Photo: Bill Harding
After many months of warnings, there now appears to be a general agreement that South Africa faces a massive water crisis. No less a source than the Minister of Water Affairs (DWA) has acknowledged that something urgently needs to be done to offset a “near crisis situation”. But, a major component of the problem, managing our dams, continues to be ignored. Continue reading
Anderson Lake (Port Townsend, Washington State, USA) was opened and closed for fishing within five days. Officials found worrying levels of blue-green algal nerve toxins known as anatoxins [Source: www.peninsuladailynews.com]. Continue reading
I have to wonder about what fuels certain protest actions and allows much greater and pernicious harm to go unchallenged?
On the one hand, we have all the who-ha about the toll roads in Gauteng (by the way, here in the western Cape, I for one would dearly love to have a decent road between Cape Town and Bot River and not the existing death trap from Somerset West over Sir Lowrys), on the other hand we have massive infrastructural decay and money wasting, yet no protects about a whole nations future being vomited down the drain. Continue reading
After many, many months, the US Army Corps of Engineers (the guys that do a lot of lake monitoring in the US), have removed the toxic algae advisory for Lake Texoma. This advisory was in place for most of the 2011/12 period!
While Texomians may be pleased, reports indicate that permanent algal warnings will be going up at 14 state park lakes in Ohio, including Not-So-Grand St Marys and Buckeye. This decision has been based on the incidents of algal blooms during 2011 [Source: Columbus Despatch). Continue reading
The water quality in China’s Lake Tai is being impacted by agricultural fertilizers, this after a major effort to reduce chemical pollution in the country’s third largest lake. China’s progress towards becoming the world’s new economic powerhouse has not been without cost, mostly massive environmental pollution. This has the potential to stop their amazing progress dead in its tracks, or that of any other country not awake to the dangers.
"SOS Lake Tai" says this graffiti at the shore of the algae-infested lake in Jiangsu province. (Photo/CFP/WantChinaTimes)
Droplets will be terminating, hopefully temporarily, our CyanoAlert and WetlandNews sections in a month or so. For the past three years we have funded this service ourselves but rising ‘news clip’ costs sent us seeking part-sponsorship for this public education service. This has, regrettably, not been forthcoming.
In Queensland, Oz, the Gordonbrook Dam, has been closed due to an outbreak of toxic algae. A bit further south, a shellfish warning has been issued for the south-eastern coastline of Tasmania. Continue reading
For those EU countries who have not already remove phosphorus from their detergents, the writing is on the wall.
This week saw the publication of EU Regulation 259/2012, designed to lessen the impact of phosphorus loading on wastewater treatment works. It is a well-structured document that all countries should adopt as a matter of some urgency.
For once I can say that South Africa is ahead of the curve on this issue! (see Droplets).
In this June 2007 file photo, algae can be seen on Lake Winnebago in Menasha. A Gannett Wisconsin Media review has discovered that the state is not fully enforcing strict phosphorus limits, resulting in foul lake-algae blooms. / Gannett Wisconsin Media [Source: SheboyganPress.com
Earth Days come and go, today being the 43rd anniversary of America’s semiofficial acknowledgement that life leans on nature and that self-interest demands humans not mess up a good thing.
Wisconsin is the USA’s ‘lake state’. They have thousands of them. They also have thousands of dairy farms and other sources of pollution. A couple of years back a decision was made to enforce limits on phosphorus getting into surface waters. Recent reports indicate that only paltry attention has been paid to this urgent need [Source: Oshkosh Hub].
The recently-released Water Disclosure Report (I haven’t seen it yet so not sure how well its been disclosed to its intended audiences or if its one of those essential reports that you have to pay to read) indicates that [Source: Business Live]:
… 85% of water-intensive users among the JSE Top 100 companies are exposed to water-related risk, with 70% believing that risks to their direct operations could occur within the next five years. Continue reading
Zandvlei near Cape Town, South Africa, is in the throes of an extended fish kill, to all intents quite a substantial event {see link}. As with many, seemingly-inexplicable fish kill events, the cause is attributed to oxygen depletion – which can indeed cause fish kills. However, in the shallow, windy environment of Zandvlei, dominated by pondweed as opposed to algae, nighttime oxygen levels should not drop so far as to cause a sustained fish kill. Continue reading
