Vaal River rehabilitation: Campaign continued in Vaal Triangle

AfriForum will this week continue its campaign to save the Vaal River, by means of activism, criminal charges and rehabilitation. The next phase of this campaign takes place in Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging. This follows after the civil rights organisation launched this campaign in Parys last week.

Pollution of the Vaal River is also a massive problem in the Vaal Triangle, where sewage has been dumped into the river for months now and the pollution has reached disastrous proportions. AfriForum and members of the public went to the Emfuleni Local Municipality yesterday, as the worst pollution of the river is visible there.

According to Marcus Pawson, Head of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum, AfriForum’s Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging branches are now intervening where untreated sewage is dumped in the river. Active (good) bacteria is released into the water to break down the sewage and put oxygen back in the water. “This will hopefully prevent any further deaths among fauna and flora,” says Pawson.

AfriForum also planned to hand over a memorandum regarding the municipality’s poor water and sewage management practices to Oupa Nkoane, Municipal Manager for the Emfuleni Local Municipality. “Nkoane was apparently not available. We requested that any person received the memorandum on behalf of the municipality, but there was no-one in the entire municipality who wanted to take that responsibility. Together with the memorandum we also wanted to hand over dead fish, and sewage and drinking water samples (that does not comply with the set national standards),” says Pawson.

A specialist will be used to measure the E. coli levels of the river water. This specialist will then also be able to testify in a criminal court regarding the levels of pollution.

According to Dewet Ungerer, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the West Rand and Vaal Triangle, the untreated sewage – which is dumped directly into the Vaal River – is a clear indication of the poor service delivery in Emfuleni. “The absence of cooperation in this municipality is extremely concerning. No-one wants to take responsibility and members of the community must follow a weeks-long process to try to get an appointment with the municipal manager. This while the same officialdom is dumping sewage in the water, to the serious detriment of man and animal in the community,” says Ungerer.

“The government dumps about 5 000 megalitres of partially treated or untreated sewage in rivers daily. It was recently widely reported that Emfuleni is not capable of performing its functions, as set out in the Constitution, and therefore the Gauteng Provincial Government placed the municipality under administration. At the time of this action at the municipal offices, there has not been any administrator here in the past 60 days and there is still no clarity on whether the municipality is truly under administration or not,” says Pawson.

All AfriForum branches adjacent to the Vaal River will take on similar actions in their respective towns. Medium-term actions will focus on the repair of sewage pumps and sewage works, which are the biggest sources of pollution. “AfriForum’s long-term goals with the project is to create affordable community infrastructure with the latest technology, so that communities can purify their water themselves – without having to wait upon the government,” explains Pawson.

“AfriForum will continually monitor the situation and demands a complete action plan, with accountable persons. People who want to help rehabilitate rivers can register at AfriForum’s website to take part in the next rehabilitation action. Together we can save the Vaal River,” Ungerer concludes.

Is your river polluted? SMS your town’s name to 45354 (R1) and give AfriForum the mandate to test the water quality in your town.