Hello Purple world

From what I have heard you Gauteng people have had a drought for about 2 years and your dams have filled up this due to heavy rain. Well for those that don't know the Cape Town dams are about 9% now and i dont beleieve the BS that the council is saying that they have plans in place. So long story short, any of you Gauteng guys have tips from your experience on how to survive a drought period of years?

Yeah, Move...

Shower with a WG that way you get to save water.

Most important thing if you live in a house, get a couple of rain barrels - Even though there hasn't been much rain, when it does rain, those barrels will fill up quickly.

Use grey water for plants and general outdoor use - for instance dishwater should be put in buckets or containers instead of letting it run down the drain. Do the same for shower or bath water. Put a tub inside shower, to catch water when you shower and if you bath, transfer water afterwards to containers or buckets.
Stop using washing machines and dishwashers. Do washing and dishes in tubs instead.

If you drink sodas on a regular basis, make a habit of cleaning the 2l bottle once its empty and immediately fill the bottle with tap water and store it away. In no time you will have a good emergency water supply.

Don't flush the toilet every time you urinate, only flush after using it a couple of times and its also a good idea to use a bucket of water instead to flush, so that you can control how much water you use to flush. Also good to urinate in a bucket instead and then dilute it 1 to 10 with grey water and use that to water your plants, good fertilizer.

If things get really bad, you can use a tarp or even plastic sheet, to collect water overnight from the air or if you have quite a bit of money, you can buy a water from air device. It is on my wishlist of things I still want to buy one of these days..
www.waterfromair.co.za/

If you don't have R26 500 laying around, then I guess you and a couple of friends or neighbors can always club money together and then buy one of the machines.

Since you are in Cape Town, look into pricing for small scale desalination plants. I have no idea how much they are, must be very expensive. I read an article a while back about a guy and a couple of his neighbors who put together a small plant, somewhere in the northern cape if I remember correctly and it supplies them all with drinking water.

On 2017-05-31 06:36:31 yewrev said:
Shower with a WG that way you get to save water.

Like! ;-)

Jhb's water problems were not to the extent of Cape Town's. I think there were "only" level 2 restrictions if I recall correctly.

Keep the faith, the winter rains will arrive, much like we waited for the summer rains in GP to avoid level 3. The vaal dam was 20% then in a few short weeks over 100%. Water is our lifeline for so many things I would suggest half a dozen 5 litre bottles meantime so you can practice hygiene, washing up, drinking water etc.
Don't worry with the car, pool, garden etc. Use only what you need. Keep it simple and be amazed how little you actually need as a human.
#sharetheshower

Shit is coming, I'm afraid. Big big shit for Cape Town.

Rain now will only wet the parched ground and may even cause flood havoc with hard surface runoff.

Oh dear.