How can I help protect one of the most valuable resources on earth?
Use these tips and guidelines to minimize your water usage.
Interesting Facts
Freshwater makes up a small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields.
- WWW.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/
Drought
The rainfall in South Africa is not constant nor reliable to plan for the next season. There are external factors like El Nino and La Nina. El Nino brings low rainfall and high temperatures and El Nina the opposite.
Except for small parts of South Africa, the country is a semi-desert. state. We need to treat water with the utmost respect and as a valuable resource.
During 2020, over and above the good rains we received in the Lowveld- we are in a green drought. All green on top and very dry underground. Borehole water static levels have dropped by about 15 meters in the last couple of years. Marginal boreholes have dried up to a trickle and average household boreholes have become marginal, as we need consistent rain for many seasons to re-charge our aquafers.
Water Supply and Management
It does not matter who you are- and where we live and operate, we need water.
WATER IS LIFE. Where it comes from, and the route it went through- we are oblivious of.
We should start to ask critical questions, where, for what, why, …... about water. If we do not, our children will ask us those questions when the available water is gone and or polluted.
Do you know your water source? Do you manage your clean, grey, and black water?
Water Reclamation and Reuse
• Do we have the luxury to use water once- only?
• Why do we use purified water to flush our toilets?
• Why do we irrigate with chlorinated water?
• Why do we wash our cars with purified water?
• Why, why, why…...
• Did you know, an average house’s roof will collect almost 500 l when it rains 20 mm
• Did you know we collect rainwater from paving for re-use?
Energy and Water
Give a thought for how the water got to your faucet...
If you live in town:
- The water is pumped from a raw water source- river, dam, or aquafer.
- Then, it is pumped through a purification plant.
- Once clean its pumped to an overhead reservoir or pumped direct into the towns reticulation system.
If you live from a borehole
- Deep underground water has accumulated for hundreds of years and is dormant in cracks and fissures.
- Once the hole has been drilled a pump was installed to pump the water to your overhead tank/reservoir.
- From here a booster pump supply pressure to your house and garden.
On average any water has been pumped at least twice before it is consumed. Please make sure:
- Your pump/s has been selected for the best- litre per kilowatt- water transfer.
- If you take hours to fill your tank… is the pump worn and working under capacity?
- If your borehole is pumped dry… is the pump too big for the application?
- Do you consume too much power to pump water?
- Do you have an intelligent control box for the borehole to manage pumping times and water levels?
- Dou you have a float switch in the tank to protect the borehole from over pumping and water wastage from overflowing tanks?
- Should you consider a VSD on your pumps (variable speed drive) to save on power?
Water Quality
Do you ever think about your domestic water’s quality? Municipal or borehole.
- Have your water tested, you will be surprised to find not all water is equal.
- Ph should be around 6.5 to 7.5 Low Ph will corrode your pipes and is bad for your health.
- The E-Coli should be 0% if not you are exposed to black water.
- The Total Coliforms should be less than 5 counts/100 m
- Is your water unclear or does it have a smell?
- Is there a blue or green deposit in your bath and basins?
- Is your irrigation water quality contaminated and bad for your crops?
- Is there a scale build up in your kettle and water pipes?
For all off the above there are valid reasons and can be treated.
Irrigation
Do you also believe the more water is put down for irrigation the better?
- Irrigation must be designed and calculated to accommodate the cost of water and electricity for the best growth of your product.
- Do you irrigate the hole field or just where the water is needed? In other words, do you irrigate the unwelcome plants as well?
- Ever considered drip or micro-irrigation instead of flood /overhead irrigation? If you have centre pivots, do you know about DRAGON- LINE drip lines, for pivots. Irrigate at the right time of day for your area.
- Maintain leaking pipes end non-effective sprayer heads.
- Make sure you do not overkill with your pump/s capacity and kW
- Calculate m3 water versus kW/H consumed versus irrigated fields/ h.
- Make sure your water quality is acceptable.
- Check for sand or corrosive elements in the water. If your pipes are above ground, make sure the first (extremely hot) water does not go on your crop. The sun will heat the water in a pipe up to 40 degrees and more. You will save a bundle if you take time to investigate
Water Security
You might wonder what this is about, remember- water is life. Where water security is compromised there is no quality of life.
Boreholes:
- Make sure your borehole is sealed on top of the casing.
- If not, all the “creepy and the Cawley’s” might think- what a nice place to live.
- They go in- and you drink the resulting soup.
- If the lid/baseplate is open – anybody can and will drop stuff down the hole. They DO.
- Always operate the borehole in conjunction with a float switch in the reservoir.
- Make sure the electrical switch boxes are locked. One way to get you out at night is to cut your water. They do.
- Place isolating valves out of reach, above mentioned reasons.
- All pumps and cables get stolen, secure your installations.
- Never work with oil or poison near boreholes, you will regret it.
- Make sure no surface water can enter alongside your borehole casing.
Reservoirs/Tanks:
- Make sure your tank has a solid base, if not it will crack.
- Always keep your tank‘s lids closed, and overflow holes filled with a “scotch bright” bundle
- Calculate your daily consumption and have ample storage for a long weekend in case your pump break just before the weekend. They DO.
- If possible, fence your reservoir/s into your house area. Do not allow access to just anybody. Tanks get stolen, damaged, or contaminated.
- Always be vigilant, if you notice any powder, strange containers or strange stains close to your tanks. Investigate possible contamination/poison.
- In the case of large steel or concrete reservoirs always make sure the manhole covers are sealed.
- Inspect for leaks regularly.
- Take monthly water meter readings and record, this will enable you to notice a possible leak when there was a significantly higher consumption for a period.
- Install a water level indicator and float switches to enable you to manage the water in the reservoirs.
Pipelines:
There are only a couple of materials, pipes are made of for common use:
- HDPE, High-density polypropylene (size measured on the outside)
- LDPE, Black pipe (size measured on the inside) commonly used on farms with insert fittings and clamps and or wire to prevent leakage.
- PVC, Blue pipe measured on the outside comes in 6 m lengths
- Steel pipe, normally galvanised or black. Screw fittings.
Each of these has its own pro’s and con’s, the fact is at some stage you will have a leaking pipe. We rarely know the pipe is leaking and the leaking water does not always show on the surface.
Most of the time, thousands of litres of water are lost before we realise there is a leak.
The only way to make sure the pipeline is intact is to do a pressure flow test; this is when a closed and isolated pipeline is subjected to a constant flow and pressure of water. While the influx of water is monitored at a specific pressure.
With this method, even small leaks can be identified. As stated above, just about all water are at least pumped twice before it reaches its destination. Once it leaked back into the soil the cost of pumping was wasted, together with the water.
If you do fix a leaking pipe- please use the correct type of fitting according to the pipe material. If not, your effort was wasted as it will leak again.
Fire
Each lodge/ institution is unique; therefore, each will have a different solution for its fire protection system. In case of a fire, the conclusion is “what would the reasonable/ responsible person do” if he/she were not insured - to protect his property?
After consultation with the Insurance industry on the minimum standards regarding water for firefighting, the following was concluded:
- Do have dedicated water in storage dedicated in case of fire.
- One can use current reservoirs for this purpose if configured correctly.
- Rainwater harvesting reservoirs are ideal for this purpose.
- To be able to fight a fire, water must be under pressure, minimum 6 bar.
- A hydrant valve should be available for a fire truck to refill- in time.
- Fire extinguishers should be available as follows. One 9 kg dry chemical unit for every 200 square meters of built-up area.
- Fire reels should be available, at least 30 m from a building and 60 m apart.
- To prevent a fire to spread the first 3 minutes of any fire is crucial.
- By law, any public institution should have at least one person trained in firefighting. Level BF1 and it is valid for 2 years.
- Fire prevention is one of the most neglected aspects of Lodges and buildings.
- There are many regulations that; if not adhered to, an Insurance company could decide not to honour a fire claim.
- Contact us for an assessment of your property.
Is your borehole pump installation up to standard?
- Does the baseplate cover the hole completely?
- Is there a cavity around the casing?
- A sanitary seal around the casing is crucial.
- Is there protection for the pump and motor?
- Do you have a float switch fitted in the reservoirs?
- Ensure all cable connections are insulated and safe It is preferable to have a valve on the outlet pipe from the baseplate.
- Ensure the earth cable from the motor is earthed in the control box and to the borehole casing.
- Use insulated cable for earthing as bare copper earth cable tend to corrode.
- Check the lightning arrestors. Replace if mis-formed or burned.
- Check for tension on the submersible cable going down into the hole. There should be NO tension on the electrical cable.
- Ensure the control box is watertight and closed, prevent bees, ants, and wasps to enter.
- Check for, ant and rodent holes close to the borehole.
- Remove all trees directly adjacent to the borehole, as their roots will endanger the borehole by growing and multiplying inside.
Flood Management
- Know your property, the direction of floodwater is important if you want to manage it.
- According to the law, you must accept your neighbour’s flood water.
- If possible, always try to slow floodwater down, this will prevent erosion.
- Protect soft embankments to erode more during floods, by protecting it with gabions, grass, or stone coping.
- Redirect floods away from boreholes.
- Contact us for flood pre-assessment and solutions.
Water Wise Gardening
- The Lowveld is a sub-tropic region, familiarise yourself with the indigenous plants of the area.
- The local plants are well-adapted for optimal water use and the wildlife will appreciate the known plants and trees.
- Use lawn which is not water-hungry and try to irrigate only when necessary.
- When mowing the lawn do not remove the cut grass, this will form a layer and help save moisture.
Wastewater
- This is all the wastewater that does not include sewerage.
- Most of the time we send this water into sewer treatment facilities, it is not recommended as it flushes and decreases the breakdown of solids in the sewer system.
- When this happens, the water going to the French drain/syphoning pit from the septic tank may still contain E-coli and other harmful bacteria.
- Alternatively, the greywater may contain chemicals that may kill the enzymes in the septic tank necessary to break down the sewerage, delaying or nullifying the treatment process.
- Greywater should be treated separately and may be re-used for a variety of uses.
- Depending on the sewer system in use; treatment is crucial.
- A sewer system is out of sight- thus out of mind, and in time the Lodge, hotel, the number of houses and people are increased without the expansion of the sewer system.
- Once a drainage system overflows and blocks up it is already too late, and a new system is needed.
- There are many systems available and best is we design and install you a new system, where the water from the sewer system may be reused.
The effect of rain on underground water systems
In the Lowveld of Mpumalanga, we receive an average of 600 to 800 mm of rain per year.
- The average thunderstorm delivers between 15 and 30 mm, of this rain most runs off to the lowest areas and ends up in streams and rivers.
- Little rainstorm water ends up in the deeper subsoil underground.
- The soft penetrating rain is what feeds our substrata water table.
- In some cases, it might take years to replenish the aquafer especially when the borehole has been over utilised, and the yield has dropped, or the hole has dried up to trickle.
- After a season of rain, we might have a lush green surface but a continuing drought underground, as little rain has managed to replenish the underground aquifers.
- PLEASE DO NOT OVER PUMP BOREHOLES
One could add to this list of possibilities and potential problems, not all will apply to your specific situation. Please use the above where it applies to your situation as a checklist for maintenance and if you need assistance please contact us at Agri Pumps to help with any solution you might need. We have ample experience and a proven track record since 1984 In the water industry.
Water: The future!
·
Without clean water, there is no future
·
We are the custodians of this precious commodity, and we need to do much
more to protect it.
·
In future, all water will have to be purified, at a cost.
·
As it is - there are many fights about water, and it will increase …….
Currently, South Africa has access to surface water (77 per
cent of total use), groundwater (9 per cent of total
use), and recycled water (14 per cent of
total use)
TO ENSURE CLEAN WATER FOR YOUR CHILDREN TAKE ACTION TODAY