Massive pollution threat to economic heartland

A double whammy from the pollution legacy of more than 100 years of gold mining on the Witwatersrand, and inadequately maintained sewage works could leave South Africa’s economic heartland facing a water crisis of epic proportions within two years if drastic interventions by the government and industry are not urgently put into place. The cost involved could be in the order of R500 billion, but if left unattended, the looming pollution crisis could hamstring growth and cause a plague of health problems.

A report with recommendations from the Chamber of Mines more than 60 years ago to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, aimed at securing the quality of South Africa’s water resources, went by unheeded.

The Jordaan Commission warned eight years later in 1960 about imminent problems concerning the increased levels of iron, sulphates and manganese.

The recommendations made at the time did not receive any serious attention from the government of the day.

Now environmentalists warn that without  urgent action, mine water as corrosive as battery acid will gush from Joburg’s Wemmer Pan and seep into the city’s streets and gardens within two years. Among others, the integrity of buildings in the central business district could be threatened.

In 1996, the JCI mining group made a proposal to manage the flooding of the Eastern and Western Basin. That document, the "Strategic Water Management Plan Report" or so-called SWAMP report, was proposed at the Water forums of Wonderfonteinspruit. These proposals were largely ignored by the present government.

Civil society now has power

Unlike 50 or 60 years ago, civil society has been dramatically empowered by the 1994 Constitution, and the government could soon face the threat of criminal charges for the alleged failure to manage water resources.

Recently, Nicole Barlow, chairperson for the Environment and Conservation Association, said that years of engagement had failed to persuade the government to take action on water pollution. Her association has decided to lay charges against Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and President Jacob Zuma in their personal capacities.

Barlow told Business Day that Sonjica had failed to prevent pollution of the Hartbeespoort Dam and other water resources, while Zuma is the custodian of the Constitution and is ultimately accountable to the people of South Africa.

Scope of the crisis

Mariette Liefferink, chief executive officer of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, described the water in Wemmer Pan as “acutely toxic”. “It affects the soil and neural development of the foetus, which leads to mental retardation; it will cause cancer, cognitive problems and skin lesions.”

But the problem is much greater than merely Joburg and the city's immediate surrounds. It affects a vast area from the Witwatersrand to Mpumalanga.

“We have to control mine drainage, sewage dumping, and Pelindaba regularly dumps nuclear waste into the Crocodile River. People shouldn’t be anywhere near the Hartbeespoort Dam - not buying property there, not sailing, not fishing, and not eating the fish,” she added.

Four gold mines within the Eastern Rand contribute 35% of the salt in the Vaal Barrage, which compromises the water quality. Recently (2007), the Water Research Council researched the quality of water in the Vaal Barrage and concluded that only 21% of the Vaal Barage’s content was not cytotoxic, or poisonous to human cells, Liefferink told us in an interview.

In 2002 and 2005, Joburg’s Western Basin was flooded by acid mine water and that transformed the Tweelopiespruit into a class-5 toxic river. The Robinson Lake became a radioactive dam with uranium levels of 40 000 above background or natural uranium levels, she added.

In all, 108 megalitres of polluted water, containing all the heavy metals, sulphate, uranium and manganese, are pumped daily by Grootvlei Mine into the Blesbokspruit without ever being treated. The Blesbokspruit is part of the Vaal Barrage River system and hosts the Marievale Bird Sanctuary, which is a declared site in terms of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention).

The Central Basin is currently flooding with acid mine drainage at a tempo of 0.9 metres per day, and is 580m from decant, that is, from the outflow of uncontrolled and untreated acid mine drainage. “When this happens, not only will river systems be damaged irreversibly, but it also compromises the integrity of buildings,” said Liefferink.

On 21 January 2010, there was decant of untreated and controlled acid mine drainage into the Tweelopiespruit because of the rain, and an abundance of toxic and radioactive material flowed and seeped into the Tweelopiespruit, which forms part of the Limpopo River Catchment and the Wonderfonteinspruit, which in turn forms part of the Vaal River Catchment.

Minister Sonjica visited the polluted area in March 2010 and pledged R6.9 million for the treatment of the acid mine drainage - a trivial gesture, as it costs Rand Uranium R2.5m per month simply to treat 13 megalitres of water.

Mine action plan ignored

Liefferink told us that the mining industry has made proposals for sustainable water resources and has suggested corrective measures to pump acid mine drainage from the Eastern, Central and Western Basins. Its technical and economic recovery plan was not acceptable to the government.

When Sonjica visited the polluted area and pledged the R6.9m in March, she promised that the government and the mining industry had entered into a public-private partnership to address the crisis of acid mine drainage. When Liefferink’s organisation requested a copy, it finally received notice that no such partnership existed.

She spoke to the acting deputy director-general of Water Affairs on 14 June 2010, asking him if the government had a short- , medium- and long-term plan to address the looming pollution crisis of water resources in South Africa. He acknowledged that no such plans were finalised yet.

“If this crisis is not managed, water from the Central Basin will flow out into Central Johannesburg and will drastically affect human health, the economy and industrial quality,” she said.

Liefferink added that the short-term, band-aid approach by the government is insufficient. Radical measures should be taken.

A financial disaster

According to figures cited by the South African Institute of Civil Engineering, South Africa will requore R500bn over the next 10 years to fix water infrastructure and install fresh capacity.

Jabu Maphalala, spokesperson for the Chamber of Mines, told the Sunday Times that the industry agreed in 1994 to put aside funds for rehabilitation. “However, mining has taken place for over 100 years, and left undesirable legacies, some of which emanate from abandoned, ownerless as well as derelict mines.

“Legislation now stresses the ‘polluter pays’ principle, but it is not easy to apply in dealing with this legacy because the original operators have long disappeared and the commodities produced have been consumed,” he added.