When every drop counts, innovations give hope

Many South Africans will take to the roads this holiday season in search of some sense of normal at the end of a hard, disrupted year brought about by one of the biggest crises of their lifetimes.

And as they drive and walk along the byways and the towns of this land, they would do well to reflect on the devastation wrought by another crisis that SA has been battling for generations.

See that dry river? See those dead, empty fields? See the abandoned farms? See the dirty, polluted streams? See the taps run dry?

Water. It is the resource we most need, the one we most abuse and the one we take for granted the most. It is the giver of life, the keeper of health and the bringer of bounty. It is our sustenance, employment and hygiene.

While a physical journey through the country makes the reality of the crisis stark, there are stories of hope.

Recently, South Africans were taken on a virtual journey through a series of podcasts on water heroes. The 12-episode #ForWaterForLife series was sponsored by JoJo, the domestic water solutions company, to highlight solutions and the innovators, scientists and activists seeking to change attitudes.

They are extraordinary stories, from the Jukskei in Johannesburg to Table Bay in Cape Town. From a man who walked 40 000km measuring the land in 10cm increments to find water underground, to using urine to make bio bricks. They are stories of invention, care, spirituality and indigenous knowledge.

• Georgia McTaggart started Help Up, a nonprofit organisation that brings together the homeless and unemployed around the Black River area to clean up this tributary of the Salt River that flows into Table Bay. The volunteers, who are paid via a crowdfunding platform, removed 35 tons of rubbish from the Black River in one year.
• Murendeni Mafumo, a social entrepreneur, was sitting on a stoep in a village outside Thohoyandou when he saw a young man pushing a jerry can of water on a wheelbarrow. He had walked 3km in one direction to fetch the 25l. He would not drink the water he had fetched because it was not clean.

Murendeni Mafumo invented a water filtration system. Picture: Supplied

Mafumo founded Kusini Water and invented a water filtration system that is affordable and uses recycled macadamia nut shells, 3D printed boxes to house the system and a smart water meter. It runs on solar power and is a plug-and-pay system which has an Internet of Things platform that allows users to monitor every stage in the process, ideal for remote, rural areas.

Within two years, the company reported it was selling the cheapest purified water in South Africa, providing over one million litres.

His next big plan is to create a system to recycle seawater in Namibia.

Dr Dyllon Randall and his colleagues developed a waterless urinal which produces solid fertiliser. Picture: Robyn Walker

• In 2017, Cape Town was on the brink of running out of water. Dr Dyllon Randall and his colleagues saw flushing toilets as one of the biggest users of water and developed a waterless urinal that could produce solid fertiliser in 30 seconds.
• Dr Gideon Groenewald was just 12 when the water dried up on his family’s farm in Aliwal North. They found groundwater using trees and branches. Studying and finding groundwater became his life journey. Better known as Oom Gideon, he has PhDs in palaeontology, hydrology and geology.

Together with his late wife, he walked 40 000km from 1979 to 1996, measuring the mountains in 10cm increments.

When his wife died in 2015, he became the chief geologist for Gift of the Givers and uses his fields of study to find boreholes for dry communities.

He uses Google Maps to study a potential area, marks it, then goes to the area and meditates. His success rate is about 90%.

When Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) ran dry, he found a borehole that provides 50 000 people with water. But, he has a warning. He believes another 10 dry years lie ahead.

“Water is not a given,” said Groenewald. “First, you cannot be certain you will have water tomorrow. Second, don’t waste water. Third, look after your waste water so it doesn’t pollute the clean water that is left over.”

We have grown too quickly, spread too wide and cared too little for the consequences of what that has meant.

Water is humanity’s greatest asset and humanity is water’s greatest threat.

• The podcast can be downloaded from the JoJo website or all other usual platforms.

– news@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.