Being Green - 21 July 2017
Loading player...
Water in the Rocks
Have you noticed how the obligatory chat about the weather has changed in the last little while? Now we say – “Beautiful day – but of course I’d be happy if it were overcast and raining….”
The City of Cape town continues to exhort us about saving the precious stuff, and there’s a sort of threnody which repeats – we’re falling short of the savings, it should be - X. But it’s only …Y. Appealing to the guilt response. Well I don’t know about you, but from what I can see, we’re being as dutiful as possible, and many people have instituted things like rainwater harvest, and the use of grey water. But yes, appealing to us to save is good – but what else do they have?
What we don’t hear from the City or the Provincial or the National Government are concrete plans to address the crisis – although all are agreed it’s a crisis.
Dam levels, or rather the average storage capacity, stands at 26.4 percent, one percent up on the previous week, about 10 Megalitres more. Last year at this time the average was 44 percent. But we may be lucky – more rain is on the way, cold fronts do seem to be increasing in frequency.
One good development is that the Table Mountain Group Aquifer, the TMG Aquifer, is in the spotlight at last, with a promise that the pilot study will soon be resumed. The TMG? Group means group of strata characterizing a geological formation, Table Mountain gives its name to this group, or layer, of rocks.
Now it’s a very big, very considerable structure and it should be better known.
Hydro-geologist Chris Hartnady enlightened us here on B-G earlier this year. The aquifer extends way beyond Table Mountain…
“But the area that we are…
Chris Hartnady, hydro-geologist. The TMG Aquifer won’t solve our great need for water, but keep a watch out for the resumption of the pilot study. Every drop helps.
Have you noticed how the obligatory chat about the weather has changed in the last little while? Now we say – “Beautiful day – but of course I’d be happy if it were overcast and raining….”
The City of Cape town continues to exhort us about saving the precious stuff, and there’s a sort of threnody which repeats – we’re falling short of the savings, it should be - X. But it’s only …Y. Appealing to the guilt response. Well I don’t know about you, but from what I can see, we’re being as dutiful as possible, and many people have instituted things like rainwater harvest, and the use of grey water. But yes, appealing to us to save is good – but what else do they have?
What we don’t hear from the City or the Provincial or the National Government are concrete plans to address the crisis – although all are agreed it’s a crisis.
Dam levels, or rather the average storage capacity, stands at 26.4 percent, one percent up on the previous week, about 10 Megalitres more. Last year at this time the average was 44 percent. But we may be lucky – more rain is on the way, cold fronts do seem to be increasing in frequency.
One good development is that the Table Mountain Group Aquifer, the TMG Aquifer, is in the spotlight at last, with a promise that the pilot study will soon be resumed. The TMG? Group means group of strata characterizing a geological formation, Table Mountain gives its name to this group, or layer, of rocks.
Now it’s a very big, very considerable structure and it should be better known.
Hydro-geologist Chris Hartnady enlightened us here on B-G earlier this year. The aquifer extends way beyond Table Mountain…
“But the area that we are…
Chris Hartnady, hydro-geologist. The TMG Aquifer won’t solve our great need for water, but keep a watch out for the resumption of the pilot study. Every drop helps.
