Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 18 January 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# The Independent Power Producers Office will introduce reserve bids for window seven of the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme. The reserve bids will be leveraged as a backup to avoid further delays in adding capacity to the grid. The IPP Office head of legal, Lena Mangondo, says the seventh bidding round consists of three-thousand-200 megawatts of onshore wind and one-thousand-800 megawatts of solar photovoltaic. She adds the submission deadline for bids is the 30th of April:

# Firefighters in the Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape are currently battling a fire on Paarl Mountain in Paarl. This comes after fire crews battled fires above Kalk Bay and in Franschhoek yesterday, which have now been fully contained. The municipality’s spokesperson, Jo-Anne Otto, says the fire on Paarl Mountain is burning out of control:

# And finally: The uMngeni-uThukela Water says the rain in parts of KwaZulu-Natal has resulted in higher levels of turbidity in the raw water abstracted from the Hazelmere Dam for treatment. The higher-than-normal levels of turbidity have led to decreased volumes and have affected the water supply to areas including Verulam, La Mercy, Sea Tides, and Ballito. uMngeni-uThukela Water’s spokesperson, Siyabonga Maphumulo, says the high raw turbidity has necessitated increased backwashing and desludging to optimise production and achieve the required drinking water quality standards:

Stay tuned for more news………….