International South Africa's Water Crisis: Taps Have Run Dry Across Johannesburg

So you're saying that if you get hosed with your recycled water, you don't end up smelling like you've been sprayed with urine by a randy wombat? Strange...

If the water-recycling plant is working like it should, I'm saying that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a bottle of recycled water and a $3 bottle of brand-name "mountain spring water" (that's more-often-than-not pumped from a well owned by Nestle somewhere in the countryside) in a blind taste test. Probably because there isn't any.



We have both.

I think type was referring to treated storm water. IE from streets, gutters etc.
It is vastly cheaper and if a litre of treated but undrinkable watet replaces a litre of drinkable water it effectively made a litre of drinkable water.

Oh...we call that stuff "treated sewage", and it is indeed vastly different from what could be called "recycled water" in this conversation, lol. :D
 
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We have recycled water in Adelaide as well, but if you've ever been caught by the parklands sprinkler systems that use it, you'd know it's not all good.

It's different. That would be treatment of run off water. Great tech but it requires rain.

I'm talking about treating actual sewage and making it perfectly drinkable and more pure than what comes out of your tap currently.
Effectively a constant loop.
 
It's different. That would be treatment of run off water. Great tech but it requires rain.

I'm talking about treating actual sewage and making it perfectly drinkable and more pure than what comes out of your tap currently.
Effectively a constant loop.

No, it's treated sewage, but it's not done to a drinking water standard. The Bolivar, Christies Beach and Glenelg sewage treatment facilities had issues (primarily with odour), and one of the pioneering facilities actually ended up being closed down. They have a history of related issues.
Mind you, whether Adelaide tap water is drinkable anyway is questionable.
 
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I thought all of their troubles would be resolved once the apartheid was abolished. South Africa is well on its way to be the next Zimbabwe from the looks of it.

Apartheid itself was the only problem that it's abolition got rid of. All of our other problems got worse, and we got a bunch of new ones as a bonus.

One cannot defend apartheid but, in no meaningful sense, did getting rid of it improve the country.
 
No, it's treated sewage, but it's not done to a drinking water standard. The Bolivar, Christies Beach and Glenelg sewage treatment facilities had issues (primarily with odour), and one of the pioneering facilities actually ended up being closed down.

That totally sucks, because water recycling is a much more viable, efficient, and cheaper than desalination.

The Craigie treatment plant in Perth is modeled after the system we have in Orange County, so I'm hoping that one will be more successful.

I'm guessing all the facilities that "had issues" with odors/tastes/visuals probably only went as far as Step 2 in the 3-Step filtration process as shown in this vid:



Budgetary concerns is the excuse for not going big on a desalination plant.
Our economy has taken hit after hit since Zuma came to power, and being downgraded to junk status last year (plus our ongoing state capture scandals) certainly did not help. The problem of course, is that Cape Town's economy is kind of dependent on water (duh).

The S.A government might want to look at the water-recycling route in the future. For the same cost to build those three desalination plants that could produce 16 million liters of drinking water from the sea, you would be able to build a water recycling plant that could produce 211 million liters straight from your current water supply.

It takes a lot less electricity to filter impurities from fresh water than to turn sea water into fresh water. The math might be a little different in each country, but on average a water-recycling plant is able to produce twice as much water at one-third the operation cost of a desalination plant.
 
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No, it's treated sewage, but it's not done to a drinking water standard. The Bolivar, Christies Beach and Glenelg sewage treatment facilities had issues (primarily with odour), and one of the pioneering facilities actually ended up being closed down. They have a history of related issues.
Mind you, whether Adelaide tap water is drinkable anyway is questionable.

Oh ok. Basically that done to a higher standard then.

Is Adelaide water any worse than sydney water? I drink tap water here all the time.
 
Oh ok. Basically that done to a higher standard then.

Is Adelaide water any worse than sydney water? I drink tap water here all the time.

Yeah, considerably worse. One of the few ports in the world ships won't fill up at.
 
That totally sucks, because water recycling is a much more viable, efficient, and cheaper than desalination.

The Craigie treatment plant in Perth is modeled after the system we have in Orange County, so I'm hoping that one will be more successful.

I'm guessing all the facilities that "had issues" with odors/tastes/visuals probably only went as far as Step 2 in the 3-Step filtration process as shown in this vid:





The S.A government might want to look at the water-recycling route in the future. For the same cost to build those three desalination plants that could produce 16 million liters of drinking water from the sea, you would be able to build a water recycling plant that could produce 211 million liters straight from your current water supply.

It takes a lot less electricity to filter impurities from fresh water than to turn sea water into fresh water. The math might be a little different in each country, but on average a water-recycling plant is able to produce twice as much water at one-third the operation cost of a desalination plant.


I think those cost ratios are the best possible cost deferentials.
Regardless desalination is always economically uncompetitive.
 
I think those cost ratios are the best possible cost deferentials.
Regardless desalination is always economically uncompetitive.

I don't know if that's the best-possible scenario, but that's actually the real-world direct comparison between the GWRS water-recycling plant in Orange County and the water desalination plant in San Diego County, both are in Southern California (about 50 miles apart) and are subjected to approximately the same labor/supplies/energy costs.

The desalination plant costs $1 Billion to build, and is producing 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.

The water-recycling plant costs $623 Million to build, and is producing 100 million gallons of drinking water a day.

The annual operating costs for the desalination plant is three times the water recycling plant, much of that is in electricity consumption.

Hence: Water Recycling have twice the output at one-third the operational costs of Water Desalination. And it also only cost half as much to build.

Numbers like that makes me wonder why every time the issue of water scarcity comes up, people would instantly think of water desalination as the first solution, when it's almost always the most expensive and least economically-viable option of all.
 
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I thought all of their troubles would be resolved once the apartheid was abolished. South Africa is well on its way to be the next Zimbabwe from the looks of it.

Thats what happens when you run all the white people out of town.
 
I don't know if that's the best-possible scenario, but that's actually the real-world direct comparison between the GWRS water-recycling plant in Orange County and the water desalination plant in San Diego County, both are in Southern California (about 50 miles apart) and are subjected to approximately the same labor/supplies/energy costs.

The desalination plant costs $1 Billion to build, and is producing 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.

The water-recycling plant costs $623 Million to build, and is producing 100 million gallons of drinking water a day.

The annual operating costs for the desalination plant is three times the water recycling plant, much of that is in electricity consumption.

Numbers like that makes me wonder why every time the issue of water scarcity comes up, people would instantly think of water desalination as the first solution, when it's almost always the most expensive and least economically-viable option of all.

I have had a few quiet ales but these numbers (which roughly equal my understanding) seem fairly different to the first set.

But the message is clear: desalination is for politics, sewage treatment is for the future of the nation.
 
That totally sucks, because water recycling is a much more viable, efficient, and cheaper than desalination.

The Craigie treatment plant in Perth is modeled after the system we have in Orange County, so I'm hoping that one will be more successful.

I'm guessing all the facilities that "had issues" with odors/tastes/visuals probably only went as far as Step 2 in the 3-Step filtration process as shown in this vid:





The S.A government might want to look at the water-recycling route in the future. For the same cost to build those three desalination plants that could produce 16 million liters of drinking water from the sea, you would be able to build a water recycling plant that could produce 211 million liters straight from your current water supply.

It takes a lot less electricity to filter impurities from fresh water than to turn sea water into fresh water. The math might be a little different in each country, but on average a water-recycling plant is able to produce twice as much water at one-third the operation cost of a desalination plant.


We got our first water reclamation plant ages ago (only a little one though):
http://www.savingwater.co.za/2011/0...r-reclamation-plant-a-first-for-south-africa/


And they've discussed a water reclamation plant in the Cape, though their production estimates are not as impressive as yours:
https://www.groundup.org.za/article/what-government-doing-about-cape-towns-water-crisis/
 
And whith the birthrate in Africa that shit wont get better.
 
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