WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
Activists decry lack of action over pollution of Vaal
Activists monitoring the Vaal River say there are no signs of the implementation of a government plan to restore the collapsed wastewater management system in Emfuleni, south of Johannesburg. Raw sewage continues to gush into the Vaal River at various points from Vereeniging to the Vaal Barrage, despite an undertaking given in mid-July by the national and provincial governments, says Save, an environmental group working to improve the state of the river. About 150-million litres of sewage spills into the Vaal River via its Rietspruit tributary daily, Save says. Most affected The Integrated Vaal River System, which supplies vast areas of Gauteng and the North West with drinking water, is critically important to SA, supporting about 60% of the economy. About 45% of the country’s population live in the area supplied by water from the system via purification and distribution utility Rand Water. More than a million people live in the most affected Vaal district municipality, Sedibeng, w...
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