Not even two weeks ago, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) sounded the alarm over sewage polluting the Vaal River system, saying there was a real possibility that Gauteng’s most vital water resource may “very well have been irreparably damaged”. This came at a time that SA should have been celebrating the fact that an abundance of rain had gifted us full dams. Last week, the Vaal Dam was more than 100% full, but its E. coli count was still high enough to send people to hospital with gastrointestinal illnesses. This compared to some six months ago when the same dam’s levels dipped below 30%. Yet we have little to celebrate.
The ink on the SAHRC’s Vaal Dam report had barely dried when it started hearing presentations from the City of Tshwane on water infrastructure problems at the Roodeplaat Dam on the Pienaarsriver, an important source for the state-owned Magalies Water that supplies potable water to areas north of Pretoria, including Hammanskraal. On Friday, the SABC reported the city told the SAHRC it needed some R9.2bn to fix its water infrastructure “challenges”.
The flow of raw sewage on public streets, paths and into homes poses a major health hazard to people, and is also an obvious violation of their rights to dignity.
— SAHRC
Communities living by Pienaarsriver and the Roodeplaat Dam said there were myriad problems. There was a lack of clean drinking water in the area, but there was also a problem with “aggressive alien weeds that the various departments failed to address”, said community representative Hendrik van Staden. Basically, it has become an unhealthy place to live in. “There is a lack of a clean, health environment for the people living next to these water sources due to contamination,” said Van Staden.
Hammanskraal residents have been trying to be heard for years. In September 2019, the Hammanskraal Residents’ Forum and the Fair and Equitable Society (FES), with help from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), addressed the chair of portfolio committee on human settlements, water and sanitation about their dirty drinking water. Instructions to fix the problem followed, but judging by the testimonies on Friday, little has changed.
The SAHRC is holding hearings to determine whether people’s rights are being violated. On the situation at the Vaal River system, which serves some 19 million people, it had the following to say: “The cause [of the pollution] is the kilolitres of untreated sewage entering the Vaal because of inoperative and dilapidated wastewater treatment plants ... The flow of raw sewage on public streets, paths and into homes poses a major health hazard to people, and is also an obvious violation of their rights to dignity.”
It doesn’t take much to predict the SAHRC would come to a similar conclusion regarding Roodeplaat Dam. In its own words, it’s obvious. What is also obvious is our state institutions’ utter incompetence in solving a looming water security crisis. The department of water and sanitation last week told Sunday Times Daily it would appoint a new company to fix the Vaal sewage problem within the next two months. It feels counterintuitive to have organisations such as the SAHRC, Outa and FES fighting for such a basic right as access to clean water, but SA needs all the help it can get to hold the department accountable.
