State of SA Rivers

[Ryan]

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 The masses should have water and flushing toilets, but the infrastructure that is outdated should just keep working, add the fact that in this already unmaintained and under developed plant there is zero or little skilled people to run them.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.

Well said!!

What bothers me more than anything, is that the fact that people are getting sick and being infected by diseases, they still sit back and deny the issues.. It is far beyond that....It is FACT!!! Our rivers are in a shocking state and action needs to take place.

Raw sewerage is deposited into our rivers, but what happens to the culprits??? Nothing..and to top it off, they probably receive increases for not spending the allocated budget! Is it too much to ask to just get someone to do what they paid to do???!!

IMHO I believe the consequences for wrong doing in this country are far, far too lenient!!! The result is a rapidly declining ecosystem amongst many other things!!

[poppernel]

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.

PK, glad some forumers valued your post as I did. This is no joke.

[Herman Jooste]

Well said!!

What bothers me more than anything, is that the fact that people are getting sick and being infected by diseases, they still sit back and deny the issues.. It is far beyond that....It is FACT!!! Our rivers are in a shocking state and action needs to take place.

Raw sewerage is deposited into our rivers, but what happens to the culprits??? Nothing..and to top it off, they probably receive increases for not spending the allocated budget! Is it too much to ask to just get someone to do what they paid to do???!!

IMHO I believe the consequences for wrong doing in this country are far, far too lenient!!! The result is a rapidly declining ecosystem amongst many other things!!

Ryan, ther is one NGO doing plenty work in terms of doing something. and that is SAVE. Save the Vaal Envioronment. They heve had the Emfuleni ( Vereeniging/Vanderbijl ) Municipality to court 4 times in the last year, for sewage in the Vaal. They have won every case, and 2 people spent 6 months in jail for " Contempt of Court ", in that they did not carry out the court ruling in terms of stopping effluent from entering the Vaal River.

AS I said earlier they are a NGO and are totally reliant on public funding. I have a stop order on my account to support them every month.
Why not do the same?????

[Ryan]

Ryan, ther is one NGO doing plenty work in terms of doing something. and that is SAVE. Save the Vaal Envioronment. They heve had the Emfuleni ( Vereeniging/Vanderbijl ) Municipality to court 4 times in the last year, for sewage in the Vaal. They have won every case, and 2 people spent 6 months in jail for " Contempt of Court ", in that they did not carry out the court ruling in terms of stopping effluent from entering the Vaal River.

AS I said earlier they are a NGO and are totally reliant on public funding. I have a stop order on my account to support them every month.
Why not do the same?????

Hi Herman, This is good news!! I just hope that they are able to get the support they need to really show these municipalities etc!!

[dar]

For those that did not see the programme

http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/?ShowId=1

Just click on the arrows to "Water in the Works" Pt 1 2 and 3.

It is truly horrifying and the response of the "minister" is even more scary. The fact that she is proud of the job she does is beyond understanding.

[dar]

Just heard on the radio that they want to hike the cost of water.....

[nkula_nkula]

Just heard on the radio that they want to hike the cost of water.....

Yep, everyone is feeling the price of having incompetent personnel put into government/municipality positions. No budgeting for upgrades, increased running costs or any sort of capital expenditure required to maintain the system...

TIA But I still love this country!!!

[chris williams]

An interesting article in today's 'Business Day' by the aquatic conservationist/activist Dr. Anthony Turton on acid rain/water spill-offs in the rivers around Harties Dam area following all the recent rains

[jock0]

An interesting article in today's 'Business Day' by the aquatic conservationist/activist Dr. Anthony Turton on acid rain/water spill-offs in the rivers around Harties Dam area following all the recent rains

I havent read the article but I know his stance on the issue. Ironically he's one of the main opposition to the process the concerned parties want to use to prevent the AMD from the western basin flowing into the tweeloopiesspruit in the first place. If I've got my story straight he's ex CSIR?

There's a very good project on the go which is currently stalled at DWAF, or some other governmental branch, to try and sort it all out though. Do some googling or search mineweb/miningweekly for WUC if you're interested. http://www.watermarkglobalplc.com/do...CFactsheet.pdf will give you one side of the story in a nutshell.

[chris williams]

Thanks Dave, another erudite topic for discussion on the morrow in the footie pub!!!