By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: GCIS.
Human settlements, water and sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu is taking over the water infrastructure of the Emfuleni local municipality on the Vaal river.
Her move follows a SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) report into the state of wastewater treatment sparked by reports of raw sewage flowing into the Vaal and affecting the drinking water of nearly half of Gauteng’s population.
The SAHRC gave various parties 60 days to respond after it found that the continued flow of raw sewage into the Vaal, homes and public areas in the Emfuleni municipality was a violation of human rights.
The Vaal River system, on which approximately 19 million people depend for drinking water and commercial use, is polluted beyond acceptable standards.
This is the finding of the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which set up an inquiry into long-running problems in the river system.
“In the absence of a timely and effective response from the multiple spheres of government, Gauteng’s most vital water resource may very well have been irreparably damaged,” said the commission.
The cause [of the pollution] is the kilolitres of untreated sewage entering the Vaal because of inoperative and dilapidated wastewater treatment plants which have been unable to properly process sewage and other wastewater produced in Emfuleni, and from the city of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality and Midvaal municipality that is also directed towards the wastewater sewage systems situated in the Emfuleni municipality.”
The report stated: “The flow of raw sewerage on public streets, paths and into homes poses a major health hazard to people and is also an obvious violation of their rights to dignity.”
One of the consequences of the pollution is on natural ecosystems directly dependent on the water in and from the Vaal. The population of Yellowfish, peculiar to SA rivers such as the Vaal, are under threat of extinction on account of the change in the balance of river flora and other competing species in the river caused by pollution of the Vaal, said the SAHRC.
Sisulu said she met co-operative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Friday to brief her on her department’s decision to take over Emfuleni’s infrastructure.
“We are happy that we and the SAHRC are in agreement that [this] is the only solution to the problem,” she said.
Sisulu said her department was preparing the required memorandum to get cabinet approval for the takeover.
The SAHRC recommended to the cabinet that it seriously consider national government intervention in Emfuleni.