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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 23 February 2011
The government plans to set up a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants to prevent toxic liquids that are building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg from reaching dangerous levels.
 Acid mine water overflowing from an old mine shaft on the Black Reef Incline, near Rand Uranium's treatment pond, 30 January 2010. Photo under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 licence. The costs will be made known in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s national Budget today. But the government insists that the clock is not ticking as acidic mine water is expected to reach environmentally critical levels under Johannesburg only by June 2012, according to government officials and scientists at a briefing yesterday.
The cabinet also agreed that “further work needs to be done” to investigate the possibility of an environmental levy – to be spent on restoring the environment in mined areas – for consideration by the cabinet.
Water has already leaked from old mines west of Johannesburg in the “western basin”.
“Work in the western basin is immediate,” Thibedi Ramontja, the chief executive of the Council for Geoscience, said after the briefing.
Federation for a Sustainable Environment chief executive Mariette Liefferink said yesterday that while it was heartening for the government to acknowledge the threat of acid mine drainage, pumping the poisonous water only in March 2012 was a reactive measure. Continue reading AMD to be pumped only in 2012
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 February 2011
The stark and harsh reality of acid mine drainage (AMD) is laid bare in a report by the Department of Water Affairs.
 Episodes of AMD decant are contaminating Tweelopiesspruit. Photo: Alistair-Clacherty The document includes the findings of an interministerial committee team of experts on AMD, assembled in September to investigate the issue.
“Urgent reduction of water ingress into mine voids remained a high priority,” it says.
The department would neither confirm nor deny ownership of the document.
The document proposes various interventions for three areas: the West Rand (Western Basin), central Johannesburg (Central Basin) and the East Rand (Eastern Basin).
It also notes that recent heavy rain and resultant flooding in Gauteng raised concerns that these conditions would lead to more water flowing into mines and worsening AMD in the province.
“The recent occurrence of flooding is in essence a matter separate to that of AMD; however, cognisance must be taken that flood water has potential to enter mine workings and also increase AMD.”
The document points out that water in mine workings is an important environmental concern. Continue reading AMD laid bare in Water Affairs report
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 February 2011
The South African government has hinted at the introduction of a new environmental tax in an effort to address future eruptions of acid mine drainage (AMD) in a country where the economy largely depends on mining.
 Government intends to hold people accountable if found guilty of having polluted water. This comes as Cabinet meets this week to discuss recommendations made by a special task team to investigate how government should respond to reports of acid water drainage in some parts of the country.
Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, speaking at an Infrastructure Development cluster briefing on Tuesday, said while the proposal has not been tabled to Cabinet yet, it was something the state was “seriously” looking at.
“There have to be mechanisms that are put in place to ensure that the law is adhered to … we all have a duty to ensure that we protect the environment so it’s a discussion that is there. The Department of Finance has a document that is circulating on environmental tax and we will see what happens in the future,” Molewa said.
Acid mine water, or water contaminated with heavy metals as a result of mining activities, is reportedly affecting the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State provinces. Reports suggest that this drainage poses health and economic risks for the country. Abandoned mines in Johannesburg and Mpumalanga had been the hardest hit so far.
With the mining industry contributing more than 30 percent to the country’s total export revenue, and having employed 2.9 percent of the country’s economically active population by 2009, environmentalists have termed AMD as the biggest single threat to the country’s economy and environment. Continue reading Water polluters to pay environmental tax
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 February 2011
Shell, Sasol and Bundu are names of companies that are going through application processes to drill exploration holes very deep into the ground in the Karoo in search of water and gas.
 Millions of litres of water are needed for fracking - per drilling site. Shell has opened up a can of worms with their public participation meetings, and there are too many questions that have been unanswered; though the questions have been asked of them directly.
To drill explorative holes, and to look for water at limitless depths, Shell has applied for an EMP (Environmental Management Plan). I am not aware of how deep existing boreholes go down to get water for farming purposes, but all of the farmers say that there is just enough water for them to exist in that harsh environment. Other hydro-geologists say that there is no more water for any purposes whatsoever in the Karoo.
At the outset, it must be stressed that the problems relating to “chemical fracking” are all about water.
How much water is needed by Shell for drilling and fracking? Shell and the others need millions of litres of water per drilling site, but nobody is willing to say how many drilling sites there are in their proposals, nor how many millions of litres are needed per drilling site.
Will Shell compete with farmers for water? If there is a finite volume in the fossil aquifer, and Shell is to extract more water than before, it is only logical that there will be less water than before. The process may go ahead without any research as to the re-charge of the aquifer. A full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be done to find these facts out. Continue reading Fracking the Karoo and unanswered questions
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 February 2011
By: Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor – Founder of Water Rhapsody and winner of a WWF Green Trust Award
There have been two conflicting reports about the predictions of weather patterns for the Western Cape winter of 2011. In the Cape Times last week Mmaphaka Tau – Senior Manager of National Disaster Management Centre – seems to be making a faux pas. He voiced criticism of the handling of the release of flood water saying that the sluice gates were opened too late. The chaps in charge of the dams, however, say that they operated the opening in compliance of best international practice.
 Drought or flood? It matters not whether the sluice gates were opened too early or too late. The real reason why we have floods that do so much damage is the dams themselves.
Dam building
During years of lower than average and average rainfall, a period that lasts up to thirty years, a swollen river gives no warning not to build on a flood plain. Rainfall of perhaps a ten year flood may very well be handled by the flood control mechanisms of dams that are able to handle the rise, allowing water to be let out in a controlled way.
When one gets a flood that happens every 30 years, as has happened this year, the dam only makes things worse. In other words the dam makes no difference to the flood, and even makes it worse.
What has happened is that the ability of the dam to control small floods has drawn cash strapped municipalities to allow development and allow people to build on the flood plain. The lesson of course is: Don’t build on a flood plain. The dam built to control floods will not work. Continue reading Drought or floods for the Western Cape?
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