SEDIBENG. – Emfuleni residents along the banks of the Vaal River have reported ‘hundreds’ of dead fish floating along floating in the river, with some dying a painful death, gasping for air. SAVE the VAAL, an organisation that is concerned about the environment in the area, in particular the Vaal River has said that questions need to be asked of both Rand Water and the Minister and Department of Water and Sanitation as to why it is taking so long to implement the binding recommendations of the SA Human Rights Council regarding the Vaal River and its environs in Emfuleni. SAVE the Vaal’s Maureen Stewart said: “Why has work not started on fixing the treatment plants and most importantly, where is the promised funding to do fix the Emfuleni municipality’s wastewater treatment system? This (the dying of fishes) can be attributed to lack of oxygen in the water as a result of the dangerously high levels of raw sewage. There have also been reports of children becoming violently ill with diarrhoea after tubing in the river. Many residents also complain of an unbearable stench from the river, especially in the evening.” Stewart further said that the Department of Water and Sanitation is again focusing on unblocking sewerage pipes in the Emfuleni area without having operational systems to treat the raw sewage before it enters the river. “Both the Sebokeng and Rietspruit treatment plants pump their non-compliant effluent into the Rietspruit at the rate of some 150 million litres daily.” SAVE the VAAL said that is concerned about the environmental impact, the health risk as well as the wasteful expenditure of duplicating the same work in unblocking pipes as was done by ERWAT in 2020.