Water restrictions threaten ecosystems

I’D LIKE to pose my concerns about water usage to Minister of Water Affairs Nomvula Mokonyane who has the responsibility of keeping our infrastructure in order.

I feel it is unfair for our beautiful ecosystems to suffer due to water restrictions. We need water to maintain the trees, which are the lungs of our planet. Without water, we will no longer have trees to maintain our ecosystems.

Furthermore, our rivers are contaminated with pollution from informal settlements not having the correct sanitation so that everything lands up in our rivers, which then pollute our environment and us.

Mining, fracking and industry are operating in sensitive areas, such as wetlands, which is creating pollution and destroying the ecosystems that sustain the balance for us and the wildlife species to continue to exist.

Mining and industry should be responsible for cleaning their water and recycling their grey water.

Mokonyane, it is the responsibility of your department to see to our water supply and bring it into line with the methods of purifying our water for re-use. The technology exists for this to happen.

As a department that gives approvals for mining and development, it should scrutinise the applications by developers and the mining companies to ensure their water usage does not destroy wetlands for the sake of building houses, shops and offices or any industry.

Regulations should be stricter on mining and industry – they should be responsible for creating and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for the purification of their dirty water.

The recycling of water could also create jobs and uplift the poor through the creation of water-recycling plants that could be set up as a method of saving our planet.

People could benefit from employment opportunities for cleaning up our water to sustain healthy living and a balance of water usage.

We are the guardians of this beautiful planet; it’s us who should take care to ensure its sustained existence. M Emery Kyalami