INTERESTING WATER TOPICS

Dear PM, I have read through your April 2018 issue, and thought that I may recommend more interesting and possible topics surrounding the Cape Town water situation for next issues:

1. Hydrological density growth over time vs the average rainfall shrinkage, and the resulting increasing deficit of fresh water.

2. Reverse osmosis in perspective: one of the best long-term solutions, but do people know that if you want to mostly drink RO water long term, it needs to be re- mineralised? RO removes most minerals, and results in long-term medical risks – long-term studies in Israel indicate resulting medical conditions.

3. If PM gets a team of systems engineers, what would they suggest as a holistic, long-term, sustainable, balanced water-management system guaranteeing not only sufficient water for the city, but also for agriculture dependent on the surrounding dams?

4. The pros and cons of desalination ships vs land-based desalination.

There are several more topics I could suggest, but I think the ones mentioned above could each make a nice article. Hi Rian. That’s quite a list of story ideas you have there. Interestingly, I have always been intrigued by the lack of conversation around RO water actually not being fit for long-term human consumption without re-mineralising. Those water-from- air solutions also suffer from a similar problem on the primary effluent.

Are you volunteering your systemsengineer services to help us out on that sustainable water solution? I’ d love to hear a pitch about it. Go well. – Lindsey