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Dysfunctional Madibeng Sewage works polluting Crocodile River

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

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs asking for a precise timetable on the establishment of special environmental courts to enable our legal system to deal with cases warranting special attention.

Polluted water from the Crocodile River flows into Hartebeespoort Dam

While the DA has been lobbying for these courts for some time, a definitive roll-out plan from the minister has become all the more urgent in light of the state of the Madibeng Sewage works which is releasing polluted water into the Crocodile River which flows into Hartebeespoort Dam, one of the principal water sources for many South Africans in the interior of the country.

Our water system is reliant on a complicated system of interconnected networks, the integrity of which need to all be maintained to the highest standards. Any weak component within that system needs to be addressed and those responsible need to answer for failing in their mandate as custodians of our natural resources.

The DA was part of a parliamentary water and environmental affairs portfolio committee visit to Madibeng that took place on 28th and 29th of July. A visit to the Madibeng sewage treatment works revealed a deeply concerning lack of action, with officials admitting that the plant is so dysfunctional they might just as well switch off the pumps in the plant and allow raw sewage to flow into the already heavily polluted Crocodile River.

The committee was also told that the plant should be receiving approximately 18Ml of sewage per day, and is, in fact, receiving only 4 Ml/day. This means that approximately 14 Ml/day of raw sewage flows through the streets and into the river from the sorely neglected and failing pump stations throughout the area. Alarmingly, three of the pump stations that have failed are now discharging raw sewage into the river at the point where the drinking water supply is abstracted.

Five of the six senior positions in the directorate dealing with water and wastewater are vacant. There is not a single qualified person employed at the activated sludge plant in question.

The Crocodile River flows into the Hartebeespoort Dam – one of the most heavily eutrophied dams in the country, with an abundant growth of highly toxic algae. Continue reading Dysfunctional Madibeng Sewage works polluting Crocodile River

Acidic spill halts mine production

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 16 July 2010

Zijin Mining Group was ordered to halt production after discharges from its copper mine polluted a river and reservoir in Fujian province, the China Business News reported on Friday.

Acidic copper water spilled into [...]

SA dams: a rapidly worsening water crisis

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

By Bill Harding, a limnologist (aquatic sciences), who has been involved with issues to do with SA dams since the ’70s

South Africans will be aware that our country is not blessed with abundant rainfall, with an average of only 450mm a year, compared with the global average of 860mm a year.

Without substantial supplies of underground water, we rely heavily on water that is stored in dams. Our reliance on stored water is rendered critical by population growth and industrial expansion. Water resources per capita of population are dwindling.

Brandvlei Dam. Pressure on many dams is increasing, with a considerable portion of their inflows made up of wastewater effluents and urban runoff.

At the same time, pressure on many dams is increasing, with a considerable portion of their inflows made up of waste-water effluents and urban runoff.

The Department of Water Affairs and Environment manages 574 dams, of which 320 are major dams, each holding more than a million cubic metres of water. From this storage, irrigation uses 62%; urban and domestic use equals 27%; and mining, industry and power generation absorb 8%. Commercial forestry utilises 3%.

Evidence suggests that the quality of about 35% of the storable volume is already severely impaired – and nearly all of this in the economic heartland of Gauteng. Water quality is in fact poorest in the areas with lowest runoff and highest contribution to GDP.

Insidious and sinister changes are appearing in some dams, completely unnoticed by routine monitoring programmes. From this it may be reasonably assumed that SA would possess a national programme for reservoir management.

In recent months there have been many reports referring to a water crisis, mentioning the extreme levels of pollution in most Gauteng dams. Continue reading SA dams: a rapidly worsening water crisis

Project seeks to save water

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 26 May 2010

On Friday 14 May 2010, the [University of South Africa] Water Research Flagship project, led by Dr Francois Ilunga (Chair of the Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering), held its first seminar series in CSET.

[...]

Conservation protocol for coastal East Africa

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 April 2010

Ministers and officials from ten countries and territories in East Africa yesterday endorsed or signed off on a potentially far-reaching protocol to protect East Africa’s coastal and marine environment from land-based activities and pollution.

The new protocol – five years in the making – makes the western Indian Ocean the third marine area of the world to achieve a multilateral agreement to limit and control land-based impacts on the marine environment, after the Mediterranean (1980) and Wider Caribbean (1999).

The parties to the agreement are Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Reunion, Mauritius, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, which will be signing the protocol in the near future.

Durban Beach. Burgeoning cities such as Durban are threatening the very resource base that sustains them.

“This agreement comes at an opportune time, and will be assisting us with our initiatives in coast East Africa to save one of the few remaining areas of the world that are still unspoilt,” said Dr Amani Ngusaru, head of WWF’s Coastal East Africa Marine Programme.

“Over 60 million people in eastern and southern Africa live and depend on the goods and services provided by the coastal and marine ecosystems of coastal east Africa.” Continue reading Conservation protocol for coastal East Africa

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