The State of The Rivers/Oceans/Water/Air

[Richprins]

“At heart this is a systemic failure caused by putting the wrong people in charge,” says Professor Neil Armitage, the deputy director of Future Water at the University of Cape Town.

The only fix, in Armitage’s view, is replacing those currently in power with “people who know what they are doing and are empowered to do it”.

That is the simple bottom line, actually.

[Lisbeth]

Those words are exactly the ones that I have highlighted and it is not only valid for sewage problems but for all the state-owned entities!!

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

In deep water: The sad, sorry state of Gauteng’s Hennops River

By Angus Begg• 18 July 2021


Tarryn Johnston of NPO Hennops Revival, on a bridge over the Kaalspruit near Tembisa, observes the result of the effluent and chemical pollution that flows into the Hennops River. (Photo: Angus Begg)

A residential estate at the eastern edge of Tshwane Municipality, across the road from the beautiful and historical suburb of Irene, is currently highlighting the latest stage in the destruction of a significant South African river.

The estate is one of those ubiquitous South African residential bubbles, growing in popularity exponentially as security and service delivery fail. It is a well-treed and landscaped property, characterised by large, multimillion-rand properties built around a golf course about 30 years ago, and the province’s signature Hennops River running through the middle.

A late-afternoon stroll across the golf course, when the cursing golfers have left, provides magnificent sunset views, with lapwings and Egyptian geese bedding down for the night. Riding on the back of the cooler evening air, through this almost pastoral scene, is the foul stench of sewage.

Hennops Revival

Tarryn Johnston of NPO Hennops Revival, who lives close to the river, says the smell always worsens in winter owing to lack of rainfall to clean the water. “When the sun warms up the water, sludge from the bottom bubbles up from underneath and releases gasses into the air.” Johnston is just one of an army of volunteers and NGOs working to rescue our rivers and bodies of water.

Water rights activist Willem Snyman, who runs another water activist NPO, says the thick odour is the “direct discharge into streams from household toilets”. I think of Paul, a rough sleeper who makes his bed in the reeds alongside Johannesburg’s Braamfontein Spruit, and who recently explained how he cleans himself after “a number two”, and consider Snyman’s description as the sanitised version.

Seen from the Gautrain above, as it pulls into Centurion Station, it is clear that the growing informal squatter camp on the banks of the Hennops River, with the quaint name of “Mushroom”, provides plenty of Paul-type opportunities. But the abuse of the river is about more than human faeces.

Anthony Duigan of Action for Responsible Management of Our Rivers (Armour) says that, although the Vaal has a major problem with sewage, the Hennops is far worse off. It is “drowning in chemical and industrial effluent”, says Duigan, who lives closer towards Hartbeespoort Dam, into which the Hennops flows.

Johnston, who regularly has the river’s water quality tested, attributes the “astronomical” and multiple pollution levels to the fact that there are so many tributaries that flow into the Hennops, most coursing through industrial areas.

Duigan says it is probably South Africa’s most polluted river. His wife Helen, who started Armour, speaks of the river sometimes having run “red and blue”.

Tembisa and Kaalfontein

The river has a few sources, in both Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metros. A significant one is Kaalfontein in Tembisa, a wetland “fountain” where the water emerges from the ground, flows as the Kaalspruit through the Johannesburg Metro and then via Irene into the Tshwane Metro as the Hennops River.

Like Duigan, Johnston and Snyman, Samuel Mashimbi, a community activist who runs an NPO called Envirocare, is devoted to the river’s resuscitation.

“Nature is very important for any living thing, hence human beings must take nature as an important part of life. I am part of the community, and taking care of our environment should be a responsibility of any individual.”

It is testament to humankind’s ignorance of nature’s functioning that, much like with the first construction of settlements on the Cape Flat wetlands, the Ekurhuleni municipality and relevant authorities have seemingly allowed developers to build and dump rubble on the Kaalfontein wetland, nature’s water filter.

Kaalfontein falls into councillor Derek Thomson’s ward. He confirms that it is illegal to dump, but that “this current ANC-led metro doesn’t care”.


Raw sewage from the Olifantsontein Wastewater Treatment Works flowing into the Kaalspruit destined for the Hennops River and Hartbeespoort Dam. (Photo: Angus Begg)

Illegal shacks and toilets

He speaks of 1,000 illegal shacks on the banks of the Kaalspruit, in the Tswelopele informal area of Ward 1 Ext 8. He says that is apart from the 1,400 legal shacks.

He says when he was elected councillor there were 850 shacks, and expresses pride in having secured each one a toilet. “At the time there were 20 families sharing a toilet.”

He says neither the Ekurhuleni Metro, the City of Johannesburg – which intersects with the metro – nor the Department of Human Settlements has acted against the illegal occupation and structures on the riverbank.

Mashimbi says the community that resides next to the Kaalspruit streams that flow from the Kaalfontein wetland spring is aware that the contaminated water can’t be used for cooking. He says the same community, however, does not connect its actions to the contamination of water.

“It’s the worst-contaminated stream,” says Mashimbi. “As days goes by it is in a state of no return, highly contaminated by all sorts of waste.”

Snyman says the natural spring is so large that it forms its own streams in the area. The largest is also called Kaalfontein.


One of thousands of illegal homes and toilets pumping human waste directly into the Kaalspruit. Hennops River activists say this happens in Ekhuruleni and Johannesburg metros. (Photo: Angus Begg)

Destroyed wetlands

“It is here where much of the wetland is being destroyed for low-cost housing, filled with building rubble to lay it dry, all household waste going into the stream.”

Johnston confirms that developers are “a huge problem”, that by building on wetlands – more homes with more kitchens and bathrooms – they are adding more sewage to an already over compromised non-sewage and sewerage system.

“The wastewater treatment works are a huge contributor to the issue,” says Johnston. “Huge. I don’t know of any wastewater treatment works that are compliant.”

The Olifantsfontein Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW), which pumps water into this section of the Hennops, is one of 19 plants in Ekurhuleni, 11 of which are over capacitated. Thomson says the plant got R200-million to increase the capacity in 2020, but a pipe pumping effluent into the Kaalspruit suggests it is in part culpable for the pollution and stench.

Efforts to contact Olifantsfontein WWTW CEO Tumelo Gopane were unsuccessful.

It’s all about the money

Thomson speaks of a process he came across called bioremediation, which he says would have done the same job for R3-million. He listed the positives: no need to enlarge the plant, no need to use chemicals, “no hundreds of millions of rands’ worth of fancy equipment, but the capacity and water quality going out is increased”.

When asked why such a seemingly perfect solution has not been adopted, he says there is no political will. There is seemingly significant interest in fixing a problem for R200-million rather than R3-million.

Thomson says a directive was issued five years ago by the national Department of Water and Sanitation against the Olifantsfontein WWTW and the Ekurhuleni Metro. He says a budget had been allocated for the rehabilitation of the Kaalspruit, but that it vanished.

Which doesn’t help the Hennops.

Foam castles

When the dirty water discharged into the river is aggravated by turbulence, the result is the sometimes spectacular foam castles, reminiscent of an exploded washing machine in a Will Ferrell comedy. These are an indication of the high phosphate levels in the water, says Johnston.

“Sewage, [water from] washing machines, dishwashers and bubble baths, unregulated phosphate levels in our detergents, they all flow into the sewers, and because the wastewater treatment works are only partially functioning, the wastewater can’t be properly treated.”

Whose fault is it?

Most Hennops activists seem to agree that Ekurhuleni probably bears most responsibility for the state of the river.

Tshwane Metro’s spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, says the “solid waste, silt and [sewage] are coming from the upstream municipal metropolitans”.

“It’s a complete violation of constitutional rights, as well as a national disaster,” says Johnston, whose aim is to ensure that the Hennops does not get forgotten about.

Mashimbi, considering his community of informal settlement dwellers, says he aims to develop and implement an intervention strategy based on active participation, engagement, consultation and involvement. A challenge, given recent events, and a metro by many accounts refusing to take responsibility for its having facilitated the abuse of the early stages of the Hennops River.

Seeking precedent, I think back to producing Carte Blanche inserts on Cape Town’s polluted Disa River, flowing past Imizamo Yethu township into the signature attraction that is Hout Bay, carrying with it astronomical E. coli bacteria counts. Milnerton Lagoon, also in the Mother City, has frequently been exposed to untreated sewage, so much so that, as reported in GroundUp in April this year, the Green Scorpions ordered the city to clean it up.

Snyman describes the Hennops River as “a perennial fountain … a major source of Tshwane drinking water and Gauteng’s longest river”.

It sounds like, after countless articles written and contact made with authorities, Johnston, Mashimbi, Snyman and residents of the Hennops just may require the involvement of the Green Scorpions to get that river clean. DM168

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Total lack of accountability as South Africa’s rivers choke on waste

By Angus Begg• 11 October 2021


Mountains of litter against a bridge pylon on the Jukskei River, Alexandra township. (Photo: Angus Begg)

There are 52 million E. coli counts per 100ml water within the Kaalspruit, one of the sources of the significant Hennops River in Gauteng. The acceptable limit is 400 to 600 counts — without the millions.

Originating in Tembisa, the Kaalspruit is at its birth abused by builder’s rubble, human effluent from at least 1,400 illegal shacks on its banks as well as by chemicals from factories. As it gathers pace, it winds its foamy way through lifestyle estates and more illegal shacks on the river’s banks, en route to the Hartbeespoort Dam, ultimately flowing into the Limpopo River.

Some way southeast, the water at the Rietspruit in Sebokeng has E. coli counts of 9,188,000 per 100ml, according to the quarterly water-quality results of the largest water utility in Africa, Rand Water.

Nine million is better than 52 million, but both are light years beyond the acceptable limit.

Although E. coli and other pathogens are naturally present in water to some degree (less than 250 counts per 100ml), these concentrations are significantly increased when faecal pollution has occurred. People and animals may adapt to low levels of E. coli, which increases the likelihood of infectious diseases and gastrointestinal issues.

The risk of health effects is increased when the polluted water source is used as drinking water, to irrigate crops and for washing and recreational activities, which all serves to increase the load on the individual. Other health considerations, such as malnutrition, age or comorbidities, can cause a lowered resistance to infectious waterborne diseases.

South Africa is a dry country, classified as semi-arid, receiving just under half the average annual rainfall (464mm) of the rest of the world. With the country predicted to become drier as southern Africa is shoved into a furnace of a future by climate change, such astronomical E. coli numbers — widespread if you consider the increasing number of failed and failing rural and urban municipalities — should alone remove the governing party from power at the impending polls.


Jukskei River clean-up: Busisiwe Tyala says there are no bins, no skips, so peeps use the river as a bin. (Photo: Angus Begg)

The figures were recently released at catchment management forums within the Crocodile West/Limpopo and Rietspruit catchment management areas by the City of Ekurhuleni and Rand Water respectively. It’s these sorts of results that influenced the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS’s) Master Plan Call to Action in October 2018, which aimed to address this situation.

The DWS master plan provides the basis for comprehensive engagement with water sector partners to identify critical challenges confronting the sector, and to define actions and interventions with specified time frames, roles and responsibilities.

The report contained some damning findings, among them the following:

• At least 56% of waste-water treatment works and 44% of water treatment works are in a poor or critical condition; 11% are dysfunctional;

• More than 50% of South Africa’s wetlands have been lost and, of those that remain, 33% are in poor ecological condition;

• Between 1999 and 2011 the extent of main rivers in South Africa classified as having a poor ecological condition increased by 500%, with some rivers pushed beyond the point of recovery; and

• The extent of tributaries with a poor ecological condition increased by 229% in this same period.

By all reports, conditions surrounding South Africa’s water infrastructure have dramatically worsened. Recently, Daily Maverick reported that, with “a third of its sewage plants only partially operational, the Chris Hani District Municipality is responsible for years of waste running into the Eastern Cape’s rivers”.

No toilets, no bins

Participation in a clean-up of a 30m section of the Jukskei River, where it passes Alexandra township’s east bank, recently revealed to this writer a dead dog, live electric cables, years of rubble and plastic as well as mountains of clothing, blankets and shoes that were either impeding or blocking the river’s progress as it flows northwest from Johannesburg towards the Hartbeespoort Dam.

Two weeks ago, east bank resident Busisiwe Tyala says an eight-year-old child was killed after playing with an exposed, illegal electricity connection. Wendy Malpage, who runs Bubele Afrika, an NGO dedicated to cleaning up the Jukskei, confirmed she’d heard of the incident.

Tyala says “there are no bins, no skips, so people use the river as a bin”.

In just five minutes, that short stretch of urban river exposed the decrepit state into which much of Johannesburg and its surrounding water infrastructure has sunk: a deadly illegal electricity connection; the complete absence of council services; citizens doing the job of the city council; and the private sector, already taxed to the hilt, paying for “volunteers” to do the job.

That is beyond the faeces, litter and the alleged death of a child.

Johannesburg was, twenty years ago, famed for its water quality. In a Sunday Times article from that period, the city’s tap water was ranked alongside Perrier and various other mineral waters. Its descent into the sh*t and slime of the sewers cannot be blamed on apartheid, but on a stunning lack of integration and cooperation between a multitude of “authorities” that resembles a Monty Python skit.

The City of Johannesburg had not answered questions at the time of going to print, and the Gauteng Province — which is responsible for the Hennops and Jukskei — referred questions to the City. And here’s part of the problem: various agencies within the City of Johannesburg manage its water — the Johannesburg Roads Agency manages the stormwater system, Environmental Management is responsible for the catchment, and Johannesburg Water manages water and sewage. So what happens in the case of more than one accountable agency?

Gauteng Province says the DWS is the custodian of water resources in the country. DWS spokesperson Sputnik Ratau says that, although it offers support to local government, its primary role remains being that of a regulator. “Sec[tion] 156 read with Schedule 4 part B of the Constitution indicates that Local government is responsible for (i) Pollution, (ii) stormwater management, (iii) the potable water supply systems and wastewater treatment systems; and (iv) Bylaws.”

Mariette Liefferink, a water rights and conservation activist, has long been battling the “lack of accountability” and issues raised above. As the head of the Federation of Sustainable Environment NGO, she has played the role of the proverbial “pain in the arse” of the Gauteng government and municipal authorities for more than 20 years.

Starting her activist life with a victorious battle against Royal Dutch Shell, “one woman against a major multinational”, Liefferink soon became involved in the effects of mining on the environment, water and communities. Today, she is constantly on the collective back of public servants whose job it is to ensure we have safe water.

Her experience of dealing with government and official reports, at national, provincial and municipal level, means she calls it as she has come to see it, referring to “organs of state too incompetent to respond timeously to scientific warnings and community concerns as a result of capacity absences; a lack of skill and a conscious amnesia because of poor record management”.

The request to the DWS to respond to the “damning findings” in its own master plan was met with a vague response, referring to plans, strategies, investigations and monitoring: “It may be premature to conclude that none of the priorities/recommendations are being implemented before the target dates set,” said DWS’s Ratau.

Liefferink says the public is tired of hearing about plans, policies and strategies. “What is called for is urgent and bold action,” she says.

The DWS points out that its primary role is that of a regulator, offering “support” to local government. But it appears the one needing support is Liefferink, who says her efforts to obtain access to public records were blocked by local authorities, flouting constitutional safeguards in the process.

Active citizenry

DM168 has seen more than two months of correspondence between Liefferink, who, from her letters, has had to grovel and shine the boots of disinterested local, provincial and national officials just to get access to public records to which the public is entitled.

She says trying to hold government accountable for a resource that falls clean from the sky into rivers and should be managed by its municipal and regional authorities has cost her “a fortune”.


The Jukskei flowing through Alexandra township, according to Alexandra riverbank residents, used as a bin, because they ‘don’t have any’. (Photo: Angus Begg)

“Frustration aside, the time, telephone calls, internet usage, petrol and travel costs, conferences, environmental tours and workshops, financial assistance to communities, research and lawyers’ fees, printing costs over the past 15 or more years amount to millions of rands, maybe R10-million.”

This is R10-million paid by a private citizen just to ensure her fellow citizens of affected areas know how bad the water situation in Gauteng is, like the 52 million E. coli counts per 100ml flowing into the Hennops.

As arguably demonstrated by the directives issued to the Chris Hani Municipality, and the legal actions taken against municipalities running the towns of Lichtenburg and Lydenburg (as well as many others not mentioned), the political will and skills required to manage our water daily, which is especially essential for life in a semi-arid part of the world, no longer seem to be there.

Which leaves the fight to preserve this woefully under-rated resource now in the hands of “active citizenry”, people like Liefferink and on-the-ground water warriors such as Samuel Mashimbi of Tembisa, Tarryn Johnston’s Hennops Renewal, Willem Snyman’s Fresh and Wendy Malpage, of Bubele Afrika, who recently started a clean-up campaign of the Jukskei.

Liefferink recalls why it was that she became a water activist, adding other concerns of critical importance to the gruesome figures above, like the failure of the DWS to identify and prosecute big polluters across the country.

“They just offer platitudes,” she says. “Again and again, from one year to the next.” DM168

[Lisbeth]

‘A story of South Africa’: Emfuleni residents fed up with Vaal River pollution inertia


The effluent pipe of the Rietspruit Waste Water Treatment plant, 25 October 2021. (Photo: Mike Gaade)

By Julia Evans | 29 Oct 2021

Fish continue to die from sewage pollution in the Vaal despite years-long efforts by activists to hold local authorities accountable
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It’s a story you’ve heard before, and as Maureen Stewart, vice-chairperson of non-profit organisation Save the Vaal Environment (Save) said, “it’s a story of South Africa”. Lack of funding. Failure to upgrade and maintain municipal infrastructure. Ecological, environmental and human health repercussions.

Like many areas in South Africa, there are ongoing sewage spills into the Vaal River, predominantly from the Emfuleni Municipal wastewater treatment system, which have affected human and animal health, the environment and ecology – with many yellowfish dying.


Dead fish in the Vaal River, in Loch Vaal. Sewerage spills into the water is thought to cause fish deaths due to depletion of oxygen in the ester (Photo: Mike Norman)

“The situation has not changed,” said Stewart. “This has been an ongoing issue that has escalated over probably [over more than a decade].

“The end result is that we’ve got a load of raw sewage going straight into the river. This has caused a major ecological and environmental disaster.”

In February this year, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released a report into the sewage problem of the Vaal River after a three-year investigation.

The report emphasised the importance of the Vaal water system, with about 19 million South Africans relying on it for water security, and found the pollution in the Vaal River affected natural ecosystems and endangered health.

It stated that the Vaal is now polluted beyond acceptable standards, caused by “the kilolitres of untreated sewage entering the Vaal because of inoperative and dilapidated wastewater treatment plants which have been unable to properly process the sewage”.

While this has been an ongoing issue, after recent sewage spills into the Vaal at Vereeniging and at Loch Vaal, Emfuleni locals reported seeing dead fish floating in the water. Stewart explained that as a result of sewage flowing into the Vaal River, the fish were starved of oxygen and died.

The SAHRC report found that due to the pollution, the yellowfish population in the Vaal is under threat of extinction.



“A large part of the pollution is due to wastewater treatment plants that are not operating optimally but it is not the only reason. Domestic, industrial, agricultural and mining activities also play a part,” Sputnik Ratau, Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) spokesperson, told Our Burning Planet.

Ratau said the reason that the plants were not operating optimally was a lack of operations and maintenance at local government level.

Stewart said the Emfuleni local municipality has three wastewater treatment plants that technically have the capacity between them of treating over 200 million litres of sewage per day.

However, all three – Sebokeng Water Treatment Plant, Leeuwkuil Waste Water Treatment Works in Vereeniging and Rietspruit Waste Water Treatment Works in Vanderbijlpark – are operating below capacity and as a result, raw sewage is spilling into the Vaal River between Vereeniging and the Vaal Barrage, including Vanderbijlpark.

Stewart said that the Emfuleni Municipality hadn’t invested in the maintenance and upgrading or expanding of the plants to accommodate a growing population.

“It’s a story of South Africa. It’s not only the Vaal River,” she said.

The issue has caused two areas of concern for Save – the impact on ecology and on human health.

“The danger to the environment is that you’re destroying the ecology of the river,” said Stewart, “and it’s very difficult to get it right after that.”

Secondly, it poses a danger to human health. According to the latest Barrage Reservoir Weekly Water Quality report by Rand Water, published on 22 October 2021, in some areas of the Vaal River (near the Emfuleni treatment plants) the E.coli count per 100ml of water collected is 241,960.

The report notes that an E.coli count of just 400 counts per 100ml would indicate a high risk of gastrointestinal disorders (with symptoms including skin irritations, infections and intestinal disorders). This figure is far below the counts reported in some areas of the Vaal. Stewart said many children have experienced violent diarrhea after participating in recreational activities on the river.


The impact to the Rietspruit, about 2km downstream from the treatment plant, 25 October 2021. (Photo: Mike Gaade)

She explains that while people don’t drink that water (Rand Water treats water from the Vaal Dam, not the Vaal River), the communities below the barrage are affected.

“The water that travels through the river and is picking up all the sewage, also goes through the barrage to communities below the barrage, like Parys and beyond.

“There is a dilution factor, yes, but still those communities and municipalities further along, particularly Parys, abstract water from the river, which they treat, and then that means you can’t drink the water in Parys.”

So, whose job is it to fix it, and why has it taken so long?

The SAHRC report made recommendations for the government at all three tiers – national, provincial and municipal.

At present the DWS is playing a leading role and is collaborating with the Gauteng provincial government’s Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, local government and the private sector.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation has got a regulatory role to play, through Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement,” confirmed Ratau, adding, “This matter is not just DWS-specific, that is why there is need for collaboration obviously led by the government, with DWS playing a leading role.”

Stewart said previous DWS minister Lindiwe Sisulu had invoked section 63 of the Water Services Act which meant that the national government could step in and take over the infrastructure operations and maintenance of Emfuleni’s wastewater system.

“By invoking section 63, the minister has stepped into the shoes of the municipality in terms of its wastewater system,” she said.

“If proper compliance had been effective, the sewerage crisis issue may have been prevented.”

A Vaal River Intervention Plan is currently being rolled out.

Ratau said DWS was responsible for the whole project, including oversight over the work that is being done by Rand Water as the Implementing Agent, and coordination with all role players “as well as of most importance, the sourcing of the necessary funding”.

Ratau said the plan includes unblocking pipelines, upgrades, replacements or new construction of some pump stations and pumps, reconditioning of compactor and screen motors, replacement of power supply and connection to municipal water supply, amongst others.

Buang Jones, provincial head of the SAHRC told Our Burning Planet, that they were monitoring the implementation of the report and not incidents that occurred after its release.

“We recently held discussions with the state respondents as part of our ongoing monitoring. We are still studying their progress reports,” Jones said.

Stewart said funding remained a sticking point in taking needed action. “There’s lots of talk, but not too much action on the ground.”

There have been several attempts in the past to deal with this issue, with the South African National Defence Force contracted to work on the wastewater plants and the Ekurhuleni Water Care Company contracted to clean the blocked pipes.

But Stewart said that after the company’s contract ended, the pipes just got blocked up again. The real solution would be to sort out the source of the problem – by upgrading the plants.

“But again, you know, we’re waiting,” she said.

“And it’s the same story: the treatment works are dysfunctional, and they’re treating very little raw sewage coming into the works, which impacts the river. And that’s where we are at the moment, with once again, promises from the new minister [Senzo Mchunu ] that action will be taken and that funds will be found.”

Stewart believes the only solution now is to take legal action. In 2018 Save took Emfuleni municipality to court, to stop pollution of the Vaal River from the wastewater treatment system, and won. In 2019, the organisation was awarded a court order to add national and provincial players including the departments of Finance and Environment into the court action. This was opposed by ministers of Finance and DWS.

The case was delayed after Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs requested a six-month suspension of court action, and after delays as a result of lockdown and discussions with Sisulu. Save will be asking for approval from the court to submit a supplementary affidavit to explain the updates since the 2019 court order. If that is approved, the proceedings will be able to continue. DM/OBP

[Richprins]

This only happens in ANC municipalities!

[Lisbeth]

Lack of interest in the population and the way they live

[Lisbeth]

Chris Hani District Municipality given until 2 November to report on dire sewage spillages in Cradock


Sewage overflows into the Great Fish River in Cradock. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tembile Sgqolana | 31 Oct 2021

For years, the Chris Hani District Municipality has allowed sewage to flow into Eastern Cape rivers — and in some cases people’s yards — as the wastewater treatment works are dysfunctional. Agri Eastern Cape has finally obtained an order to force the municipality to act on sewage spills in Cradock.
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The Grahamstown High Court has granted Agri Eastern Cape (Agri EC) a supervisory order that instructs the Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) to take urgent steps to rectify raw and untreated sewage flowing directly into the Fish River in Cradock.

The 28 October order came after an Agri EC member reported that raw sewage flowing into the Fish River in Cradock would inevitably affect agricultural activities downstream.

In September, Daily Maverick reported that a third of the municipality’s sewage plants are partially operational and that the district is responsible for years of waste running into the Eastern Cape’s rivers.

Speaking about the case, Agri EC’s Megan Maritz said following the failure of the municipality and the department of water and sanitation to urgently engage with Agri EC, a site inspection was performed by Agri EC’s staff members.

“The staff members confirmed that at more than six sites direct sewage spills were flowing into the Fish River. Furthermore, five pump stations and the wastewater treatment works were dysfunctional,” she said.

Maritz said sewage leaked from almost every manhole along the sewerage system.

“Most of these manholes had sewage gushing from them, creating flowing streams that led to the Fish River. The burial site of the famous ‘Cradock Four’ was under a lake of sewage and people in Lingelihle, Michausdal and Cradock were being forced to live with streams of sewage flowing past their front doors,” Maritz said.

She said the entire system was so dysfunctional that there was a constant “waterfall” of sewage at the bottom of Church Street.

“Toilet paper and sanitary material littered the areas of sewage overflow, including the Michausdal pump station. In light of the seriousness of the situation, Agri EC approached the Grahamstown High Court on the 3rd of September 2021 to urgently enroll the matter,” she said.

Maritz said the municipality initially opposed the relief sought by Agri EC, but later adopted a cooperative approach that led to the granting of the 28 October innovative order.

In terms of this order, the municipality shall, by no later than 4pm on 2 November 2021, serve and file a comprehensive report, on affidavit, detailing the following:

• The present state and functioning of the Cradock Wastewater Treatment Works [CWWTW] and the sewerage system and infrastructure related thereto (hereinafter referred to as “the CWWTW sewerage reticulation system”);

• What steps the First and Second Respondents are and/or will be taking to perform maintenance to, repairs to and/or upgrading of the CWWTW sewerage reticulation system so as to render it compliant with all relevant legislation and to ensure that all current sewage and/or wastewater leaks and/or spills emanating from the CWWTW sewerage reticulation system are rectified and that such any leaks and/or spills are prevented from occurring in future;

• The timeframes envisioned in respect of each step relevant to achieving the results set out above.

• That Agri EC shall, by no later than 16h00 on 19 November 2021, serve and file a responding report, on affidavit, commenting on the report filed by the CHDM;

• That, for purposes of preparing Agri EC’s responding report, an expert appointed by Agri EC shall have access to the CWWTW sewerage reticulation system so as to perform inspections thereof, on 3, 4, 10 and/or 11 November 2021;

• That the matter is postponed to 25 November 2021 for purposes of the parties presenting argument, to the above Honourable Court, in relation to the content of any report(s) filed in terms of this Order and the further conduct of this application, after which the above Honourable Court shall make such further order as it deems appropriate.

Maritz said the municipality was ordered to pay the costs of the application to date.

“It is clear from the timelines outlined that this matter is now being dealt with as a matter of urgency and Agri EC is hopeful that by 25 November 2021 the court will order that the appropriate action plan be implemented after considering the reports filed by the parties,” she said.

Municipal spokesperson Bulelwa Ganyaza said the Chris Hani District Municipality is yet to receive and study the court order.

“As the district municipality, we have already drafted a plan to address sewer issues in Cradock and this has been submitted to Agri EC for consideration. CHDM is also expected to provide a report on the status quo and further present an affidavit to court stating how the district municipality plans to rectify the issue,” she said.

Ganyaza said their technical team was regularly in the area conducting daily operations and maintenance in Cradock.

“Further to this a team of engineers from both parties (the district municipality and Agri EC) will also be on the ground for purposes of inspecting progress to test the implementation of our plan,” she said.


Tarkastad wastewater pump station is surrounded by sewage. (Photo: Supplied)

About 78km from Cradock in the small town of Tarkastad, the pumphouse is swimming in faeces.

DA MPL and Enoch Mgijima constituency leader Jane Cowley said the main pump house in Zola, Tarkastad, which should pump sewage to the Tarkastad wastewater treatment works, has not operated for years and is completely surrounded by a dam of sewage.

“This gruesome discovery was made on Tuesday when I conducted an oversight inspection in Tarkastad to assess service delivery issues in the town. According to residents living across the road from the pumphouse, sewage levels are regularly so high that the sewage fills the road and floods their yards,” she said.

Cowley said local municipal workers say that there is nothing they can do about it as it is the responsibility of the Chris Hani District Municipality to manage water and sewage.

Tarkastad resident Carol Boast said residents living close to the pump had to walk through the faeces.

“These people can get ill anytime; who knows if they are not sick because of the stench and the faeces they have to pass on a daily basis,” she said.

Cowley said the health risks of such barbaric living conditions were enormous and residents often suffered from diarrhoea and other stomach ailments as a result.

“I will write to the Eastern Cape MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Xolile Nqatha, to request his urgent intervention to ensure that the Chris Hani District Municipality effects immediate repairs to the faulty pumphouse and maintains it adequately going forward,” she said.

Ganyaza said theft and vandalism of municipal infrastructure incidents affected the provision of water and sanitation services in the district, and communities suffered the most. DM/OBP