WWF Water File: Only Atlantic seaboard can flush with seawater

This week's Wednesday Water Files by the World Wide Fund looks at the option of using seawater to flush toilets.

Freshwater programme manager for World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, Christine Colvin in this week's Wednesday Water File addressed the issue of water being extracted from rivers and boreholes and sold to homes in Cape Town.

She says unless you are a licensed water service provider, you can't sell water. Water should be managed and used in a proper manner, she says.

There should be a proper process and decisions be made on who can have access to this water and how it's going to be sold.

To fill up tankers and profiting form the water it is absolutely illegal.

Christine Colvin, Senior Manager Freshwater Programme at WWF SA

If you are going to buy water from anywhere, please ask these people to provide proof that they have a water use licence becasue there is an enormous black market in water springing up and it is putting our resources under threat.

Christine Colvin

Colven also looked at what is going to happen when Cape Town hits Day Zero and there is no water to flush the toilets.

She advises that in order to save more water, people should continue using grey water to flush toilets. Those staying along the Atlantic Seaboard can use sea water to flush their toilets.

But this option only applies to staying along the Atlantic Seaboard, says Colven.

To find more about the Wednesday Water Files go to their website www.wwwf.org.za

To hear more of this conversation with Christine Colvin, listen below:

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : WWF Water File: Only Atlantic seaboard can flush with seawater

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