Disaster for Vaal River at Parys caused by Ngwathe officials – another municipality ordered to stop pollution of the Vaal River.

During the past few weeks, it came to SAVE's attention that the Ngwathe municipality was pumping raw sewage into the Vaal River. This criminal conduct causes unlawful pollution of the Vaal River. Recently, when a SAVE Parys committee member did a random inspection at the Ngwathe waste water works, it became apparent that clear water was being let into the River during the day but raw sewage was being pumped into the Vaal River at night. This conduct prompted SAVE to approach the High Court to interdict Ngwathe from committing this criminal offence and to stop killing fish and bird life. Communities such as Parys, Vredefort, Bothaville, Bloemhof, Christiana, Leeudoringstad, Viljoenskroon and Wolmaransstad all draw water supplies from the Vaal River. Sewage in water is highly dangerous to human health - a fact well know to the general public and municipal officials as a result of it being spelt out in past court applications and the media and which fact is by now common knowledge to all South Africans who followed the Zimbabwean disaster.
The disgraceful conduct of Ngwathe by surreptitiously pumping it's excess sewage into the Vaal at night must immediately cease. Today, judge Molemela ordered the practice to stop by no later than 24 September 2010 and also ordered Ngwathe Municipality to take steps to properly maintain its sewage works in order to ensure that there is no overflow or spillage from the sewage works into the Vaal River.

SAVE chairman, Lötter Wepener and SAVE Parys chairperson Annalien Burger, said that SAVE will not rest until Ngwathe ceased pumping raw sewage into the Vaal River and also until Ngwathe ensures that the effluent which it pumps into the Vaal River complies with the Department of Water Affair's standards.
'We will no longer tolerate this type of conduct by Ngwathe" Wepener and Burger said. "We will now seek to imprison those officials who disregard the court order. Last year, the Johannesburg High Court ordered the Emfuleni Municipality to cease a similar practice.
"River users are tired of empty promises by municipalities and Ngwathe's total disregard for our health by allowing dirty, untreated water to run into the Vaal River and then that very water is used as a basic commodity by communities, including the Parys community", Wepener and Burger said. "There are communities who are dependant on the River water for their primary water use and Ngwathes's total disregard for these people's basic right to clean water is criminal conduct that must now be addressed in the criminal courts".
River users who hailed the court order expressed dismay that it was once again necessary to go to court to compel a municipality to properly maintain its waste water treatment plants and to stop polluting the Vaal River.

"We will continue to do water tests (at great cost to ourselves) in weeks and months to come and promise further action by SAVE should we find that Ngwathe continues to disregard the right of the public to a clean River", Wepener and Burger said. SAVE will now be employing a team of experts to compile a comprehensive report in order assist us to imprison the guilty parties.

17 October 2010

Contact Lötter Wepener
(Chair; SAVE)
082 552 4714