News

Published: Two extended abstracts in Conference Proceedings Adaptation Futures

December 2018

The Conference Proceedings of the international conference Adaptation Futures 2018, about climate change adaptation, are published.

AquaLinks assisted Floris Boogaard in two papers published, and Marieke de Groen was therefore mentioned as co-author:

• Urban climate resilience: European-African knowledge exchange toolbox (Floris Boogaard, Marieke de Groen, Rick Heikoop) pp 16-21
• High resolution thermal stress mapping in Africa: decision maps for urban planning in Johannesburg (Floris Boogaard, Jeroen Kluck, Marieke de Groen) pp 27-30

Completed: Matchmaking Mission Co-creating Water Re-use and Water efficiency for Industries in South Africa

November 2018

From 19 to 21 November, six Dutch companies active in treating industrial and horticulture wastewater for re-use visited South African companies. This was a follow up on a workshop in June where the specific requests of South African companies were explained. As a follow up Dutch technology suppliers that could fulfil these demands were looked for. A network reception where South Africans could also meet each other, and two days tailor made site visits, were the result. In total twenty one South African companies and organisations participated in the match making mission.

AquaLinks (Marieke de Groen and Patience Mukuyu) organized the contacts with the South Africans, while Yuniko did the contacts with the Dutch companies. The Clients were a combination of the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, the Netherlands Water Partnership and RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency).

Now it is up to the businesses to further match their demands and supplies! AquaLinks remains available for South African companies interested in water re-use or water efficiency.

Started: Research on the use of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems in Gauteng

November 2018

The Urban Rivers Alliance (Fourth Element, Eco-Pulse and AquaLinks) has started on Research on the use of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems in Gauteng. Client is the GDARD Climate Change Adaptation team. Consulting partners are NMSA, Green Vision Consulting and TAUW.

October was the inception phase and the project will run until September 2019.

Please contact AquaLinks if you know examples / learning points of applications of SuDS in Gauteng or want to be kept informed.

Rain season in Gauteng started with a Bang!

October 2018

More than 170 mm was measured over the weekend of 13 and 14 October at the TAHMO station at Rietfontein fire station in Johannesburg. Other TAHMO stations in Johannesburg recorded far less rainfall, although still between 15 and 68 mm over the two days.

It was confirmed with the South African Weather Service that their radar exactly at the spot of the Rietfontein fire station estimated 154 mm in 24 hours as average over the pixel from 8 am – 8 am, so very close to the measurement of TAHMO for that time slot.

This makes it far more likely that indeed so much rain fell in Rietfontein and that both the SAWS radar and the TAHMO weather station are doing a good job! Ground truthing remains important to calibrate radar.

ICLEI Wetland Management Guidelines are out

October 2018

The ICLEI Wetland Management Guidelines for South Africa are out, which Eco-Pulse prepared with contributions from Confluence Lab, AquaLinks and Fourth Element. Eco-Pulse, AquaLinks and Fourth Element together form the Urban Rivers Alliance (see Links page).

Green Infrastructure Strategy Johannesburg

September 2018

AquaLinks has started with the Urban Rivers Alliance (AquaLinks, FourthElement and Eco-Pulse) on the case study for Alexandra, Modderfontein and Waterfall City for the Greening and Green infrastructure Strategy for Johannesburg, for Gauteng City Region Observatory.

Pictures above show stormwater drain in Alexandra (locally nick named ‘The Monster’ with the steel bars stolen and not only stormwater going in) and one in Waterfall City – residential area with already green infrastructure upstream.

Water sources for the town of Solwezi, Zambia

June 2018

AquaLinks is providing advice on availability of water of sufficient quality for the feasibility study on water and sanitation for Solwezi town in Northwest Zambia, as subcontractor to Royal HaskoningDHV.

Co-creating water re-use for industries in South Africa

June 2018

AquaLinks is assisting the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands and The Netherlands Water Partnership, through Partners for Water, in assessing demands of South African industries for water re-use solutions. A workshop at the WISA conference in Cape Town (Tuesday 26 June) and a workshop in Pretoria (Thursday 28 June) have been the first opportunities to co-create. The workshops will be followed up with match making with Dutch solution providers.

Contact AquaLinks for more info.

AgriCloud from Rain4Africa

May 2018

Using the latest techniques of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), the South African Weather Services (SAWS) and Dutch partners, we have now better planting and spraying advice for better yields, less water use, less use of pesticides and herbicides.

The website www.Rain4Africa.org has been launched and the AgriCloud App is now available in the App store for Android, as well as via USSD.

AquaLinks is the technical operational coordinator of Rain4Africa subcontracted by HydroLogic Research BV since August 2017.

Interviewed for SciDev.Net on TAHMO

March 2018

Africa’s 20,000 weather stations plan, article by Sarah Wild