Polluted water affects ecosystems, residents
by the drought,” he says.
In Ncotshane, a local township that runs alongside the Pongola river, volunteer Neliswe Thwala, of the Duzi Umngeni Conservation Trust, tells how she climbs up to the local water reservoir, overlooking the area, to monitor the human waste from collapsed sewage plants pouring into rivers.
“If we see water running down the road, we notify the Zululand District municipality. It’s our job to look after the environment,” she says, proudly. “That’s why I do this important job.”
Morne du Plessis, the chief executive of WWF-SA, warns of the effect of pollution, land degradation and large-scale cultivation, urban sprawl, coal mining and fracking.
“We are, as people, as society, and as an economy, taking pop rivets out of our watershed wings.” EUTROPHICATION. Salinisation. Acid mine drainage and acidification. Sedimentation and urban run-off.
These are the priority pollutants “of national importance” that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is the most worried about because of their scale and severity of impact.
This is according to a new policy document, the Integrated Water Quality Management policy, released in February, which calls for a “radical improvement” in how the various arms of government manage pollution.
South Africa, it warns, is facing a multifaceted water problem “considering South Africa is a water- scarce country, compounded by frequent droughts, increasing water demands, and deteriorating resource water quality”.
“The current picture is not encouraging and without a change in how water is managed, deteriorating water quality will continue to decrease the socio-economic benefits from and increase the costs associated with use of the country’s water resources.
Rapid urbanisation, expansion of the mining industry, increasing use of chemicals in industries, inappropriate practices for surface soil tillage and fertiliser application, and the destruction of our natural/ green infrastructure, including wetlands and riparian buffer zones are blamed for pollution. Inadequate land-use planning, unsustainable development practices, and inadequate operation and maintenance of waste infrastructure has worsened this.
Industrial and agrochemicals, metals and nano-particles “about which there is insufficient information to understand the severity of impacts, which may be significant, and about which more research and investigation is needed to inform the actions to be taken” must also be addressed.
Several trends are already of concern, including climate change and fracking.
“Climate change will change rainfall patterns, increase water demand because of higher temperatures, and change the rate of bio-geochemical and ecological processes that determine water quality; unconventional oil and gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing; nano-particles and pharmaceutical product disposal; increased coastal pollution; the growth of inadequately serviced densely populated settlements, population growth; and increasing industrialisation.”
Poor water quality in rivers, streams, dams, wetlands, estuaries and aquifers “impacts on the economy, on human health, and on the healthy functioning of aquatic ecosystems ... Some of the impacts are immediately visible, such as in the case of major fish kills, while others are more insidious and long term”.
Water quality management arrangements are hampered by disintegrated institutional structuring, poor co-ordination and conflicting approaches between government departments and spheres of government.
“The policy is designed to enable government, as a whole, in partnership with civil society and the private sector, to address water quality across the country.
Other departments have mandates that “profoundly” impact water quality, most critically the departments of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Mineral Resources, Agriculture, Health, Human Settlements, Education, Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs, Health, National Treasury, catchment management agencies, Trade and Industry, together with provincial and municipal counterparts.
“The DEA must ensure, in consultation with DWS/CMAs, that water quality impacts are sufficiently dealt with in EIAs while the national and provincial departments of agriculture must contribute to the reduction of water pollution.”
No authorisation for mining must be given by the Department of Mineral Resources without a water use authorisation, which will include stringent water quality management conditions.
“In addition, DWS, DMR and DEA will develop a joint process for mine closure which effectively addresses the potential long-ter m water quality impacts.”
The Department of Energy should understand the water-related implications of energy choices, for example, “AMD f rom coal mining for ther mal power generation, long- ter m radioactive pollution from nuclear power or unconventional gas and oil sources”.