12 DESIGN : DEAR MR PLUMBER
A better future for all
By
Vollie Brink , Pr Eng
In the years around the Second World War , we learnt a lot about the erosion of the land and how the stormwater flushed away the soil , leaving big dongas and traces across the land .
Vollie Brink
Vollie Brink is one of the industry ’ s longest serving wet service engineers . He continues to serve on SABS committees and has been involved in the Green Building Council Star rating system . Brink continues to consult for various organisations while enjoying a wellearned retirement .
This was seen as a serious threat to the land , agriculture , and dwellings . Camps were held where children were taught about erosion and how to go about the work needed in damaged areas .
I don ’ t hear anything about erosion anymore , but new threats have emerged : we don ’ t have an abundance of water anymore ; instead , we battle with drought in many areas of the country , and the world .
We depend on rainfall and if it does not come , then we must look elsewhere . The only other source we can consider is to look underground . Johannesburg Water has even propagated that people drill boreholes and install pumps and tanks on their properties to ensure an uninterrupted supply of water .
The problem is , I was taught that the underground water originates from hundreds if not thousands of years ago and that it is therefore ‘ old ’ water . If it is depleted , it will take ‘ a very long time ’ to replenish .
Many people started drilling for water in my street and in the surrounding area , so much so that we had to wait some time before we could get the drilling company to our property — by then , the borehole was bone dry .
In South Africa , I have found that some rich people insist on having a shower with multiple shower heads and other ‘ fancy ’ facilities because they can afford it , and then there are millions of people around that do not have clean healthy drinking water — how can this be acceptable ?
We hear of scarce water reserves that are polluted by inoperative sanitation works due to lack of maintenance ; sewage water being discharged into dams ; and reticulation pipe networks that are not maintained and leaking as a result . There are even cases where communal taps are broken and constantly running , wasting indispensable quantities of treated water .
We are staring into a severe water-scarce future and this ‘ future ’ is around the corner .
We have a world population of over 7.3 billion people , and it is estimated that by 2050 we will have more than nine billion people on Earth . They will need water to survive . They will need food , and to produce food they need water and they need water for all other ‘ things ’ to survive .
Perhaps the question is , do we have a water problem or a people problem ?
According to the Water Act / Constitution , all water , including underground water , belong to us all . If it is used , you must pay for it — which does not happen .
There are water shortages across the world . In some places , the underground water has been depleted to such an extent that the soil has subsided in large areas .
I am sure I won ’ t reach 2050 because I would be well over 100 years old , but I often think about the young people . I ask myself why are we ‘ fighting ’ about so many insignificant issues and why don ’ t we take hands and work together to find solutions for the threats staring us in the face . We cannot afford to have the best engineers to search for solutions ; yet , we have money to spend on other ‘ things ’.
In other areas , the wealthy people and conglomerates are buying large areas of agriculture land — the land with underground water reserves — removing the crops and selling the water to the poor people around them .
We are many years away from 1977 and we still do not have water regulations and drawings required for small and large buildings , so we cannot do proper maintenance . We do not even reserve the work of the engineer , leaving it to ‘ anybody '.
September 2017 Volume 23 I Number 7 www . plumbingafrica . co . za