Save takes on ministers over Vaal
SHEREE BEGA
SEVERAL national and provincial government departments have been joined to a court order obtained by SAVE the Vaal (Save) last year to stop the sewage pollution of the Vaal River.
This week, Save was granted an order in the Johannesburg High Court in its application to join the ministers of finance, water and sanitation and environmental affairs as well as the Gauteng Premier, the Gauteng MECS of finance and co-operative governance and traditional affairs to its court action.
This relates to an existing court order granted to Save against the Emfuleni municipality and the municipal manager in February 2018, which required Emfuleni to prevent raw or partially-treated sewage from entering the Vaal River and its tributaries from its wastewater treatment system.
“Emfuleni municipality has failed to repair the broken pipes, dysfunctional waste water treatment plants or to place all of the 44 pump stations in working order,” said Maureen Stewart, of Save.
“This has resulted in ongoing raw sewage pollution of the Vaal River reaching alarming and dangerous levels, despite the efforts of the SANDF who have made progress but are hampered by a lack of funding.”
Save, through the litigation, will seek an order requiring the added parties to provide appropriately funded short, medium and long-term plans, with implementation and completion dates, to upgrade, increase capacity and maintain the wastewater system to be able to cope with increasing populations and to prevent sewage pollution of the Vaal River.
The new parties added to the court order must respond within 45 days in accordance with their various statutory mandates.
“This action has taken Save an important step forward in our quest to stop pollution of the Vaal River from Emfuleni’s wastewater treatment system,” said chairperson Malcolm Plant.
“However, there’s still a long road ahead. The current sewage overflows into the streets of Emfuleni and the Vaal River pose serious health and environmental risks – not only to the Emfuleni community but also to communities downstream.”