Dead fish in what used to be an old recreation dam in Deelkraal have left the residents and visitors puzzled.
This week, social media was abuzz with photographs of dozens of carp carcasses that had washed up onto the banks of the dam. Many of them were juveniles. Although the dam was originally developed as a recreation facility, it now belongs to Harmony Gold. The mining house considers the dam to be part of its operations and has previously said it is not for public use. The residents still sometimes use it for fishing, however. The Herald asked Harmony when it became aware of the matter on Tuesday.
‘One of the farmers brought the matter to our attention but our environmental teams believe it was caused by a sewage pump station that is not part of the mine’s operations,’ said Ms Sihle Maake, a spokesperson for Harmony.
‘Harmony is committed to implementing the best practices when it comes to environmental management. Our auditing systems ensure compliance with legislation and regulation in the communities in which it operates. We do regular testing to ensure that we don’t contaminate the water in the areas of our operations,’ she added.
The Herald also spoke to Mr Eric Stoch, an environmentalist from the area. According to him, there are three possible causes for the fish dying. The first is eutrophication, when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients, causing the excessive growth of plants and algae.
This process depletes the oxygen in the water.
Another possibility is rapid temperature change, which is also known to kill fish. The third possibility is that the rain washed mine-related chemicals into the water.
Stoch has reported the matter to the Department of Water Affairs, which has promised to investigate and make their results available afterwards.
At the time of the newspaper going to print, authorities in Potchefstroom, toward which water of this dam eventually flows, was also investigating the matter.