Civil engineers add voice to river sewage outcry
Three of Mpumalanga’s catchments are polluted, threatening future water supplies, writes Sue Blaine
MPUMALANGA’S water problems, highlighted last year when acid mine water polluted the Carolina town dam, have reared up again.
The generally quiet South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) has spoken out about three of the province’s rivers, which it says are overrun with pollution from sewage.
The Department of Water Affairs estimates it needs to spend R700bn over the next 10 years to replace old and build new water infrastructure.
Experts have long warned that SA’s infrastructure maintenance backlogs — an estimated R2bn a year for water and R33bn for electricity — threaten the economy and social security.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has laid criminal charges against officials in three Mpumalanga municipalities — Govan Mbeki (Bethal), Thaba Chewu (Lydenburg) and Victor Khanye (Delmas) — all of which are being investigated by the National Prosecuting Authority’s local offices, says DA Mpumalanga spokesman Willie Venter.
“It is a shocking state of affairs if an opposition party deems it necessary to act on behalf of communities to ensure action in order to get a municipal manager to provide a basic constitutional right, (that is) a clean and safe environment for the citizens in these areas,” says SAICE in a statement.
“This situation, where sewage leaks or spills are so severe that they have affected these water sources, has a history dating back to 2006, and is untenable.”
Mpumalanga is described by scientists and conservationists as SA’s “water factory” because it has four major catchments: the Olifants, Vaal, Imfolozi-Pongola and Komati-Crocodile rivers.
A team of 30 scientists has shown that mining, industrial, agricultural and sewage pollution have caused a toxic soup that threatens the future of the Olifants River, which the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimates is SA’s third hardest-working river, and the health of the people and animals living in its catchment basin.
Mr Venter says the Carolina municipality has installed a new water filtration system, and most — but not all — of the town is getting clean water. Carolina’s 17,000 residents won a court order in July last year, ordering the Gert Sibande district municipality to immediately supply them with potable water.
SAICE president Peter Kleynhans says while there are “definitely pockets of excellence” in public water infrastructure operation, there are “significant areas” where, despite government investment in water infrastructure, problems have arisen. This is often because municipalities do not appoint people with the requisite skills to operate and maintain equipment.
Department of Water Affairs spokesman Mava Scott says the implementation of the department’s infrastructure plan “rests much on the requirements for finance … which still needs to be augmented through partner- ships between public and private sectors”. The department said previously it would raise finance from the bond market and banks and by increasing water rates to fund the ambitious plan.
A water expert who has asked not to be named for fear of losing government contracts says parts of the R700bn plan are “pie in the sky, but we still need to spend probably between R400bn to R500bn”.
SAICE sent out a statement recently in reaction to DA allegations that “catastrophic” levels of sewage have polluted Mpumalanga’s Grootbrak River at Embalenhle (Evander), Waterval River at Lebogang (Leandra) and Blesbokspruit (Bethal).
“Aside from the tardiness in addressing the primary problem, the alleged failure to inform residents (in the Govan Mbeki municipality) of the increased threat of cholera and other waterborne diseases to downstream users posed by the sewage spills, is viewed in the most serious light,” says SAICE.
“SAICE therefore calls on the municipality to take immediate remedial action and for the Department of Water Affairs to investigate the causes and to take severe disciplinary action against any parties found to have been negligent, to ensure that this unacceptable state of affairs does not recur,” the statement reads.
Mr Scott says the Department of Water Affairs has in cases itself taken legal steps against poorly performing municipalities. It has also set up municipal “support mechanisms” to deal with “challenges” such as pollution, infrastructure backlogs and general maintenance, identified “hotspots” across SA and has a rapid response team that works around the clock to assist in dealing with some of these problems, including the deployment of qualified experts.
Earlier this month Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa signed an agreement with Cuba for the Caribbean island to send experts in geohydrology and engineering services to SA.