WATER USE
What happens to water on your plot
A
nxiety about rainfall,
long term effects of
drought and awareness of the limitations of our
ground water all help to focus
the mind of the smallholder
on the quality of water supply.
Whether you rely on municipal supplies or you live off a
borehole, there are ways of
...and what to do to prevent wastage
assessing how healthy your
water is.
Good signs:
K Clean and clear water
when poured into a glass and
held up to the light. No
floating bodies!
K No family health problems, especially diarrhoea in
the children.
K No milk penalties in
the farm dairy caused
by poor water quality.
K Healthy stock
drinking with relish.
K A water reticulation
system that keeps all
the troughs full to meet
the demands of the
stock.
K Hot water pipes that
don't corrode.
K No stains under
taps.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t Bad signs:
make it drink” ... unless it wants to.
K Children and adults
K Blue (copper) and black
(manganese) stains under taps
with regular attacks of
and in the toilet.
diarrhoea.
K Water with a rotten smell.
K Visitors who refuse to drink K Stock reluctant to drink
the water or even tea or
from troughs.
coffee made from it.
K Hard thick deposit inside
K Troughs and pipes blocked the kettle or hot water jug.
with sludge.
There are some common
K Iron (orange-brown) stains
water challenges that
on all surfaces where the
smallholders have to deal
water runs.
with. Many of them can be
K Orange-brown floating
traced back to poor installasediment in a glass of water
tion and poor maintenance.
when held up to the light.
Continued on page 38
Oh dear ... bad leak from a corroded pipe.
37
www.sasmallholder.co.za