Wastewater Treatment Plants | savingwater.co.za

Only 7% comply with Green Drop Report criteria

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 30 April 2010

The Department of Water Affairs finds that 7,4% of all wastewater systems can be classified as excellently managed, but the reality remains that various levels of improvement are required in about 55% of the systems assessed.

Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has asked the Treasury for a staggering R23 billion over the next six years to fix waste water treatment works that need “urgent” attention.

Photo by 'hilmy2007' under creative commons licence.

Sonjica said yesterday the bill for refurbishing the plants could rise even higher, as the figure was an estimate. She said that while there was reason for concern at the parlous state of the country’s sewage treatment works, “we have not reached crisis levels”.

She briefed journalists at the Union Buildings at the release of the much-delayed Green Drop report, an assessment of how sewage treatment works are performing.

Water experts have expressed concern over deteriorating conditions at the plants, which treat just under 7 600 megalitres of waste water every day.

Poorly treated waste water pollutes land and rivers, posing problems for farmers, damage to eco- systems and health risks.

Only 449 of the country’s 850 waste-water treatment works were assessed, with the rest either ignoring, or being unable to comply with the call to submit to scrutiny. Continue reading Only 7% comply with Green Drop Report criteria

Too much water going to waste - expert

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 21 February 2010

Not one of one of Cape Town’s 26 sewerage plants is working properly. The problem is not so much the quantity of waste that the Mother City’s burgeoning population produces, but rather the volume of water used to transport that waste to the processing plants.

Blue-Green algae deposits at Zeekoeivlei

“There is just too much water arriving at these plants,” says Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor, who has studied the water situation in South Africa over the past 16 years, and is a past winner of a WWF Green Trust Award.

Mr Westgarth-Taylor was addressing guests at a recent “Green Drinks”, a monthly event at which Hout Bay residents share ideas about topical environmental issues.

According to Mr Westgarth-Taylor, the catastrophic poisoning, in 1997, of Wildevoelvlei, the series of pans between the sea and Imhoff’s Gift estate in Kommetjie, was a case in point. A highly toxic blue-green bloom (thought to be algal) formed on the surface of the lakes as a result of wastewater overflowing from a nearby water treatment works. The treated and untreated water had a high concentration of phosphates – a major component of washing powder. To prevent the “blue-greens” from reproducing, SANParks had to turn the lake anoxic (without oxygen), thereby killing an entire generation of organisms.

Even more alarmingly Mr Westgarth-Taylor claims Cape Town has exhausted all damming opportunities on local rivers. Theewaterskloof Dam, which draws on the Dutoits and Riviersonderend rivers, Voelvlei, which drains the mountains west of Tulbagh, and Steenbras Dam above Gordon’s Bay together supply close to 700 million cubic metres to the metropole. Despite the addition of the Berg river scheme just last year the area’s demand for water will out-strip supply in just two years, he says. Continue reading Too much water going to waste – expert

Acid mine water flows into wetland

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 February 2010

Source: Earthlife Africa Jhb

Acid mine water is pouring out of an old mine shaft on the West Rand, near Randfontein. The water is untreated and contains toxic heavy metals, including radioactive uranium. It flows down hill into a wetland area, to join the Tweelopiespruit which eventually flows into the Crocodile River. There is a strong smell of hydrogen sulphide – a toxic gas that can be very dangerous at high concentrations.

Acid mine water overflowing from an old mine shaft on the Black Reef Incline, near Rand Uranium's treatment pond, 30 January 2010.

Some ELA Jhb members visited the area on 30 January 2010. In response, a member wrote the article below about the environmental crisis on the West Rand.

Acid Mine Drainage – is this the end of life in Gauteng?

Judith Taylor, A member of Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce Water Commission and EarthLife Africa Johannesburg

“What does this mean? Simply this – a deadly cocktail of chemicals has become part of the water leaking from mine shafts into our dolomitic (vulnerable rock formations that are very soft and easily degraded) areas. This cocktail includes various sulphates, and metals such as lead, magnesium, cadmium, bismuth, and radioactive uranium, strontium (one of uranium’s progeny) and radium which decays into radon, radon gas, polonium, and thorium.

In the Witwatersrand, the dolomite is being eaten away by this water, which is in the “basins” or void, under the Witwatersrand Ridge. Already, it is decanting or leaking into our ground water and many people have been seriously affected by this. Some farms have been so badly affected that they are no longer operative.

Not only our water, but our food security is threatened, as the pollutants in the soil and water get into food crops.

Recent rains have led to the most recent overflow of acid mine water on the West Rand (mid-January 2010). Continue reading Acid mine water flows into wetland

Sewage Pollutes Rivers and Sea

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems 27 January 2010

Dangerous and rising levels of bacteria and other contaminants have been reported in many rivers around the country in recent years, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

Sewage spill in Port [...]

Saving Water SA

Search site

LINKS

Only 7% comply with Green Drop Report criteria

Too much water going to waste - expert

Acid mine water flows into wetland

Sewage Pollutes Rivers and Sea

Water Tanks