Against a global rainfall average of 870mm per year, South Africa receives a pitiful 450mm, making it the world's 30th driest country. Water Rhapsody, with 16 years experience in water conservation, is number 1 in South Africa in Grey water recycling systems and Rainwater harvesting systems.
 Water Rhapsody a WWF Green Trust award winner can save us up to 90% of our municipal water bills.”
|
Pre-manufactured wormeries are pricey. Here’s how to make your own!
Many homeowners have some kind of composting system in operation and are able to turn their kitchen and garden waste into useful compost with very little effort.
Composting, however, is substantially harder for people living in sectional title schemes. Firstly, most occupants are not inclined to keep a smelly decomposing heap of waste on their bathroom floor and, secondly, even fewer are happy to have the associated pests and wildlife that come with a conventional compost heap.
There is a surprisingly clean and odour-free solution to this predicament: red worms.
Vermicomposting, or worm composting, is the decomposition of organic waste with red worms in a custom-built “wormery”. The process creates a fine, black, granular compost called “castings”. Worm castings are an excellent source of slow-release soil nutrients for your pot plants. They also act as an excellent soil additive that prevents caking in potted plants.
Considerations for your wormery
There are a number of pre-manufactured and purpose-built wormeries available from specialist stores or online. But, if you want to make your own wormery, here are a few tips:
• Bedding — Red worms can live in wormeries made from plastic or wood. These containers are partially filled with bedding material, most commonly shredded newspaper, shredded cardboard, straw or a combination of these materials.
• Moisture — The worm bedding should be kept as moist as a well-wrung sponge. Occasionally, the bedding can become too wet and needs to be gently loosened with a hand cultivator or small garden fork.
• Acidity — Red worms prefer bedding that is slightly acidic. However, if the materials added are very acidic, add  crushed and dried eggshells to reduce the acidity.
• Light — Red worms are very sensitive to light and need an opaque bin that has a lid or a dark plastic bag placed over the bedding to keep the light out.
• Ventilation — Most wormeries also have some means of ventilation, either through holes drilled in the bin itself or a system of air tubing that runs through the bin from one side to another. Additional dry bedding material can also be added to help keep air in the bedding.
• Drainage — Wormeries with holes in the bottom for drainage should be placed on one by two inch blocks on a plastic tray. The tray will collect any liquid that drains from the bin. A piece of sheer fabric should be laid over the drainage holes to prevent the worms from falling through.
Choosing the size of your bin
The following guide will help you decide what size of wormery you will need. You should keep in mind that red worms eat their own weight in food every day. In other words, if you produce two kilograms of organic waste every day then you should have two kilograms of worms in your bin. If you find that your red worms are being overfed, simply get another bin and more worms.
People/Quantity of worms/Bin size
• One to two/0.5kg/60cm x 60cm x 30cm
• Two to three/1kg/75cm x 60cm x 30 cm
• Four to six/ 1.5kg to 2kg/90cm x 60cm x 30cm
Finding your worms
While suitable worms can be found in the wild, the most sensible option is to purchase your worms from specialist stores or commercial growers.
I was very excited to read this article, as I have been thinking of starting my own wormary for ages. I didn’t know how to build one (and I don’t buy anything I can make myself (or ask my husband to do!)) and I didn’t know where to find worms. Now I know what I will use to build a wormery and when I asked my husband where I will be able to find red worms, three of his friends have wormeries for fishing. Now, I won’t have to buy compost again.
This is also a clever idea to get your children involved in conserving and living green lives: Introduce children to the art of vermicomposting by giving them their own worms to look after. Worms make great pets – no vet bills and you don’t have to take them for a walk.
Did you know that up to 70 percent of your electricity bill is made up of electricity used to heat up water? With this astounding figure and the price of electricity increasing yearly investing in a solar system is the way to go. With our products, you can expect a saving of up to 52 % on your electrical bill.
Here are some of the advantages of the products Yes Solar, agents of Solsquare offer:
S O L A R WAT E R H E AT I N G
* The Solsquare Group embodies high quality products and services.
* We specialise in both residential systems and large-scale projects.
* Solsquare products come with a guarantee of 5 to 10 years depending on the system chosen.
Domestic Systems
The Solsquare Group offers both thermosyphon and split systems.
The Thermosyphon System is a complete roof mounted solar water heating system, with the tank and collectors
mounted as one unit on the roof. Thermosyphon systems require low maintenance as they contain no moving
parts and heat exchange fluid is circulated naturally. 100, 150 and 300 litre systems are available.
The Split System is a complete solar water heating solution designed to provide maximum efficiency while
reducing energy costs. Solar collectors are mounted on the roof whist the tank is placed inside the house. Unlike
the thermosyphon systems the heat exchange fluid is circulated by pump. 100 to 250 litre systems are available.
Large Scale Systems
Our commercial systems, designed and manufactured by Tisun in Austria, with capacities up to 5000 litres per
tank, provide solutions for large-scale projects like hotels, hospitals, office blocks and industrial enterprises. Our
large scale systems are specified by our engineers to suit customer-specific needs and site conditions.
Carina van Wyk, Beeld
Johannesburg – People will be paying significantly more for new cars from Wednesday.
The new “green” tax, which applies to new passenger vehicles which release more than 120g of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometre, comes into effect on Wednesday.
For each extra gram of CO2/km, the car’s price increases by R85.50 (R75 plus VAT).
According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) this will bring about an average price increase of 2.5%.
The national treasury said the environmental tax is based on the “polluter pays principle” and is intended to change consumer behaviour.
For this reason the treasury and industry will recommend that dealers indicate the CO2 tax separately on invoices.
Industry response
It is still unclear whether consumers will have to pay the full amount or whether car manufacturers or dealers will absorb part of it.
“The tax will be transferred to the consumer,” Gary Ronald, spokesperson for the Automobile Association (AA) said on Tuesday.
Leo Kok, spokesperson for Toyota South Africa, said they are currently looking at ways of lessening the burden on the consumer.
Toyota wants to try to absorb part of the tax, especially in cases where people buy more environmentally friendly cars.
Guy Kilfoil, head of communication at BMW South Africa, earlier told Sake24 that, due to the competitive nature of the market, manufacturers can’t transfer the increased sales prices to consumers, because they will be “pricing themselves out of the market”.
According to Kok, South Africa’s fuel is not yet clean enough to be used in highly environmentally friendly cars.
Corollas which comply with strict European (Euro 5) standards are manufactured at Toyota’s plant in Durban, but they are exported.
These cars’ engines cannot function optimally with the sulphur content of our fuel, he explained.
Impact
It is difficult to say at this stage what impact the tax will have, Ronald said.
According to him, it might have an impact on the type of vehicle people are going to buy, because they might not be able to afford what they want.
“But I don’t think the impact will be significant.”
CO2 tax on double-cab vehicles will only come into effect in March next year in order to give manufacturers and importers time to determine their CO2 emissions.
- Beeld
Source: News24
I am all for conservation. And at home have made quite a few changes to my way of life, so as to have a less negative effect on earth. BUT… We are taxed on emmissions, and the threshold from which we are taxed are lower than the threshold in Germany, whilst the fuel they can purchase and use, are more environmentally friendly.
If we are to be taxed for vehicles we buy, surely we should be given proper alternatives?
1. Educate to change consumption and lifestyles
In the end, changing the face of this crisis involves education to motivate new behaviors. Coping with the coming era of water scarcity will require major overhaul of all forms of consumption, from individual use to the supply chains of major corporations, like GE. Some regions led by India, Australia and the Southwest U.S., are already facing the freshwater crisis. The most critical task is making sure the problem is much better understood worldwide.
2. Invent new water conservation technologies
In areas where aquifers are drying up and rainwater is increasingly unpredictable, innovation is needed. But as we attempt to cope with freshwater scarcity and develop conservation technologies, energy consumption is an important consideration.
3. Recycle wastewater
In March, World Water Day panelists urged a new mindset for wastewater treatment. Some countries, like Singapore, are trying to recycle to cut water imports and become more self-sufficient. The rich East Asian republic is a leader in developing advanced technology that cleanses wastewater for other uses, including drinking. Continue reading Experts Name the Top 19 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis
Islamabad – A month after torrential monsoon rains triggered Pakistan’s worst natural disaster on record, flood waters are starting to recede – but leave countless survivors at risk of death from hunger and disease.
The disaster has killed at least 1 643 people, forced more than six million from their homes, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the US-backed government which has struggled to cope.
Despite generally lower water levels, officials said they were still battling to save the delta town of Thatta, 70km east of Karachi, in the southern province of Sindh.
Water has broken the banks of the Indus near Thatta and also topped a feeder canal running off the river.
“Thatta will be inundated if this water does not flow into the sea. The situation is very critical,” Sindh relief commissioner Riaz Ahmed Soomro told Reuters. “We are trying to fill in breaches and strengthen embankments to save Thatta.”
Women, children evacuate
Soomro said about 95% of the delta town’s 300 000 residents had already fled.
“Only male members of the families have stayed back to save their property. Children, women and old people, all of them have left Thatta.”
The floods began in late July after torrential monsoon downpours over the upper Indus basin in northwest Pakistan.
Weather officials said water levels were receding on most rivers and they expected no rain in the coming few days.
“We believe that it will take another 10 to 12 days for rivers in Sindh to come to normal flow. Therefore, we still need to be watchful,” said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, the government’s top weather official.
The death toll was expected to rise significantly as the bodies of the many missing people are found.
The UN said aid workers were increasingly worried about disease and hunger – especially among children – in areas where even before the disaster acute malnutrition was high.
UN officials say an estimated 72 000 children, affected by severe malnutrition in flood-affected areas, are at high risk of death.
Even before the floods, Pakistan’s economy was fragile. Growth, forecast at 4.5% this fiscal year, is now predicted at anything between zero and 3%.
The floods have damaged at least 3.2 million hectares – about 14% of Pakistan’s cultivated land – according to the UN food agency.
The total cost in crop damages is believed to be about $2.86bn.
- Reuters
Source: News24
Apparently 1 in 10 people in Pakistan has access to drinking water.
|
© 2009 Park&Co | Sponsors | Contact Us | Advertise | Site Map | Privacy Policy
|
Follow Us!