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Water Problems

9K views 43 replies 14 participants last post by  drray777 
#1 ·
I thought we should start a new thread for our approaching water problems. Here is a pretty good summary...

Water affairs silenced as sewage flows
Most sewerage plants in South Africa malfunction, but officials have been told to back off ahead of local elections in 2016.

Most of South Africa’s 800 municipal water treatment plants are releasing raw sewage into the country’s rivers. Water affairs department officials say they have been told to look the other way until after next year’s local government elections.

“We have been led to understand that until the 2016 elections there should be less focus on exposing any wrongdoings at municipal plants,” says a water affairs enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity.

There was no explicit command, but the “order” came from the top of the department, says the official, who is one of three in the department who confirmed the hands-off edict occurred.

Water affairs is under the leadership of Minister Nomvula Mokonyane. She told Bekkersdal protesters before the national elections last year that the ANC “doesn’t need their dirty votes”.

An official in the department’s Pretoria offices says, “You know how it works: the word goes around that we should back off and you do what you need to do to keep your job.” ...
 
#2 ·
Can you imagine how bad the quality of water will be by 2016, if left untreated? :eek:

Anyway, I still haven't gotten around to getting water filters for my taps, even though its not that expensive, but hope to do so during latter part of this month, after paying some other urgent bills first.

Until then, family and I will drink water from my prepping stock.
 
#5 ·
Well if you live by the Ocean as you nick implies, then maybe if you have a couple of friends who all club in, then a small desalinization plant will be viable I think.
Like everything else, quality of water will most probably continue to deteriorate, so I think that any option of improving quality of water is worth the effort and if you can afford it, worth the expense.

I unfortunately have to rely on municipal water supply, so all I can do is boil water and store it, later this month get filters for added protection and when shtf, I do have our lovely dirty Jukskei river around the corner from me, as an absolute last resort. :eek:

Btw Welcome to the forum!
 
#12 ·
All things aside.

We currently have several storage tanks connected to gutters, which thankfully collected some good rainwater during the odd Summer rain.

For drinking water we have stockpiled bottled drinking water to the point where I had to store it in more than one room. This was not as expensive as first thought since we have been hoarding it since the water problems started. Instead of hoping for rain we bought over 100 liters every month (which fell inside our disposable budget for every month).

With everyone suddenly waking up to the reality of possibly going several months without water, cheaper bottled water is becoming increasingly scarce to buy on a large scale in my area. Expensive bottled water is not economically viable and adds no advantage over the inexpensive ones.

We should have enough clean drinking water to last the rainless months and well into winter, without the need to top it up.

We also live near a river and if push comes to shove we will be able to collect water out of the river to use either for household needs or after treatment as drinking water. We have the necessary means to treat the water ourselves with chemicals and disinfectants.

I predict that the waterpoints planned by authorities will either be severally insufficient to handle the water needs of the citizens or it might end up situated in unsafe areas. It is also unlikely that enough water tankers exist to keep up with demand.

It might happen that the water tankers will be hijacked, as happened in Johannesburg during one of their water scarcity periods, or people might be followed back from collection points by criminals to rob them of their water allocation to sell on the blackmarket.

Alternatively, as happened in the Strand last year, authorities will discover that the supply of water is insufficient and shut down the collection point in middle-class areas to divert to townships to prevent mass riots.

In any case people should by this time be aware that government is not to be relied upon in the looming Day Zero scenario.

I will be interested to hear from any fellow preppers how their prepping has gone so far and whether there is something I missed to augment my water supply.
 
#13 ·
Sounds like you are in good shape. Here in KZN it is not that bad now, but it was bad a couple of months ago such that some of the older boreholes that were not too deep dried up. They had to drill mine to 130m and only hit water at 105m and that was using a diviner. The river near us was very low. It is small even on a good day though.

I am not sure what will happen but I know what you say is true that the government is not prepared, so we have to be. I probably need more stored water but I am still trying to build a water tank stand and even bet the borehole connections sorted. It is a huge task. I hope that will make things better for us but I have to rely on a generator to pump water, so that has its own issues. I will need a small fortune to get enough solar to run my pump once we build the house. But God willing I will get things sorted soon. I need to set up a rain collection system but tyhere has been a rash of theft in our area, so I am also busy trying to sort some form of security system, as they will even steal the water tank if it is empty.

The escalation of crime in the rural areas suggests the severity of the problem of poverty in those areas as well.:xeye:
 
#14 ·
Hi there EinherjaerZA. Sounds like you have your water situation covered. Have you given any thought to the side effects or should I say consequences other than the water itself when the taps are turned off? When day zero does arrive it will not be business as usual. I see many people evacuating, esp those who can afford it. What's going to happen to all those empty houses, who will stop them from being looted?
The sewerage system will stop flowing too, pushing even more people out. What about businesses that can no longer function, either due to no water or no staff?
Still planning on traveling to work every morning? It may be littered with protests. Even though they plan on keeping the water flowing in the poorer areas, those people work for a living, what are they going to do when their bosses evac and shut the company doors?
I don't for one second believe the SAP and the SADF will be able to restore order in CT when the taps get turned off?
What are your plans around this?
 
#15 ·
Hi Louie,

Thanks for the additional questions.

I have already anticipated problems and decided to give up our rental house mid last year. We now rent a house in one of the outlying areas or towns thus removing the family out of the city proper which hopefully will give us some early warning if things become really dire. The area we live in is also subject to water shortage, hence the storage tanks etc.

I now commute in and out for work purposes, which will hopefully only place me at risk in City of Cape Town. I have mapped alternate routes to and from work. But ultimately you have to cross a highway like the N1, N2 or R 300 on your way out at some point. I suspect our company will close or run on half staff if it comes to that - I am not privy to the meetings that senior management have on assessing risks (if they have such a thing).

We also have an alternate bug out location to an area with no water shortage if looting etc. at our present home starts. If need be we can also drive there every weekend to collect water at that place. This will up petrol expenses and of course if petrol becomes scarce when everyone starts running that will also be a problem. We have a small reserve enough to get us out of the danger zone.

For sewage we will probably sink the tried and tested "long drop" toilet in our back yard. Then rotate it round the yard if necessary or burn the content.

If protesters close the highways no one will be going to work for weeks. I will only need to escape once, I can connect to the server from home if need be and work from home. Not ideal and we will lose revenue but better than nothing.

I agree that law enforcement and the military will probably be overstretched and running around to keep riots at bay. For that reason we have the alternative bug out location with no water shortage problems to flee too if necessary.

Not sure what I can do else except ammo up and get a firearm. At this point though I can not afford such an expense and my understanding is that it gets increasingly difficult to obtain a gun license.

Its nice to exchange thoughts with fellow preppers.
 
#16 ·
Welcome to the board. Sounds like you have a decent plan. I know this is off subject but...Get your firearm license. Do not be afraid to get that started. I does take time but you need to start somewhere. At least get your training and competency started. you can sometimes find second hand weapons for a decent price. My carry handgun is a cheap knock off of a Walther PPK .32 cal. and it works fine for me cost me R500 and it is better than nothing and it fits nicely in my pocket.:)
 
#21 ·
Seems like the masses are finally waking up as to the reality of going without water, and it is starting to look ugly.

The amount of people queuing to buy bottled water in bulk at stores is staggering. Most stores now also enforce a policy whereby you are restricted to buying only two bottles of water per person.

People are queuing in front of shops well before it opens and a queue is also formed inside the shop itself to hopefully get to the front and buy some water before the stock is sold out.

The cost to buy drinking water has also been steadily going up, just small increments at a time but it all ads up. Nothing like a crises to score a few bucks I guess.

Those of us that collected drinking water well in advance can now relax a bit as everyone else rushes around in panic to stores in the hope of storing up the bit left on sale. Stores can't keep up with the demand generated by this last minute rush. People were looking at us funny when we started buying trolleys full of the stuff every month a year and a half back, no one is laughing at us anymore.

I wanted to add another extra water storage tank to collect more rain water or store water from other sources for domestic use (thus non drinkable water). My local supplier indicated that they receive about 126 tanks every Monday and it is sold well in advance. Current waiting time to get your hands on a 2500L tank is about 5-8 weeks depending on the exact model.

I also drive past four loads of water tanks on the N1 almost every second day on my way to work. Although storage tanks at this late stage will probably not fill with sufficient rainwater for immediate use in the initial months of the crises, it will help with collecting rainwater for the next couple of years during the rainy season.

It will probably take a couple of years for the dams to recover sufficiently after we run out of water and it can be expected that we need to weather the storm not only in 2018 but also for the years after that, even if we received increased rainfall.

Another aspect that I have been thinking about is what to do with relatives that have not heeded the call to store up water like we did and now all of a sudden find themselves with their pants around their ankles. They know we have water, since we have been urging them to store up for as long as we have been preparing.

Do you turn them away, ration them, provide them with what little you can spare or share the resource? It is a tough dilemma that I do not yet know how to handle, turning them away will strain personal relationships.

Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.
 
#25 ·
...Another aspect that I have been thinking about is what to do with relatives that have not heeded the call to store up water like we did and now all of a sudden find themselves with their pants around their ankles. They know we have water, since we have been urging them to store up for as long as we have been preparing.

Do you turn them away, ration them, provide them with what little you can spare or share the resource? It is a tough dilemma that I do not yet know how to handle, turning them away will strain personal relationships.

Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.
Depends on how important they are to you. To me "family" does not necessarily mean blood ties... it's more along the lines of who would shed their blood for you and vice versa. If said relatives are indeed important to you then I would say - ration them and charge like a wounded buffalo ;)

Having said that... if they were that important to you (and you knew that they were not the 'prepping' type) then you would probably already have made some allowance for them in your preps, you know, just in case :thumb:

The rest can go **** themselves. I am gatvol of trying to help others prepare, when they themselves could not be bothered to entertain the thought, or to even examine the logic behind it.
 
#22 ·
Sell it to them at a marked up price (ignorance interest). Then go buy some more in Hermanus.
I still think anyone who lives in CT is going to have serious problems even if they have water stocked. I would consider getting out of dodge as a more important strategy than buying water. I'm on the garden route and even I'm considering my mobility at the drop of a hat options. Water refugees are soon going to be heading my way.
 
#24 ·
If things go to hell in a handbasket we will be moving out to a place with no water problems until the water apocalypse comes to an end. Spot is already booked and ready.

Currently the biggest problem is income related, if I don't work I don't get paid and the money that went into prepping has left me with little reserve as it is.

Hopefully the business stays open or we can work from home.
 
#29 ·
I am watching this unfold and appreciate any and all updates locals can provide. Best of luck to you all.

Are water filters hard to come by or expensive? Are people getting and drinking untreated water from far away rivers and using it?

What is going on now with sanitation or lack there of, mass outbreaks of illness?

I have been seeing in youtube videos and comments in news pieces that by law all government jobs and contracts have to be proportionately staffed according to race. It is surmised that there is a deep rooted engineering brain drain that has exacerbated drought effect.

To sell out and leave the country I have read that you cannot take your wealth with you. Have ya'll not heard of bitcoin? Why not leave?
 
#31 ·
Have ya'll not heard of bitcoin? Why not leave?
Why dont you lead by example and show us how it is done?

Why dont americans subject themselves to FEMA camps (just as the Afrikaners were in 1901)

Then subject yourselves to world sanctions while flooding your country with a 12:1 ratio of Afro-crazies. Like we were.

Then surrender your constitution and become a rainbow nation and make sure you vote in ISIS into the white house.

Then when you complain, pack up and leave and make sure you show us how its done

Amazing how Americans never told Mandela to **** off back to the trees of Uganda. Its always us that must exercize the duty to retreat.
 
#37 ·
According to the DA we have miraculously prevented our water-less apocalypse and we will not experience Day Zero this year.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/cape-town-may-avoid-day-zero-this-year-maimane-20180307

Either they are feeling the heat with the upcoming elections and suddenly need to conjure up some "victory" to remain relevant or they are suddenly very optimistic. From "we are about to turn off the taps if you do not drastically reduce water consumption" to "we will be fine this year - don't worry about it".

Colour me a skeptic but these guys are either ostriches with their heads in the sand or fear-mongers of the worst order. Neither is a good stance for politicians with ruling party ambitions.

I know many people in the Cape are shopping around for a new political home after recent events and next year's elections will be very interesting indeed.
 
#38 ·
Make a composting toilet.

Look up the Humanure Handbook.

Don't waste water on waste.

I'd be using the remainder of the daily allowance and storing it.

Also collect water from any applicable river/stream, filter/purify it. Boiling is the simplest and cheapest if a Sawyer mini or something similar is too expensive there.

Not sure on your gun laws/self defence laws, but I imagine they're like ours here in Canada. Keep guns handy and loaded regardless when the water stops flowing or is greatly reduced.

I noticed they said it wouldn't happen this year, don't believe the politicians. They may be trying to get everyone calmed down. Prepare as best as you can.

Make sure you have layered security measures in place. Maybe even form groups to collect water and be armed with something and have a quick means of escape.

Not sure what else I can think of.
 
#39 ·
Looks like we are heading towards a point where even if we dodge the water apocalypse this year - we will sit with the same sword hanging over our heads next year:

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/dam-levels-drop-again-in-western-cape-20180319

"The latest average dam levels for the Western Cape have dropped to 18.9%, from last week's 19.5%, the Western Cape government said on Monday as it reminded struggling farmers that there was help available."

"At the same time last year, the dams were 26.9% full."

In other words we will need a higher than average winter rainfall this year to prevent the same problems next year.
 
#40 ·
Hi fellow SA preppers. May I ask you news about the situation in the George are if you know anyting ? I am referring not only to the water crisis but also the social/racial unrest I am receiving rumors of.....
in that town there is a person that is very important to me and I am quite concerned for her safety every time I read or see news coming from South Africa because they every time worse .... Last time I've been in Joburg and then in George was two years ago and things didn't look as bad as it seems now (to the eyes of a foreigner of course) .

Thanks in advance
 
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