In public buildings lighting accounts for about 40% of the electricity costs. If you multiply this figure by the number of kindergartens, schools and universities, town halls, local government buildings and government departments, libraries, swimming pools and hospitals, then the total is enormous. Lighting in public buildings is currently consuming far more energy than necessary, with all the negative side-effects such as high running costs, electricity bottlenecks and damage to the climate. That can easily be changed.

This study assesses the drought intensity and severity and the groundwater potential to be used as a supplement source of water to mitigate drought impacts in the Crocodile River catchment, a water-stressed sub-catchment of the Incomati River catchment in South Africa. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to analyse the meteorological drought and the Standardized Runoff Index (SRI) was used for the hydrological drought. The water deficit in the catchment during the drought period was computed using a simple water balance 15 method.