The Cradle of Humankind, a Unesco world heritage site, is being polluted by sewage.
Trevor Brough, director of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site Association, said he first alerted the Mogale City municipality about pollution in the Blougatspruit river in July 2019.
Untreated or partially treated sewage has been flowing for years from the Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Works into the Blougatspruit which flows into the Bloubankspruit and Crocodile rivers, and finally into Hartbeespoort Dam.
Wandile Zwane, chief director of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and Dinokeng Project, said that the management authority is aware that the condition of the rivers has deteriorated drastically over the last few months, resulting in loss of fauna and flora, loss of businesses, reduced recreational activities and contamination of groundwater.
The problems include prolonged load-shedding, the budget for maintenance, a slow procurement process for parts, and a need for qualified people to operate the plant.
Everard Read Gallery chair Mark Read, who lives in the area, said: ‘It’s a deeply sad event when the current generation of Gauteng has allowed a very beautiful river, one of our few really beautiful rivers, to be converted, within a world heritage site, from a fish and bird sanctuary, into a sewerage pipe’.
Water expert at the University of the Free State, Anthony Turton, says the government allows 5-billion litres of untreated or partially treated sewage to flow into rivers every day.
Turton said that Percy Stewart used to be one of the best, highly designed wastewater facilities [in the country].
However, the plant’s inflow [volume] of sewage exceeds the design capacity.
Turton said billions of rand will be needed to upgrade Percy Stewart’s capacity, and ‘we are likely to see more of these waterborne diseases becoming a problem, not only cholera, but hepatitis A as well’.
[Photo: Freddy Mavunda/BusinessLIVE]