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Stranger things: invasive alien plants’ coup of water-catchment areas

The Western Cape loses a dam’s worth of water due to invasive alien plants each year. Plant water-use experts, Drs Mark Gush and David le Maitre of the CSIR, share insight on this topic and how it affects fruit farmers. By Esté Beerwinkel.

Every year the Western Cape loses ±38 million m3 of water from its major water supply system — the equivalent to the whole Upper Steenbras Dam — due to invasive alien plants. Read more

201809 Fresh Quarterly Issue 02 03 Stranger Things
202203 Fresh Quarterly Issue 16 13 Groundwater WEB
Groundwater

What do about half the people and half the crops on earth have in common? Their survival depends on groundwater. By Anna Mouton.

Only about 2.5% of all water on earth is fresh. About 0.9% is brackish. Everything else is seawater.

When we think about fresh water, we tend to picture rivers and dams, but more than two thirds of all fresh water is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. Only about 1.2% occurs as surface water, and more than two thirds of that is also frozen, as ground ice and permafrost. The remaining fraction includes not only rivers and dams, but atmospheric water and soil moisture, as well as the water in living organisms. Read more

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