Commission to probe Vaal River pollution
The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says it will institute a formal inquiry into possible human rights violations as a result of water pollution in the Vaal River catchment area.
The commission inspected affected areas on Monday following a complaint by an undisclosed entity. Collapsed infrastructure at the Emfuleni local municipality has been isolated as a source of raw sewage flowing into the Vaal catchment.
The inquiry will be held on September 18 and 19. Invitations will be sent to the department of water & sanitation, Rand Water, Emfuleni municipality, civil society organisations, community representatives and chemical conglomerate Sasol.
The Vaal River system is arguably the most important catchment area in SA, providing drinking water to about 45% of the population and supporting about 60% of the country’s economy. Reports over the past months have shown evidence of widespread sewage spills and mass fish kills in the river.
Parts of Emfuleni’s administration have been taken over by the Gauteng government’s department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs, following a charge by environmental lobby group Save our Vaal Environment that the municipality had violated a court order compelling it to prevent impermissible sewage discharges into the Vaal River.
Civil society lobby group Outa first laid a complaint with the commission in March 2017 over what it alleged was the department of water & sanitation’s failure to comply with the Water Services Act and the National Water Act. The complaint referred to a delay in the release by the department of its Blue-Drop and Green-Drop water quality reports. The department’s latest report was for 2014, which was released in 2017. In October, Outa alerted the commission to the threat posed by the failure to treat sewage adequately. It wanted the complaint to be escalated to the public protector.
The department of water & sanitation’s 2014 reports showed a declining trend in water quality from 2012. Drinking water quality compliance showed that about 20% of the supply systems did not comply with microbiological standards and 76% did not comply with chemical standards.
Outa said on Tuesday that the high level of raw sewage flowing directly into the Vaal because of mismanagement by the Emfuleni municipality infringes on people’s health and their right to clean water. “The municipality, the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs, and the minister of water & sanitation are all responsible for the collapse of the water systems that were engineered to provide citizens with clean drinkable water,” said Outa’s head of the local government division, Makhosi Khoza.
The department has not responded to questions from Business Day.