Kevin Owen writes:
I am writing this letter, not only as a concerned citizen of Benoni, but also in my capacity as a civil engineer who has spent most of his working life in the field of infrastructure development.
Water is our single most important resource.
Our water comes from different sources but the two which I am focusing on here is storm water and treated sewage effluent.
The purpose of any stormwater collection system is just that – to collect rain and stormwater runoff and transport it via a system of pipes back into the rivers which then ultimately feed the lifeblood of Gauteng, namely the Vaal Dam.
The appalling state of certain stormwater catch pits in and around Western Extension are blocked, obviously have not been maintained for who knows how long and are therefore preventing our most important resource from being transported to where it should go.
The person in the local municipality who is responsible for the maintenance of our stormwater system clearly has no understanding of how important a properly functioning stormwater collection system is to our very being.
This is a very sorry state of affairs but most importantly our livelihoods are being strangled by this complete negligence and total lack of knowledge of the importance of a properly functioning stormwater collection system.
The people responsible for this should be charged for:
• Willingly and knowingly destroying our valuable infrastructure.
• Attempted manslaughter, preventing our most important, life-giving resource from reaching its intended destination.
The other very important source of water is purified sewage effluent which should be the end-result of the sewerage purification process which then allows this effluent to flow back into the rivers.
I am not exactly sure of the numbers here but there are around 260 sewerage purification plants in the country and most of them are in the same shocking state of the lack of maintenance as the stormwater catch pits.
This means raw sewerage is flowing back into our rivers instead of purified effluent.
Once again, the total lack of maintenance indicates the people allegedly running these very important components of our infrastructure have no idea what they are doing nor why it is so important to keep them functioning optimally.
Is anybody reading this article interested in becoming part of an action group, or are there any clever lawyers reading this article?
Because of reasons listed, we in this country are headed for a water crisis which is going to make the current electricity crisis look like a nun’s tea party.
“We did not inherit the environment we live in from our parents and grandparents, but we are borrowing it from our children and grandchildren.”
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