Water-poisoned chalice of rot

Collapsing municipal water and sewage systems will see increased pollution of rivers and dams, while waste and acid mine drainage add to the problem. The implosion of government services around the country, coupled with the lack of consequences for most illegal acts, is coming together with an awful symmetry in the community of Nyakallong in the Free State, where people face two choices: being choked to death by raw sewage or poisoned by toxic waste from a nearby mine. Houses are already slowly being engulfed by a deadly blend of sewage and mine effluent seeping into backyards from the dam into which both poisons are being spewed. Failing sewage system The problem started accelerating in 2022, as toxic effluent from a mine owned by Harmony Gold was pumped into the Voëlpan Dam. Testing of water collected by a community monitoring team and the Bench Marks Foundation in 2024 found concentrations of arsenic, lead, copper, silicon and uranium “in high quantities, which are dangerous to humans”. The mine effluent also overwhelmed the sewage pumping and treatment system, which was already in a badly neglected state, similar to that found in scores of collapsing towns around South Africa. The SA Human Rights Commission looked into the issues and later ordered the Matjhabeng municipality to relocate the residents affected to a safer place. Warning for the future That has not been done – surprise, surprise. Harmony says it is no longer discharging waste into the dam. Well, let’s all be thankful for small mercies, shall we? Nothing, it appears, has been done about charging the mine with violating environmental protection laws. In this forgotten corner of the Free State, however, is an ominous portent of our future in a country where water is such a precious resource. Collapsing municipal water and sewage systems will see increased pollution of rivers and dams, while waste and acid mine drainage add to the problem – never mind the fact that many mining companies close and disappear without rehabilitating the land they destroyed.