Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Growing concern over city’s water pollution
THE QUALITY of the country’s water has scientists on edge as the number of polluted waterways reaches crisis level.
This comes after the temporary closure of Cape Town’s popular recreational vleis such as Rietvlei, Zandvlei and Zeekoevlei.
At a meeting held by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), Dr Jo Barnes from the faculty of medicine and health sciences at Stellenbosch University said that the state of South Africa’s rivers is a national disaster that needs urgent attention, following her findings of how chemicals are being discovered in water that previously had not been detected or are being detected at levels that may be significantly different than expected.
Barnes mentioned that half the national treatment plants are in critical condition, and in some areas, there are no treatment plants.
She added that raw sewage, containing disease-causing organisms and a cocktail of synthetic chemicals, ingestion of which research linked to cancer in humans was spewed daily into the ocean and Western Cape rivers flow with household waste and disease which, in turn, flows into the ocean.
She went on to say that plastic does not break down into nothing. It only gets smaller, increasingly being easy for aquatic life to digest.
A leading expert in environmental remediation, water treatment, and beneficiation of industrial wastes, Leslie Petrik, said that rivers are in a critical state due to gross pollution with effluents, chemicals, disease, causing micro-organisms and parasites such as intestinal worms.
“Rivers play a critical role in our water catchment to provide surface water as source for drinking water, and for agriculture, animal husbandry, recreation as well as habitat for a very diverse number of species.”
“The negligence by irresponsible and corrupt government as well as municipal departments is leading to a national state of disaster. We all need uncontaminated drinking water
and adequate sanitation to prevent diseases such as cholera or typhoid breaking out. Communities reliant on untreated or poorly treated river water are already being heavily impacted by the pollution,” said Petrik.
Wessa Western Cape chairperson Patrick Dowling said the solutions included a high-level acknowledgement of the severity and urgency of the problem.
“Commitment of resources to meeting the challenge is part of the collusion to meet the high level of acknowledgement to the severity and urgency of the problem... Wessa is compiling the main discussion points from its recent workshop and other sources and will make these public,” said Dowling.
Mayco Member for Water and Waste Zahid Badroodien said that while the City is addressing chronic pollution in the waterways, plans are being put together towards becoming a water sensitive city.
“The City’s honourable mayor has embarked on an inland water quality improvement plan. This plan includes making available large-scale resources to implement pollution mitigation measures including the upgrade of wastewater treatment works, pro-active sewer reticulation and sewer pump stations cleaning and upgrading and sewer pipe replacement programmes.”
“To address illicit discharges, law enforcement teams will continue to monitor hotspot areas and will take action against those who contribute to pollution through illicit discharges, sewer blockages or dumping litter, rubble and other forms of solid waste into Cape Town’s sewer and stormwater systems,” said Badroodien.