Contamination of the Vaal River’s water has been a continuous battle for the Lekwa Local Municipality, residents and local organisations for more than a decade.

The Standerton Advertiser has covered numerous stories on the issue, including visits from the Human Rights Commission.

In 2023, the municipality was handed a court-imposed fine of R70m. The court ruled that this money must be invested in repairing the municipal sewerage infrastructure.

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The spotlight once again fell on the pollution of the Vaal River in Standerton when Corné Stoltz, founder of the Independent Lekwa Party (ILP), recorded a video of raw sewage flowing unabated into the river last month.

He said the sewerage system was built in the 1950s to handle a capacity of 9 000 cubic metres per day, but the municipality is now allowing more than 24 000 cubic metres to flow through it daily.

The system was originally designed and built to accommodate a community of 38 000 people. However, the town has since grown to more than 145 000 residents.

“They want to use the same system for nearly four times the number of people,” said Stoltz.

According to the Lekwa Local Municipality’s licence, it is permitted to purify 32 000 cubic metres of water per day. Stoltz said the municipality is currently attempting to purify 42 000 cubic metres using the same system.

The ILP has opened a criminal case against the municipality over the continued discharge of untreated sewage into the Vaal River.

The Green Scorpions are also involved in the investigation. Stoltz said that despite previous interventions and legal action, the pollution continues.

“The continued discharge of untreated sewage poses a severe threat to public health, the environment, biodiversity, agriculture, and downstream communities that rely on the Vaal River as a vital water resource,” said Stoltz.

The main sewer pipeline at the Mulder pump station has also collapsed.

It has been more than a decade

Hillel Coetzer, founder of the NPO Northern Light Foundation and formerly involved with AfriForum, where he conducted numerous water and sewage tests, said the problem has merely been moved away from the Mulder pump station.

“The disposal of sewage behind the college, where everyone can see it, has now moved underneath the bridge that crosses the Vaal River,” said Coetzer.

According to Coetzer, the municipality has undertaken a few projects to address the problem, but he believes the focus should be on the pump stations rather than the pipelines.

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“They have been upgrading the system for the past eight years, but cannot show us what has actually been upgraded,” said Coetzer.

According to him, the municipality is supposed to pump from a depth of 38m at one of the pump stations. However, the pump is only switched on occasionally.

The pollution issue has even attracted the attention of concerned South Africans as far afield as Cape Town and East London.

In 2021, four open-water swimmers completed a 16km swim in the heavily polluted Vaal River to raise awareness of its contamination and help find solutions.

Andrew Chin and Craig Bishop from Cape Town, along with Mandy Uys and Joy Roach from East London, took on the challenge as part of the Swim for Rivers campaign.

The foursome began their swim near the Blesbokspruit confluence with the Vaal River, covering 9.5km to the entrance of Grootdraai Dam.

The following day, they continued from below the dam wall and swam a further 8.5km to the old bridge on the Meyerville side. They concluded the initiative with a clean-up campaign the following day at Standerton River Park.

Over the years, political parties have repeatedly raised concerns about the issue, and AfriForum opened a case against the then municipal manager, Linda Tshabalala, over the pollution of the Vaal River.

The Standerton Advertiser reported in 2015 that pump stations in Sakhile were out of order and that sewage was flowing from there into the Vaal River.

Department of Water and Sanitation lends a helping hand

Lekwa Local Municipality said it is addressing the problem. This is according to the municipality’s communications manager, Lubabalo Majenge.

“The issue of raw sewage spilling into the river is being addressed as part of the Court Order Action Plan. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has also assisted the municipality by refurbishing and constructing sewer pump stations.”

Majenge said these pump stations are now operating effectively.

“The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, David Mahlobo, handed over the refurbished pump stations on June 6. These intervention projects by the DWS form part of the national government’s key infrastructure support aimed at improving sanitation.”

Foreign objects dumped in manholes cause major damage

Majenge said one of the municipality’s ongoing challenges is people dumping foreign objects into manholes.

“This damages the newly developed infrastructure and takes us back to square one. As a result, we experience pump breakdowns at the Vaal Sewer Pump Station from time to time, which then lead to spillages.

“The municipality is facing serious challenges with ongoing sewer blockages caused by the improper disposal of foreign objects such as bottles, blankets, oil, grease, plastics, linen sheets, animal skins, and even animal intestines into the sewer system. These items can cause serious damage, leading to blockages, overflows, and costly repairs.”

Majenge explained that when foreign objects enter the sewer system, they accumulate and cause blockages that prevent wastewater from flowing freely. This leads to sewage overflows and, ultimately, pollution.

“The municipality continues to appeal to residents to play their part in protecting public infrastructure. Stop dumping waste into the sewer system and refrain from vandalising it.”