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An ecological and health disaster is looming in Burgersdorp in the Walter Sisulu Municipality as a river and dam of sewage has formed on the outskirts of the town.

This excessive sewage flow is situated behind the residential area of Thembisa and on a daily basis children play in close proximity and cattle drink directly from the sewage water. More than 6000 people live in this neighbourhood.

I have written to the Acting Municipal Manager of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality (JGDM) to intervene and find an immediate solution to the sewage crisis. If this intervention is not implemented by 12 January 2023, I will have no choice but to lay criminal charges.

The JGDM is responsible for the provision of water and sanitation services to Walter Sisulu, but has failed dismally in doing so.

A dysfunctional sewage pumpstation, tasked to pump raw sewage to the wastewater treatment works in Burgersdorp, is the direct cause of this crisis.

The pumpstation does not house a pump and there is no electricity to the building. The district municipality has simply blocked a manhole to bypass the pumpstation and dug a trench in order for the sewage to flow into a field.

The sewage poses a serious threat to the health of local residents and the livelihoods of emerging farmers, and the risk of contaminating groundwater is also extremely high.

When will the municipality take action? Must we first wait for people to start dying of sewage-borne diseases such as dysentery, before anything is done?

The failure to protect the environment against pollution is a criminal offence in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

NEMA provides that the party responsible for producing the pollution must also be responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment.

The act also specifies that the costs of remedying pollution, environmental degradation and consequent adverse health effects and of preventing, controlling or minimising further pollution, environmental damage or adverse health effects, must be paid for by those responsible for harming the environment.

We will not allow the health of our people and the livelihoods of our farmers to be put at risk and will fight to ensure that environmental crimes do not go unpunished.

Letter to the Acting Municipal Manager of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality Attached

Issued by Marina van Zyl, MP - New Horizon Constituency Leader