The Water Hub: treating contaminated runoff from an informal settlement

Contaminated runoff from informal settlements in South Africa poses an immediate public health risk to residents living in high density compact urban spaces, but the impact is also evident in the receiving waters further downstream. Surface water runoff from informal settlements comprises a mix of grey- and blackwater and is often accompanied by solid waste. Getting water and sanitation into an informal settlement is seen as a ‘basic’ service but getting water out of an informal settlement and ensuring that it is safely treated is woefully neglected in municipal service plans.

Read more here and watch the videos

Treating contaminated water_THE WATER HUB

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The Water Hub

This is a big project that could take another 4 to 5 years to complete. Its ambitious, but timely. We have to find better ways of treating contaminated water from draining into freshwater systems such as rivers, wetlands and the marine environment. The Water Hub is also using ‘every drop’ to re-purpose this water for growing food in a water scarce region in which the long term scenario is likely to be drier and warmer. Finally, the project is about inspiring innovation and training others from the experience of what we learn from the challenging of turning a waste water plant into a resource recovery centre.

See more about the Hub: https://www.thewaterhub.org.za/

Towards the active management of the Cape Flats Aquifer – PhD Ben Mauck

Philippi Horticultural Area and Ben Mauck talking about his studies in the field

2. High resolution instrumentation and monitoring of water

Rene is the brains and action behind the development of new instrumentation which he is building to provide water quality data capture and storage.

We are making progress on this project and hope to be confident that the prototypes are reliable by end of December 2017.

3. The Liesbeek Life Project: restoring an urban river

This is about innovative designs to restore the landscape and ecology of the Liesbeek River and strengthen the links between people and the river (Download Newsletters) More information on http://www.fol.org.za