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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 29 June 2010 WATER DEPARTMENT MOVES TO CURB POLLUTION OF WATER SOURCES The Department of Water Affairs has noted with concern recent media reports of an environmental lobby group -the Environment and Conservation Association, which is said [...] Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 17 June 2010 The East Rand-based Environment and Conservation Association is preparing to bring criminal charges against Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica for her failure to attend to pollution that is contaminating the Hartbeespoort Dam.  Hartbeespoort dam water quality Nicole Barlow, the chairwoman of the association, said the organisation’s legal representatives were finalising a comprehensive draft of criminal charges to be laid at the Rustenburg police station against the minister and President Jacob Zuma for their failure to uphold section 24 of the Constitution, which requires the government to protect water resources. “The issue of the pollution of the Hartbeespoort Dam has been going on for a very long time, stemming mainly from untreated sewage and acid mine drainage from the mining companies in the Witwatersrand,” Barlow said. Despite limited resources, the organisation had been conducting quarterly tests that found that the fish in the dam were bleeding from the nose, mouth and gills, she said. Continue reading Minister to face charges for failure to protect water resources Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 16 June 2010 Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Buyelwa Sonjica, gave the keynote address at the Official launch of Optimum Coal’s Water treatment plant at Optimum Colliery in Mpumalanga last week (9 June 2010) The Mpumalanga [...] Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 May 2010 South Africa faces a far more disruptive threat than Eskom power failures, one that is potentially calamitous and may even be seen by religiously-minded citizens as the coming of the biblically predicted apocalypse. It will be characterised by the failure of wastewater purification systems, the pollution of rivers and dams and even the poisoning of waters in reservoirs or dams serving as reservoirs if the purification process is inadequate at that level. The first signs of the disaster are already visible in remote rural areas where the municipalities – which are responsible for wastewater purification – are too poor to attract appropriately qualified personnel to operate purification systems and ensure that they are properly maintained. Though water and environment affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica denies that there is a water crisis at present, she implicitly admits that one is inevitable unless strenuous action is taken to prevent it when she warns that South Africa will have to spend R23-billion to prevent the collapse of the wastewater treatment system. An excellent synopsis of the main dimensions of the impending crisis if appropriate and urgent measures are not taken is contained in a publication by the Centre for Development and Enterprise and Business Leadership SA. The publication summarised the contents of a round table discussion by representatives of government, business and academia on the genesis of the problem and the threatened crisis. The scene-setting introduction makes two broad points: Continue reading SA’s water: A looming apocalypse? Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 May 2010 South Africa’s water boards are proposing increases of between 6.2 percent and 43 percent to the cost of the potable bulk water they supply to the country’s municipalities.
The proposals, details of which are contained in a document tabled at a meeting of Parliament’s water affairs portfolio committee on Tuesday, appear to fly in the face of an announcement made by Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica last month. “I want to allay the fears of South Africans that there is not in the near future a possibility of a hike. It’s not in the pipeline,” she told a media briefing at Parliament on April 13. However, according to the document, tabled by the department’s chief director for institutional oversight Thoko Sigwaza “neither the minister nor the portfolio committee has a mandate to approve or reject tariff increases”. The document includes a table of bulk water (the water abstracted from rivers and reservoirs, treated, and supplied to municipalities) tariff increases proposed by the 13 water boards. These range from 6,2 percent for Umgeni Water (from R3,24 a kilolitre to R3,47), to 43 percent in the case of Namakwa (from R6,37 to R9,11). Among the water boards supplying the larger metropolitan areas, Rand Water is calling for a 14,1 percent increase (from R3,48 a kilolitre to R3,97) and Amatola for between an eight and 8,8 percent increase. Bushbuckridge Water is proposing a 12,46 percent increase. “Bulk water tariffs are not proposed by the department, but are determined by the water boards,” the document states. Continue reading Water tariff increases proposed |
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