansa operates a space weather observatory at Hermanus in the Western Cape where activity of the sun and the performance of the Earth's magnetic field is observed.
The last major CME was in 1958, but in those days, we had fewer high tech communication devices.
More info: sansa.org.za Find us Online: grocotts.co.za/environews
Contacts for Makana Enviro-News:
Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 |
Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 |
Trisha Nathoo: nathootrisha83@gmail.com, 078 584 9496 |
Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 |
Philip Machanick: p.machanick@ru.ac.za, 046 603 8635 |
Strato Copteros: strato@iafrica.com, 082 785 6403
