Help nature take its course

Constructed bio retention ponds at Summer Greens, Century City.

This is the final study article before next week’s Thrive EnviroQuiz/Art competition on Friday September 9, at Kronendal Primary School, where 25 school teams will compete for eco prizes and the audience for 20 spot prizes.

Both the senior and junior quizzes will consist of 20 questions – five sections with four questions each – in just 30 minutes.

So, make sure you are well prepared – teams will need to answer quickly, there won’t be much time to deliberate.

Starting with the first article in March this year, we have been on a journey discovering what it means to be wise about our water resources. We began by acknowledging the paradox that exists around water on Earth: there is so much but there isn’t enough; it is precious yet we easily waste it; it is delivered pure then we recklessly pollute it. Above all, however, water is life-giving but can also easily destroy.

Next we understood that South Africa is naturally a water-scarce country, and that water-saving should really be a way of life for all of us but not everyone sees this because people’s priorities vary according to what they value most.

Lastly, we appreciated that if we wanted to be champions for water, we would need to accept the differences that exist and work together creatively to find solutions.

Putting these discoveries into just a few words, to be wise about water means we must all become more water sensitive.

Be sensitive about water – doesn’t that sound silly? Being water sensitive does not mean being soft and fuzzy. Here the word sensitive means having profound insight into natural processes that protect the health of people and the environment. Did you know that the best designs in architecture and engineering are inspired by nature? Innovative design based on nature is called biomimicry.

Plants and animals are very ad-vanced at solving complex challenges. Take desalination for example. Making seawater drinkable is an expensive process for humans, yet marine plants and animals do it very simply every day. Mangrove trees, for example, stand in seawater but are well adapted to remove the salt to get the fresh water they need.

Wise leaders wanting to solve our current water challenges are not thinking about building bigger dams or laying longer water pipes, rather they are looking to integrate nat- ural water flow in our cities. After all, nature has been successfully cycling and recycling water for billions of years. This planning approach is called Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD).

WSUD is a natural way of managing water supply and ensuring water quality across Cape Town. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach but rather draws on community values and aspirations, bringing together a wide range of water users, including residential, commercial, industrial, and, of course, schools and champion organisations such as Thrive.

Examples of WSUD features include altering the shape of roads to divert water into vegetated beds instead of conventional gutters, or replacing tarred surfaces with permeable (porous) pavements. In this way runoff is naturally intercepted and filtered, reducing the risk of flooding and contamination of our rivers. Rehabilitating natural retention ponds by removing overgrown alien vegetation and constructing new bio-retention ponds are other good WSUD examples of managing storm water runoff.

The upkeep of catchment ecosystems such as rivers and wetlands plays a vital role in the overall health of a city, particularly as a natural defence against climate change flooding. It is important to remember that if we look after nature, nature will look after us.

* Thrive invites the public to join the 25 school teams for over R40 000 worth of eco prizes. For more information contact Zikhona on 062 627 2719.

Questions
1)How many questions will the EnviroQuiz consist of?
2)True or false: A paradox is an apparent contradiction.
3)Which of these words does not indicate ‘sensitive’: complex, fuzzy, insightful, or profound?
4)What is the name given to design innovation that is inspired by nature?
5)Which tree species growing in seawater is well adapted to get rid of salt?
6)WSUD is an acronym for…
7)Which of the following does WSUD draw on? Community values; a wide range of water users; or water champions.
8)True or false: Surfaces like tar and concrete are permeable.
9)Give another word for permeable.
10)Complete the saying: ‘If we look after nature, nature…’
Questions
1)How many questions will the EnviroQuiz consist of?
2)True or false: A paradox is an apparent contradiction.
3)Which of these words does not indicate ‘sensitive’: complex, fuzzy, insightful, or profound?
4)What is the name given to design innovation that is inspired by nature?
5)Which tree species growing in seawater is well adapted to get rid of salt?
6)WSUD is an acronym for…
7)Which of the following does WSUD draw on? Community values; a wide range of water users; or water champions.
8)True or false: Surfaces like tar and concrete are permeable.
9)Give another word for permeable.
10)Complete the saying: ‘If we look after nature, nature…’

Answers
1)20
2)True
3)Shallow
4)Biomimicry
5)Mangrove tree
6)Water Sensitive Urban Design
7)All three
8)False
9)Porous
10)Nature will look after us