Conor Eastment The beginning of 2017 in Cape Town has certainly been dominated by drought. With dam levels reaching 33% for the area as of beginning March, and a potentially dry winter forecast, the 'doomsday preppers' are certainly in their element. Naturally, this is an extremely testing time...
Environment
Positive Reinforcement inspires ripples of (behaviour) change
Nick Fordyce If you’re living in the Cape you must be aware that we’re in the middle of a water crisis. It’s hard to avoid reminders of this dry reality. The province’s worst drought in over 100 years, coupled with a historically carefree attitude towards water has seen us plunge into an...
Future water options from within the Cape Flats Aquifer: poorly understood risks
By Dr. Kevin Winter Cape Town’s pre-winter rainfall cannot come quickly enough in this drought stricken region. Since 2015 records show a below average rainfall for the southern Cape which has result in a reduced storage capacity of the major dams supplying the City of Cape Town, together with...
Waiting for the rain
Cape Town residents are increasingly familiar with the constraints of water use – the region is in the grip of its third major drought since 2001. In April 2005, for example, the water storage capacity of the main supply dams reached an all-time low of just 26% overall. In this case, the...
Liesbeek Life Plan
The Liesbeek Life Plan is a recently formed collaborative effort between the Friends Of the Liesbeek and UCT’s Urban Water Management research unit to contribute to plans and designs for restoring and offering better support to social...
Going Green
The harsh environment that is created when a river is canalized is often sterile and void of any aquatic life or the opportunity for life to exist. In some countries, especially those faced with already dense urban areas, a paradigm shift is underway to change the way we see canals. This is...
Brandhouse make their mark along the Liesbeek
On the 03rd of October, 10 employees from Brandhouse came out and donated some of their time to cleaning up the litter along the Liesbeek River. The bank they worked on had been cleared of dense stands of invasive vegetation, which had been largely overlooked, and subsequently the amount of...
Water Quality and SASS
The health of a river is often determined by the quality of the water that flows along its course. Due to differences in geology and vegetation, rivers around the country vary with regards to what is termed “healthy”. For example rivers in the Western Cape tend to have a lower pH (more acidic)...
Removing alien trees along our river
For most of us the sight of lush green-leafed tress hanging over a gentle flowing river, invokes a sense of serenity and calm. However, it is true what they say, that “too much of a good thing is bad”, and this is exactly the case of the trees along the Liesbeek River. To be more specific we are...
Information
We often receive calls from people regarding incidents on the river. CONTACT PERSONS AND NUMBERS Liesbeek Maintenance Project: Jason 0846618264; [email protected] or [email protected]; Ntobeko 0710419424. Water Pollution: Brian February (Bishopscourt to N2 Mowbray) 0216841077/0834688243 Johan...
Friends keep Liesbeeck River pretty for 20 years
This article was presented in the Tatler on 3 November - download the original pdf here (2MB). TATLER.pg4_3_nov_2011 - Southern Suburbs Tatler, Cape Community Newspapers, Independent Newspapers (Cape) A group of individuals 20 years ago changed the course of the Liesbeeck River after the formation...
News from the City: Project to clean up city rivers gets afloat
The Cape Times ran the following article on October 20 2011 at 11:35am Project to clean up city rivers gets afloat Babalo Ndenze Metro Writer THE city council has employed 400 people to clean 14 of its most polluted rivers as part of a programme named after the late ANC stalwart Kader Asmal....