Retirement: Air, Water, Food : Electricity

"Surprise, when it happens to a government, is likely to be a complicated, diffuse, bureaucratic thing. It includes neglect of responsibility, but also responsibility so poorly defined or so ambiguously delegated that action gets lost. It includes gaps in intelligence, but also intelligence that, like a string of pearls too precious to wear, is too sensitive to give to those who need it. It includes the alarm that fails to work, but also the alarm that has gone off so often it has been disconnected. It includes the unalert watchman, but also the one who knows he'll be chewed out by his superior if he gets higher authority out of bed. It includes the contingencies that occur to no one, but also those that everyone assumes somebody else is taking care of. It includes straight-forward procrastination, but also decisions protracted by internal disagreement. It includes, in addition, the inability of individual human beings to rise to the occasion until they are sure it is the occasion - which is usually too late. (Unlike movies, real life provides no musical background to trip us off to the climax.) Finally, as at Pearl Harbour, surprise may include some measure of genuine novelty introduced by the enemy, and possibly some sheer bad luck."

From Pearl Harbour: Warning and Decision, by Roberta Wohlstetter, Stanford University Press, 1962.

My comments: When our government and business leaders understand this quote, they will know why we are in this mess. I refer to water, electricity, State Owned Enterprises, corruption, transport, and so many other crises that have "slowly" crept up on us in South Africa, but which have been "visible" to some of us for decades.

"To carry out a timely response to warning ... two conditions must be met: we must not only receive warning, but also take the decision to respond. The first task has long been recognized; it calls for strong intelligence capabilities. It is the second task that has been neglected or misunderstood. We cannot assume that the enemy, if he actually plans to attack, will necessarily do us the favour of furnishing warning that is unambiguous. Military history reminds us that we ought to expect a massive and skilful effort at deception.

"The Soviet Union failed to anticipate the German Attack in 1941; the Soviets, in turn, surprised the Japanese in 1945. Despite the lesson of Pearl Harbour, we were caught unprepared again in June 1950 by the North Koreans. The Israelis achieved surprise in 1967, only to fall victim to surprise in 1973.

"It seems likely that skilful deception could deprive us of clear warning. Indeed, Soviet military doctrine puts great emphasis on deception and surprise. Hence we have to change our policy for reacting to warning. Our forces and those of our allies must be prepared to respond to warning indicators that are highly ambiguous ... Being prepared to respond only to warning that is unambiguous means being prepared for the kind of warning we are least likely to get."

Caspar W. Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defence addressing Congress, February 8, 1982

My Comments: This quote is just as applicable to a human enemy as it is to an environmental enemy. We are so brainwashed into believing that we need to save for retirement or that we need to buy expensive consumer "durables" like cars, watches, computers, phones, TVs, sound systems, even go to restaurants, or eat cheap food instead of organic healthy "expensive" food, that we have forgotten about the most critical things in life.

Analysis:

For me the most critical thing to be prepared for is to make sure that I am alive next week, in seven days time!!

What do I need to be alive in seven days time?

·     Electricity.

·     Water. Potable (Drinking) Water. And a way to collect and clean and keep water clean.

·     A Sewerage System. Maybe drop toilets or a septic tank and French drain or a biodigester.

·     A Waste Removal System, which could include recycling and worm farms.

·     Food. And food that can be kept outside a refrigerator and that won’t go off, e.g. dried fruit, dried meat, smoked foods, seeds and nuts, etc.

·     Refrigeration.

·     Shelter.

·     Security.

·     Clean Air. A Fellowes Aeramax is good for this, especially in a City with its dirty air.

“Surprisingly”, in 2019, I can make electricity and water and food and much else cheaper than I can buy it. And I can feel good about achieving the goal I set in 1999 of being able to “Live Off Grids”. Actually what I want is for people to share their surplus, which means we don't need e-volution, but rather re-volution. Not the dirty, waring revolution. But a revolution in the way we think. A new paradigm. A paradigm shift.

I have been on a “crusade” for 20 years, telling “the world” of my dream of being retired. And being teased about it by many of my colleagues and friends and neighbours and even by some of my family members for decades.

But my vision has been clear even through the dark times when people left me to my own devices because I was “out there”. If I was rich, I would have been eccentric, but I am an average middle class kind of guy, and so I am “out there”, and who wants to be with an “out there” kind of guy? Luckily my wife, and she is my strongest support and my strongest critic and whilst we fight about my dream sometimes, after our fights I always tell her that I love her and that I appreciate what she is telling me, and I love that she keeps me grounded whilst my head is in the sky and my mind is daydreaming.

A dreamer has a vision. A corporation has a vision. A vision is a dream; of the future; an achievable dream.

Retirement for me isn’t about having millions in the bank and living off the interest, or the annuity income.

Retirement for me is waking up in the morning and deciding what I want to do today. Retirement is about knowing the future. And that isn't actually all that difficult!

It is living in the moment, and if I feel like going on a hike, then that is what I’ll do, and if I feel like reading a book or writing an article then I’ll do that, and if I feel like writing a computer program or learning some new technology or mentoring or doing my strategy consulting, then I’ll do that. I am in the moment, in the now, meditating all the time, and being “on holiday” all the time. If one lies on the beach and worries about work, one is not on holiday! And the only time I am not on holiday is when something is urgent, because someone hasn’t done something by a certain date, or because there are loose ends, or because a delivery hasn’t arrived, or because my water project is three months behind schedule, because I constantly have one week delays or my suppliers and contractors don’t turn up for work or they don’t have the right tools, or they don’t understand project management.

In 1999 I did some consulting at one of South Africa’s biggest Insurers in Johannesburg, and when I came home, I phoned my broker and I cancelled (actually made “Paid Up”) my 3 retirement plans. I did this because of a 3 story marble waterfall in their entrance hall. I didn’t mind that the CEO drove a Rolls Royce. I did mind that they wasted my money on a valueless item in their foyer.

I decided that I would create my own retirement plan. And that if I got to retirement age and had no money, it would be entirely my own fault and I would only be able to “blame” myself.

You see, I don’t know anyone who can retire just on retirement savings. Even people I know who saved 15% (before tax) per year from the age of 20 and who retired at 65 don’t have enough to continue the lifestyle they had at 65, with their big houses and planes and yachts and other stuff. And until recently the retirement age in Europe was 60 for women and 65 for me. It is now 67 for women and 67 for men. After a lifetime of "saving for retirement", there just isn't enough money to retire, and so people must work longer. We need a paradigm shift in our thinking, a new way of thinking, and a way to get there.

And the ones who do manage to continue that lavish lifestyle are the ones with assets that they have built or save up for, e.g. buildings, or investments. I know people who have saved with experts who have actuaries and consultants and people earning R5 million per annum, really clever people with multiple degrees and the most expensive computer systems in the world, who still ended up losing hundreds of millions when a Dimension Data or a Siltek or a Steinhoff Crashed, or when the gold price crashed or America found new gas in the mid 2010's and so slowed down their appetite for Middle Eastern Oil and hence peoples’ returns in oil companies slows down.

And so I decide to help myself to retire!

And it was very simple. Ensure that I am alive in seven days time, no matter what happens on this planet. By doing this, I know the future. And I don't even need to be psychic.

And what of the seven days after the next seven days? If I (and my family and my friends, and the people I have promised to help) am alive in seven days, then I just need to repeat what I have just done. Staying alive from days 8 to 14 is exponentially easier than staying alive for the next seven days, especially if one considers what might happen if we run out of electricity or water.

In a modern city, using a Just-In-Time supply chain, there is 4 days of food in the supply chain. If that supply chain is disrupted for some reason, then in 4 days the supermarkets and my local shops will be empty of food.

If electricity was switched off today and only turned on again in 10 days time, due to a catastrophic failure, e.g. at De Aar switching station, (which is why there is an army base at De Aar, essentially to protect that switching station), or a terrorist group blows up the main electrical supply line from our power stations on the coal fields to Cape Town or to Johannesburg (and we cannot protect every km of that power line, although we can using modern IOT technology, but that is another 10 page article), then we will have a meltdown in our electricity system.

People and companies with generators tend to have 8 hours of diesel or gas reserves for their generators, so on the first day after the power failure all the fridges and freezers in the supply chain and in my house are switched off. On day 2 the food starts rotting. By day 4, most of the refrigerated food is spoilt. And the food in the supply chain is also spoilt. Riots break out as people search for food …

A one day electrical failure implies an immediate water crisis. Water is pumped about 100 km from Theewaterskloof dam to my house. A power failure means those pumps won’t work, and assuming Theewaterskloof was full(er), that water wouldn’t get to me; and Caltex Refinery would be off, and I won’t be able to get petrol to put in my car to drive the 116 km road distance to get to the dam. The sewerage leaving my house won’t be able to be pumped to the Athlone Sewerage works. Stagnant decaying sewerage is a recipe for Cholera and Typhoid.

Our water management crisis really isn't over, even if our dams are full. We are still restricted in the water we can use, and therefore our economy is constrained. What about if we have another water “crisis”, like last year in Cape Town, but we still have electricity, then we also have a really big problem. Imagine 4 million people queuing at 200 water collection points (20,000 per collection point; and assuming 100 taps, that is 200 people per queue, and at 10 minutes to fill a 25 litre container (bearing in mind low pressure due to low water in the dams, etc), that is 2000 minutes which is 33 hours per day!), where each person carries a round 25 kg container of water and tries to carry this home, one kilometre away. Have you ever dragged a 20 kg suitcase through a bus station or a train station or an airport? And this 20 kg suitcase is designed to be carried relatively long distances. A 25 litre water container is designed to be carried 10 meters to one’s car and another 10 meters from one’s car to the kitchen.

And after queuing for 6 hours, I finally get my ration of water, and as I’m leaving I get hijacked and I have no water. I then have to pay a ransom for my water, and I end up paying R50 per litre, when if I had just planned my own water provision I would be paying R50 per 1,000 litres. Yes, I know that I could previously get 6 kl “free of charge” or I could pay R120 for those 6 kl, but how expensive is this free or R120 6kl anyway, especially if there is no water, and I have just bought a new Rolex instead of providing for my water needs?

And then we have the poor complaining that the rich will have water and they will miss out. Well my poor friends, the rich have spent over R10 billion (this is my estimate and I believe it to be conservative (low)) on private water infrastructure between 2017 and 2018 during the main part of the drought, and because of their investments you will have water! You see whilst you think the rich are misers and only interested in themselves, the rich want to survive the impending water disaster as much as you do. And so this particular “rich” middle class citizen cancels 4 years of holidays, and works 16 months a year, so that he can pay for infrastructure that the government promised us in the 1996 Constitution and the 1998 Water Act and which the previous Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, took an Oath to deliver. And an oath is to God. And when Nomvula (which is a Zulu word meaning “with the rain”), who believes that it will “rain soon”, goes to heaven and she has helped 4 million people die because they ran out of water, then she will have her day of judgement with the King of the Universe.

And if and when Cape Town runs out of water (from the dams) then all the Smart Meters that the City is installing and the Billions of Rands and hundreds of people working on them will have been for naught. People will simply bypass their meters.

Farfetched?

Many people already steal electricity, by connecting themselves directly to electricity sources. And in many cases, Eskom does nothing about it, because Eskom is scared of entering those “crime hot spots” and the government is scared of switching off the electricity to those areas because then the crime will spill over into the neighbouring areas, where people are working and paying tax.

Our government says that they are installing valves in the system so that the 200 water collection points will have water, and so that critical infrastructure such as hospitals will have water. But if people can steal electricity, then these same people can drill into the water main and steal water. And the water meters will be useless and the 200 water collection points will have yet another reason why they won’t work.

Note that whilst the government says that this is the “worst drought ever”, statistically the current drought is the worst in 33 years. And yes, it is the worst Water Management Crisis ever. And when was the first Water Management Crisis? 1994? 1812? 1800? 1652? 1483?

Cape Town’s first Water Management Crisis was in 1800 and Cape Town’s first two dams on Table Mountain were built 100 years later because of this Crisis. Large scale infrastructure such as power stations and dams can take 50 to 100 years from conception to realisation, never mind the time it takes to fill the dam!

So since 1800 we have been aware that we are in a “water scarce region” and we have done little about it. I still see new cars. I still see people with expensive watches and going on holidays, when we already live in the most beautiful place in the world, and if we had abundant and cheap and reliable and clean energy (water and electricity) we could live here and have millions of visitors and be happy.

But instead we have bickering and infighting and one party blaming another and a party which could take action by doing a Mandamus doesn’t do it, and this Citizen does a Mandamus himself, and knows that the Constitution gives this Citizen the right to declare a State of Emergency should the Premier of the Western Cape be unwilling or unable to do it. See http://mypowerstation-sa.blogspot.co.za/2018/01/david-lipschitz-mandamuses-south.html

So when I spend R200,000 on a Solar Electric (Photovoltaic / PV / Battery System) in 2008 and my electricity cost is R5.00 per kWh when my neighbours are paying 50 c (South African cents), then it is up to me to choose how I spend my money. My neighbour taunts me that my electricity cost is so high, but buys a new R300,000 car and spends R150 per hour driving it. He spends 50 cents per kWh on electricity whilst I drive an old paid off car and spend R5.00 per kWh on electricity. Who is right?

Ten years ago it would have cost R600,000 to take my entire house off the grid, and I would have had to live frugally and constantly be energy efficient. Today I can take my entire house off the grid for R175,000, and I don't even need to be energy efficient, but I do need energy efficient appliances. This R175,000 includes a Lithium Ion Battery Bank and an LPG Generator and 6 kW of PV and a 10 kW inverter. And I get security of supply, and green electricity.

Do you want to be able to retire, securely?

Do you want to know the future?

Do you want to be stress free?

Do you want green, environmentally friendly, electricity, water, food and air?

Do you want security of supply of your electricity, and water?

Do you want to be secure in your electricity, water, food and air, knowing that its quality is constantly improving, whilst its price is constantly coming down, in real terms?

Do you want to help to bring in the new world, the new paradigm, and change how things are?

Yes to any of these questions? Please email me and let's have a discussion. david @ mypowerstation.biz.

Dear Pravin Gordhan and David Mabuza, let's fix South Africa

I believe that groups of people should create Power Stations.

Actually "My Power Station"'s. So we'll have the Old Mutual Power Station. The Naspers News24 Power Station. The Pick 'n Pay Power Station. The V&A Waterfront Power Station. Plus the Church Power Station. The Shul Power Station. The Mosque Power Station.

If you look at Old Mutual's on site power station, you will see that a lot of work has been done, but this is a tiny amount of what Old Mutual could actually be doing. If only I knew a director there who I could talk to about my vision.

I believe that the first thing that must happen in South Africa is that the Playing Fields must be levelled. So everyone should get the perks that the Energy Intensive User Group (EIUG) get, and that Big Business gets. eg Time of Use Tariffs; Net Metering; Demand Response; Buying equipment before tax and before VAT; sitting with Eskom doing demand planning on a daily basis; Energy Efficiency perks; Rebates; etc. And all Without a service fee.

If we do only these two things, and we follow the ideas as set out in the Energy White Paper of 1998 and the Renewable Energy White Paper of 2003, and their National Planning Commission document, that I commented on, then we will solve our electricity problems very quickly. And once we start solving our electricity problems, we will solve our water, food, transport, jobs, health, and other problems.

Note that a Government White Paper is a Government Strategy Document. If only our government had followed its own strategy.

It's in our hands. It's not the government's fault. It's not "another" or "the other's fault". It's my fault. It's your fault. Because we sit and complain and we don't do something about it.

I have a saying: "The rich are rich because they socialise. The poor socialists are poor because they (we) don't socialise." Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies are still there because the founders stayed together. If they fought, they worked out their problems.

Let's work together in our power station groups to solve our problems, taking responsibility for ourselves.

And let's dramatically cut our cost of living. Today.

Join My New Power Station: https://www.facebook.com/groups/milnertonelectricitywaterfoodcooperative and let's solve our problems, quickly, and forever. Here's to free water, free electricity, free food. As a target. The Zero Marginal Cost Economy by Jeremy Rifkin, says that in a Capitalist society, everything eventually becomes free or close to free. Consider free GPS on your cell phone; consider free calls on your cell phone; consider the world's library on your cell phone; consider free communication on your cell phone; consider that many people can work from anywhere, and no need for transport or public transport; consider free (streaming) TV on your cell phone.

But there is a problem in a capitalist society, and that is "enclosure", as explained in The Voluntary City. Remind me to tell you the story about the Pharaoh.

My friends: the price of water, electricity, and food is coming DOWN! But the fossilised fuel dinosaurs like Eskom are in their death throes, and as monopolies, they mess up a lot of stuff as they die. Yes, Eskom owe's R420 billion. But in the greater scheme of things, that R420 billion is a tiny amount of money compared with alternatives that actually save us money.

Note that I don't think that Eskom really needs to die. I believe that South Africa's electricity supply should be closer to 200 GW than to 20 GW. Huh, you might say "I thought that electricity demand was decreasing." Well that is only because South Africa's biggest export is jobs, followed closely by coal, iron ore, and so many other raw materials that are exported to the world, and then imported by us, making our finished goods costs amongst the highest in the world.

And the only way that Eskom can supply this 200 GW is to allow the public to help it. 

Do we want to now spend another R2 trillion on old technology, coal, uranium, gas, or do we want to rather use that R2 trillion in a different way?

I choose to accept that money has been wasted. I choose to accept that yes, it's a hell (done unconsciously (see Assagioli)) of a lot of money. But if we keep at it, then we haven't learnt.

I choose to acknowledge that a lot of people will become "redundant" as we move to the new system. But Eskom and our government are fixated on the number of people who can be employed by Eskom, or SAA, or Government, without realising that the approximately 200,000 people (two hundred thousand) who supply electricity and coal and building power stations, are doing it so that at least 55,000,000 (55 million) people have electricity and jobs and welfare and health and food.

Winston Churchill made a decision in 1911 to move the British Fleet from coal to oil. It was a dramatically difficult decision, because so many stevedores were involved in shifting coal around ships, whereas one person could turn on a valve and oil would flow. You can read more about that here. Search for "from coal to oil" (and then click down-arrow to get to the article) to learn how difficult decisions are made.

Government's job (according to the Renewable Energy White Paper of 2003) is to create an enabling environment for its citizens. Let us hold our government to their task. And let's do it now.

PS: The cliff on the right hand side of the attached picture shows our current electricity trajectory, even with new coal, and new water and potential new uranium. It doesn't have to be like this. But it's up to us. It's up to us. Today.

May we all be blessed in our coming and going.

We are all blessed.
We are all joyful.
We are all peaceful and at ease.
We are all happy.
We are all filled with loving kindness.
We are all happy.

Maybe we don't feel this all the time. But some of the time we are these things. And if we say these things as affirmations, we change ourselves and the world and each day, each of these things becomes 1 second more, so that eventually it is all day.

There is so much more one can write and say. You can read it all on my blogs and other places on the web.

A reminder that we need two things:
Level playing fields;
Lots of My Power Stations.

Yours sincerely,

David Lipschitz

david@mypowerstation.biz
0741193246, 0662288858
https://www.facebook.com/david.lipschitz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lipschitz/
My Power Station Technology (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 1080, Milnerton, 7441, South Africa

Contact me and let's continue our discussion.

Integrated Resource Plan 2018

Dear fellow South Africans

re the IRP2018

Nothing has changed since my submissions in 2010. South Africa remains massively short of domestic electricity, water and food.

From an electricity point of view, we still have 40 GW like 20 years ago, but we should have 160 GW. Worldwide growth in electricity, even with Energy Efficiency is 3.6% per annum. That means electricity use should have doubled from 40 GW to 80 in that time, but the population has doubled, so we should be at at least 160 GW.

By our government allowing massive privately funded electricity and water and food growth, in cities, their and our fiscus and tax growth will be accordingly far faster than now. But our government sees constraint and "enclosure" as their means to an end, and so they strangle the economy. Do you feel out of breath? Now you know why!

And see the energy cliff in the 2020's in Slide 15 at https://www.slideshare.net/nazimtiger/power-station-workshop . And you will see the disaster that South Africa is facing.

From a water point of view, in many parts of the country we are making do with 50 litres per person per day, but we should have at least 250 litres per person per day, (including the allowance for industry), to really grow the economy. And we are getting poorer and poorer from a food production and food quality point of view all the time.

Here are my comments from last time. I really don't see the point of commenting again. Government uses my time and resources, free of charge. I don't get thanked, even though I am a very active citizen.

http://saaea.blogspot.com/2010/11/integrated-resource-plan-irp-2010.html

http://www.energy.gov.za/IRP/irp%20files/ORBITAL_RENEWABLE_ENERGY.pdf

And my comments on the NDP also help to inform where we are at.

http://mypowerstation-sa.blogspot.com/2013/09/south-africas-national-development-plan.html

All this research funded my my company.

Regards
David Lipschitz
BSc BSc (Honours) MBA M.Inst.D.
Organising Data, Programming and Bringing Healing

Is "Day Zero" real?

People are wondering if "Day Zero" is real or if it is a fabrication by our politicians to raise prices by 500% in two years.

Here is my answer:

Water needs to have a real value. And people need to realise that Water is an essential fact of life. If we want to be alive next week, we need good quality, healthy, living (oxygenated), water.

Day Zero has only been pushed out if it rains (on time). It is still very much a reality.

Hundreds of thousands of people are installing rainwater tanks.

Almost everyone is using a grey water system, ie recycling shower water for their toilets and washing-up water for their gardens.

Some people are installing systems to make ground water clean either only for garden and swimming pool use or even making the ground water potable.

Some people have installed systems to make their swimming pool water drinkable. This makes their swimming pools into reservoirs. And it is much healthier too. Oxygenated water is much more healthy than chlorinated water. These reservoirs don't have any chlorine in them.

Free-riders in a community are normally 60% of the community. e.g. in Milnerton, only about 40% of people are members of the Milnerton Crime Watch. We pay for two cars that run 24 hours per day and now we have a cyclist as well. The other 60% effectively get this service free of charge. The same goes for the police service. 3 million taxpayers pay for this service. The rest of the country get this "for free".

And water is no different.

But just as we got to the point of having no electricity load shedding, so we will get to the point of having no water load shedding.

Of-course, 10x price increases in electricity over five years and 500x increases in water costs over two years, has meant that government has said to everyone "look for alternatives and try not to use our services". I'm guessing that government isn't stupid. At some point their huge price increases will mean that we won't need their services, as is normal in all service providers. At this point, government becomes irrelevant. e.g. we don't need their electricity, we don't need their water, we don't need their food, we don't need their education, we don't need their transport services; the list goes on.

One way government can start bring us back into their fold is to reduce water and other government induced pricing.

Another way is for government to provide the water and electricity and services that a well run city needs. For example, a well run city in California allows its citizens 400 litres per person per day. Before the drought Capetonians were using 150 litres per person per day, and wondering why there is so much unemployment, etc.

And the minimum quantity of water required in a city with waterborne sewerage is 87 litres per person per day. Asking us to us 50 litres per person per day is a crime!

We didn't design our city systems. Planners and architects and politicians did. We live in these cities and try to do our best with what we have. At some point the City of Cape Town needed to say "we will get to 87 litres of water per person per day within two years, ... and then we will need to ensure that our water augmentation schemes are in place."

Water is an abundant resource on our finite planet. Some with energy. With food, etc.

It is just that we have been brainwashed (socialised) into believing that water and electricity and food and internet time is scarce, whereas in fact it is almost infinite.

And we have also been brainwashed into believing that we need cars and computers and other appliances and computer games and holidays etc, whereas in order to be alive next week, we need a good healthy environment (air), a safe place to sleep and stay (security), a good water source, and a good food source.

Being alive next week should be our highest priority. Everything else should be subservient to this goal.

Cape Town Water Crisis: How to cover our dams

A new year, a new idea :

Imagine if we could cover all our dams?

So we can!!

We can put systems in our pools to make our pool water drinkable.

We can cover our pools. Our water bill dropped by more than half when we installed our pool cover in 2015. "Power Plastics pool covers reduce evaporation by more than 98%". From their website. I don't work for them.

And this can even be done at Newlands Swimming Pool and our other Municipal Pools.

So:
1) If you have a pool cover, AND
2) If you invest in a system that makes your pool water drinkable, AND
3) If you sign an agreement with the City to allow them to take out whatever you put in from 1st January 2018 onwards ...

Then: You can fill your pool using potable water. And you can install your swimming pool water management systems before tax and before VAT.

If we fill our pools and keep them covered and clean, we can reduce our dam evaporation by 98%. Using Embedded Water.

Happy 20 18. Let's think differently.

PS: I'm sure there are people on this group who know:
1) how many pools there are in Cape Town.
2) how many litres of water there are in these pools.
3) what the evaporation is from the dams.
4) how much water can be saved, and what this system will cost.

Keeping rainfall and water tanks clean

http://www.health.gov.au/…/ohp-enhealth-raintank-cnt-l~ohp-…

Thanks to the Australian Department of Health.

Note that the link I've sent takes you straight to the section on cleaning your water and tank.

Cape Town Drought Disaster

We have been spoilt. Now we must get back to basics. And relearn who we are. And not depend anymore.

Cape Town: February 2018?

A documentary about Water in Cape Town!!

There is a very good chance that our water sources will run dry in February, 2018, less than three months time! We should be doing everything possible to avert this disaster, even if it means temporarily drilling into the aquifer or sinking well points, and BTW, many houses have had well points for decades in this City and in many others, without anyone telling us off.

Of-course large scale desalination is still required and the City's attempt at adding 20 million litres a day to fix the problem is really too little too late.

We need 2.4 billion litres of water a day to be considered world class. Before the crisis we were using 1.2 billion litres of water a day. Now, two years later we have already halved our water consumption and we are under 600 million litres a day and now the council have asked us to reduce our consumption to under 500 million litres a day. We will get there. And we are all learning a great deal about how to conserve water and to go back to the days before government told us that they could support us with cheap food, cheap electricity, cheap water and cheap transport. We have millions of years of doing things ourselves before governments turned up 80 years ago and started spoiling us.

And Israel has shown that desalination can be done at R7.50 per kL and most people who actually pay for water in Cape Town already pay this.

We have been spoilt. And now it is time to clean ourselves up and do things ourselves, again.

My recommendations to dramatically speed up investment in getting solutions on the ground:

1. Allow private people to invest in all water and electricity (we still have an electricity crisis) and sewerage infrastructure before tax and before VAT.
2. Incentivise people to convert their pools from chlorine and salt to oxygenated pools that contain drinking water.
3. Incentivise people to not use water from the grid. Adding a water Levy is counter to this.
4. Start a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for a large scale desalination plant in Cape Town
5. Create a database of preferred supplies.

Please can someone explain why our priorities are out of whack?

Something I don't understand.

People will buy (expensive) cars that they don't need, go on extravagant holidays, spend money on new cell phones, buy the latest toys, and then complain that electricity is expensive and water is expensive, etc.

For 5 decades, governments and utilities have made us think of 50 cent per kWh electricity and 5 kL of "free" water. And now it's out of control at R2 per kWh (+ 20%?) and R4 per kL (plus Sewerage Charge) to just get going.

And so what I don't get is that when I spend R20,000 on my water system, and I my wife and I continue to drive our 20 year old cars, whilst my colleague buys a new R200,000 car, he says, "Wow: 20K is really expensive just for this water system", and I think "hey: what about the R200,000 car you are driving?"

Also people plan for retirement in 10, 20 or 30 years time, but aren't concerned about being alive next week. If I want to be alive next week, I should ensure that I have adequate water, electricity, food, etc, backup systems in place.

Please can someone explain to me what I am missing? Why are people concerned if I pay R2 per kWh for my electricity when they were paying 50 cents per kWh (this 10 years ago when I installed my PV and battery system), and now if I pay R50 per kL for my 10 kL of water when I could be paying R4 per kL? Why this fixation on "out of context" costs. Yes, perhaps it is expensive to pay R50 per kL when I could be paying R4 per kL, but I (will) have water.

My colleague drives his car for one hour a day. That works out at R170 per hour to drive his car. Plus insurance, petrol, maintenance, etc. Lunacy.

Looking forward to understanding why our priorities are so completely out of whack.

Simple Solutions Exist : Letter in the Cape Times on 16th November 2017

I wish to point out to our government that even if our dams were full, we would still need desalination.

You see, the population has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Our dams are still almost the same size, probably smaller, due to silting, even with the new Berg River dam.

And our dams were built 30 years ago or more because we are in a drought area. This is not news!

And they were built to give us five years of water in the event of a drought. Now they give us two years of water. So assuming the dams can give us half the water we need, then we should already be desalinating 600 million litres of water a day.

In the winter / rainy season, we should not be using any dam water. By the end of winter, all our dams should be full. And all our embedded water systems should be clean and full. This includes swimming pools, all backup systems and aquifers. And our swimming pools should contain drinking water, also doable.

I've met someone who was working on desalination for Cape Town in 2010. The project was shelved because it rained. But as I have already said, this is so incredibly short sighted.

Solutions are at hand. They are modern, simple and inexpensive. And they should be implemented as soon as possible.

PS, not in the paper: The latest in desalination technology can be found at Sorek. And water at about R8 per kL is cheaper than a lot of us are paying in Cape Town, especially with tiered water rates, and the top rate being over R300 per kL. Spring water can cost R12 for a litre.

SA Growth Concerns : Letter in the Cape Times on 1st November 2017

Here is the letter as it was in the Cape Times.

Suppose your income in 2016 was R1 144 billion and your forecast was a 1.7% increase in growth, one would suggest a new budget of R1 163 bn.

At the moment, income for 2017 is projected at R1 214 bn, which is 6.1% higher than last year's income and with a revised forecast of 0.7% growth, the 6.1% divided by 0.7% gives me an 871% improvement in my projection.

We should be celebrating our success in squeezing more money out of an already distressed taxpayer.

This enabling government's National Development Plan calls for active citizens to contribute to the economy. Well, this active citizen has volunteered to supply this government with electricity at night and at peak times, at no capital cost to the economy. But this citizen is being ignored. Why is the government ignoring the NDP?

A modern economy needs electricity and water in plentiful amounts and cheaply and available when it is needed. But we as a nation are massively short of electricity and water. In the early 2020s Eskom will switch off old power stations, which means that even if the nuclear was running in five years it wouldn't strengthen our grid. There are alternatives. Why isn't government considering them?

If South Africa grew as a fast as our neighbors, tax revenues would automatically increase. Why is government continuing with old programs which aren't working instead of adopting new processes as Minister (Malusi) Gigaba says we should be doing?

And here is the full detail of what I wrote:

Question 1:

Suppose your income in 2016 was R1144 billion and your forecast was for a 1.7% increase in growth, one would suggest a new budget of R1163 billion. At the moment income for 2017 is projected at R1214 billion which is 6.1% higher than last year's income and with a revised forecast of 0.7% growth, the 6.1% divided by 0.7% gives me an 871% improvement in my projection.

We should be celebrating our success in squeezing more money out of an already distressed taxpayer, but instead we are saying we are R50 billion short. What am I missing?

Question 2:

This enabling government's National Development Plan calls for active citizens to contribute to the economy. Well, this active citizen has volunteered to supply this government with electricity at night and at peak times, at no capital cost to the economy. But this citizen is being ignored whilst government plans to spend R1400 billion on nuclear power thus increasing my tax burden by R6000 per month without actually getting any more electricity. Why is the government ignoring the NDP?

Question 3:

A modern economy needs electricity and water in plentiful amounts and cheaply and available when it is needed. But we as a nation are massively short of electricity and water. We need this electricity and water now, not in 10 years time. Even if we start building 9.6 GW of new nuclear at Koeberg tomorrow, we won't have this electricity for 10 years. And in the early 2020's Eskom will switch off old power stations which means that even if the nuclear was running in five years it wouldn't strengthen our grid. There are alternatives. Why isn't government considering them?

Question 4:

Why does government still continue to see how much they can get out of the spending side of the economy rather than how much they can get out of the income side of the economy? As stated in the Mid-Term Budget speech, the rest of Africa and the world are growing far faster than South Africa. If South Africa grew as a fast as our neighbors, tax revenues would automatically increase because of our growth. Adding to the tax burden with 20% or more electricity, water, fuel, food, etc, tax increases is slowing down our growth. Why is government continuing with old programs which aren't working instead of adopting new processes as Minister Gigaba says we should be doing?

I look forward to being enlightened with the answers that are suggested.