State of SA Rivers

[Ryan]

Did anyone watch Carte Blanche on Sunday? Apparently they had a big thing about our rivers. Once again talking about all the effluent and waste etc going into our rivers and how people really need to start worrying!!

This is very worrying and has been for a fair amount of time now! I spoke with a chap who said he went off to the Vaal a little while ago and the next day he woke up sick as a dog. He said he urinated blood for a month!!

He recommended that I go and get shots at the clinic before going onto the Vaal again and certainly wear waders. The shot is apparently R150 and helps protect against Hepatitis and Bilharzia etc..

I'm no expert, but this is a major concern and worry. Has anyone eperienced anything similar or have any other information?

[AquaBarbus]

Yeah I get a fever and feel clammy whenever I HAVENT been to the Vaal, does that count?

Laughing aside, it is quite serious , we wouldnt want the Vaal to turn into the Jukskei and a carrier of Cholera and other happy things...

[Deon TerBlanche]

Rather safe than sorry, what is the recommended shot one should get?

[Shamwari]

Ag that is easy the following will work:

- Shot of Whiskey

- Shot of Brandy

- Shot of Jaggie

- Shot of Chibuku

What else?

[gazzarowan]

i went to the vaal day before new years and also was sick as a dog with stomach cramps for four days...

maybe that shot isn't such a bad idea

[Shamwari]

i went to the vaal day before new years and also was sick as a dog with stomach cramps for four days...

maybe that shot isn't such a bad idea

Be honest, did you have the chicken and russian vetkoek at Saloon 2000...

[Ryan]

i went to the vaal day before new years and also was sick as a dog with stomach cramps for four days...

maybe that shot isn't such a bad idea

Not sure what the shot is called, but he said they would know at the clinic! I think it's definitely something that shouldn't be overlooked!!

[Gerrit Viljoen]

i went to the vaal day before new years and also was sick as a dog with stomach cramps for four days...

Maybe your stomach wasn't used to naartjie game?

[pieterkriel]

I have been lucky in that I have not yet (touch wood) gotten something from the Vaal, or any river or water I have fished. But the fact is that our rivers is in seriously sad state. It is unbelievable but the Klip River used to have Brown trout, now the only browns left is those deposited by our brilliant local governments that can't look after something as basic as our own water resources. This has been debated on this and other forums to no end.

Join or help SAVE(donations).

That Carte Blanche program was aired last year already and yet the destruction just continues. The same munisipal(sp) sewerage plants spills into the same rivers.

Hartbeespoort Dam should be a warning to DWAF of how things can go wrong yet they still do not act hard and fast enough against transgressors(sp). What if the Vaal Dam ends up the same? Loskop Dam is a lovely piece of water and a few months back the victim of our minning industry, thousands of fish deaths, and even the crocs got it.

My feeling is and have been for a while that the minister resposible for water affairs should be criminally charged, and those that held that portfolio before the current one as well, as far back as mismanagement can be traced.

It is constitutionally our right to have clean water to drink and for recreation, not only for a select few, but according to our lovely liberal and praized constitution everyone, which government say they are doing by providing running water in the townships that did not have that before, running water and sewerage systems, but where does the waste go? To the unmaintained and under developed sewerage treatment plants. So another example of the short sightedness of the people on the top. The masses should have water and flushing toilets, but the infrastructure that is outdated should just keep working, add the fact that in this already unmaintained and under developed plant there is zero or little skilled people to run them. How short sighted can they be.

Well then let me put away my soapbox.

[chris williams]

Well said , Pieter, I'm with you 100 percent!!!