Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
17 September 2024 | 11:04 a.m. SAST
2-minute read

Image: Engineering and Technology

Mogale City has been exposed in a News24 report for deliberately releasing thousands of litres of raw sewage into rivers and residential areas.

Critical water sources, including the Vaal, Crocodile and Bloubankspruit rivers, as well as Hartbeespoort Dam have been affected. Additionally, water in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site has been badly polluted, which has severely impacted tourism in the area.

The problem is mainly due to the collapse of water treatment works in Mogale City, including the Pervy Steward Water Treatment Works, which has been out of order for over two years.

“The sewage infrastructure in Mogale has collapsed. And they’re just not spending any money doing the necessary repairs to keep the infrastructure operational,” Trevor Brough, director of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site Association said in an interview on Radio Islam International this morning.

Consequently, raw sewage flows into the waterways and through the Cradle of Humankind.

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSRI) have classified rivers in the area as seriously and critically modified ecosystems due to the high levels of contamination.

“The rivers are in all essence dead rivers. There’s no life except for the nasty pathogens in that water,” Brough said.

Produce on surrounding farms are contaminated when they are irrigated with polluted water.

“During August, a farmer in the area, who was a Global Gap farmer, had been forced to close because they found E.Coli on his lettuce, which means he had to retrench [all] 80 staff,” Brough said.

Some of the polluted water also ends up in groundwater, which many people in rural areas depend on for drinking and irrigation.

The pollution has also severely affected tourism is the area and has far-reaching implications. Brough traces the flow of the polluted water from waterways in The Cradle of Humankind into the Crocodile River, which ends up in the Hartbeespoort Dam. From there, the river runs all the way to the Botswana border, where it becomes the Limpopo River and eventually ends up in the Indian Ocean.

“Along this river route, there are a substantial number of irrigation farmers who are also using water out the rivers to irrigate their crops, which all of us end up buying in the various shops. It’s a disaster of national proportions,” Brough said.

The solution is for relevant authorities to follow the constitutional obligation to repair the wastewater treatment facilities.

Listen to the full interview on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.