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dam-l Water savings device 2of2/LS
>From The Cape Times:
Cape Town inventor wins with water-saving device
Asmal instals system in his own home
ANDREA WEISS
Metro Correspondent
Capetonians have been warned of the environmental damage their water-hungry habits are doing rivers, and possibly even the sea, by inventor Jeremy Taylor.
He was a finalist for a World Wide Fund for Nature's water conservation award with his system to recycle domestic waste water for irrigating gardens.
Approval for the waste-water irrigation system has come from Water Affairs Minister Kader Asmal, who has installed it at his Cape Town home.
Mr Asmal has been advocating more efficient water use in the city to stave off the damming of the Palmiet River in the next century.
The system invented by Mr Taylor saves water from washing machines, baths, showers and hand basins by filtering off grease and pumping the "grey" water out on to the garden.
He estimates that the average clothes wash uses about 240 litres, a bath 150 litres and a shower a minimum of 30 litres, all of which can be put to use on a lawn or flowerbed.
Saving water can also spare rivers from being polluted by phosphates which are used as extenders in washing powders but are also a key component in fertiliser.
More phosphates in the rivers upsets the ecological balance by encouraging the growth of algae, thereby clogging up waterways such as the Black River which ultimately flow into the sea, where yet more damage can be caused.
Mr Taylor believes that this imbalance could be affecting life in Table Bay because when river algae die in the sea, this encourages the growth of bacteria which in turn deprives the water of oxygen, making it impossible to sustain sealife.
Already fishermen report that they are unable to make catches in Table Bay, a possible consequence of this effect, he says.
He cites the example of the Gulf of Mexico which has been effectively sterilised by the same effect occurring in the Mississippi River.
"There are ways around this," he claimed. "You could remove the phosphates at the water treatment works, which is not presently a legal requirement, or you could also use phosphate-free washing powder.
"The other alternative is to irrigate with your waste water and use the phosphates on your garden. That way you won't have to buy fertiliser from the nursery.
"This also means that you save our rivers from over-exploitation of water at source and from phosphate pollution at the end of the cycle."
Mr Taylor's interest in water conservation does not stop at the water recycling system. He has also developed a manual flush system for toilets that allows the strength of the flush to be regulated.
Another invention is the "rain runner", which can funnel clear rain water from roof gutters into the swimming pool.
He says water-saving devices are becoming popular, and points to the policy of the Hermanus town council, which has introduced a steep differential between different levels of water use.
The more Hermanus residents use, the more they are going to have to pay for each litre, paying substantially more at high levels of consumption.
Mr Taylor estimates that the average resident of Constantia, where more than 250 kilolitres of water are used every month, would be paying more than R2 000 a month for water if Hermanus-style tariffs were applied.
He feels that should Cape Town local authorities choose to follow national water policy to reduce consumption, the water-saving devices that he has invented could prove to be hot properties.
All Material © copyright Independent Newspapers 1997.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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