Are we losing our World Heritage Site status at Cradle of Humankind due to pollution?
The Percy Steward sewage plant is still polluting our rivers and the Cradle of Humankind's heritage site status hangs in the balance.
The fight to keep Mogale City’s river system clean has been ongoing for years but it seems this is a battle both the municipality and residents are busy losing.
Many fear that without immediate intervention, this might also cost us our World Heritage Site status at the Cradle of Humankind.
Trevor Burrough, director of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site Association warns this fight has become more serious than ever before and the pressure for a solution is dire. He added that a recent report done by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) revealed conditions of rivers in the area are continuously deteriorating.
“The water is sludgy, it is the colour of pea soup and there is a constant strong odour along the river,” Burrough explained, adding that the rivers have received an E/ F rating by the CSIR, which means these are basically dead and unusable rivers.
According to Burrough, tests have also shown there might be pollution in the groundwater, which means that ground and borehole water may soon become unsafe to use.
• Also read: WATCH: Malfunctioning Percy Steward causes water-source contamination
Although the Acid Mine Drainage in the area has been a focus for many years, another major contributing factor is the Percy Steward Waste Water Treatment Works in Delporton. In addition, a lack of qualified people, funding and maintenance have been identified as possible causes of untreated or partially treated sewage running into the Blougat Spruit (which joins with the Bloubank Spruit leading to the Crocodile River and eventually ends up in the Hartbeespoort Dam).
This has affected businesses, residents, and farms that make use of this water along the way. The pollution also seeps into the ground slowly polluting the ground water.
The Krugersdorp News has been requesting a visit to the waterworks for months but has been denied.
Burrough has written letters of complaint to many institutions for help, including the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations. A Cradle Rivers WhatsApp group has also been started by affected residents.
The News reported in 2021 that there were no controls to ensure that abattoir waste and other harmful toxins were not dumped into the sewer lines. But Burrough and a team were allowed to rehabilitate the area where waste is dumped into the sewer lines at Percy Steward. They managed to pour a piece of concrete of 12x8m with a retaining wall that could stand the weight of the trucks that were dumping there.
There is also a security guard and access gates to check permits and illegal dumping. He explained that legal dumping of waste can be expensive and it is sometimes easier for companies to come from far away to dump here illegally.
When speaking about Percy Steward, Burrough explained that an amount was allegedly allocated in the budget years ago to fix the pollution problem but it seems it was not used for its intended purpose. He questioned where the money went and added that he would like to know what the money paid by taxpayers for their sewage every month is used for.
One of the main issues, he added, was Mogale City’s dysfunctional sewage pumps and said the MCLM sewage infrastructure is collapsing as no long-term maintenance or upgrades have been done.
The News has reached out to Mogale City Local Municipality for comment but they did not respond at the time of print. Feedback will be published once received.
