IDEAS21

Published in the Mail & Guardian, 11 March 2011: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-11-mthombo-a-white-elephant-in-the-making/

As the oil price has once again breached the psychological three-figure mark of $100 per barrel, security of oil supply is ascending on the national agenda.

South Africa’s national oil company, PetroSA, is pushing hard for Cabinet to approve its “Project Mthombo”, a new oil refinery to be built at Coega in the Eastern Cape.

But it is now widely acknowledged that the world has effectively reached ‘peak oil’, the time when global oil supplies can no longer rise to match demand. In a future of declining oil supplies and rising prices, project Mthombo could become our country’s biggest white elephant – one that we can ill afford.

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This summer our two-year drought finally broke. We got 100mm of rain in October, 70 in November and 50 in December. The summer was quite mild in January and February, with futher falls totally about 25 and 38mm. The spring rains were sufficient to fill up all the dams in the area, including the large Duiwenhoks and Korentepoort dams, which had both been down to about 25% of capacity.The farmers in our area are very happy, and have been able to plant crops again.

At the household level, we have benefitted a lot from the rain. For one thing, our grazing has held very well through the summer, so we haven’t yet had to give the horses supplementary feed. Before the real rains arrived, I changed the guttering system on our cottage so that one half of the roof feeds the 1500 litre tank and the other half feeds a 2500 litre tank, which I previously always filled from the stream (using a petrol pump). Today I pumped water into the larger tank for the first time since October - for five months the rainwater was sufficient to keep us going. We use the smaller tank exclusively for drinking and cooking, while the larger tank supplies water for bathing (in a small tub), washing clothes and flushing the loo.

Previously, on average I pump-filled the 2500L tank once a fortnight - so we are very frugal with our water usage. We also recently instituted a urine bucket system, whereby we empty our phosphorus-rich urine on a compost heap once day. This recycles a critical nutrient and also cuts down on water used for flushing. We use our bathwater for flushing too.

Harvesting rainwater saves costs (a 1500L tank cost about R1600; rain is free!) over time and gives one some security against municipal water infrastructure breakdowns or service interruptions. It’s a no-brainer!