Photo: Pieter Cloete/Maroela Media
Gauteng is suffocating in a dangerous combination of air, water and environmental pollution.
So warns Jaco Mulder, FF Plus MPW and chairman of the Gauteng portfolio committee on agriculture, rural development and environmental affairs.
Mulder says the province, which was once the country’s pride, has turned into “a boiling pot of ecological decay” that requires urgent intervention.
According to Mulder, the province was once again plagued by an unbearable sulfur smell this week. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment attributes this to unacceptably high levels of hydrogen sulphide which particularly affects parts of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.
“This pollution poses serious health risks and already exceeds the World Health Organization’s recommended thresholds,” says Mulder. According to him, it probably comes from coal gasification processes in Mpumalanga.
At the same time, according to him, Gauteng’s rivers and groundwater are increasingly polluted due to dilapidated infrastructure and dysfunctional municipalities. “Water treatment plants pump raw or poorly treated sewage into water systems on a daily basis,” he says.
Mulder refers, among other things, to the Rooiwal sewage treatment plant in the Tshwane metro, which he says led to a tragedy in which more than 40 people lost their lives in Hammanskraal, while farmers are left without potable groundwater.
He also says the Percy Stewart sewage treatment plant pollutes the Crocodile River and the Hartbeespoort Dam, while Emfuleni continues to dump raw sewage into the Vaal River.
“These examples are only the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger management crisis,” says Mulder. According to him, the FF Plus-led portfolio committee has already called municipalities before the committee to give an account of the situation.
A landfill in Johannesburg (Photo: Hush Naidoo Jade Photography/ Unsplash)
“As a next step, an urgent summit is convened in the second quarter to tackle the escalating crisis directly,” he says.
Mulder says all role players – from local authorities and government departments to farmers, business people and environmental organizations – will be involved in the summit. “In a province where more than a quarter of South Africans live and work, this crisis simply cannot be ignored any longer,” he says.
“The damage is already enormous and the window period for action is getting smaller. There is no more time left for excuses and half-hearted attempts to remedy the situation.
“Gauteng’s environment and its people must be saved now.”