The State of The Rivers/Oceans/Water/Air

[Lisbeth]

When you do not look after them.......

Lots of things were fine 10/15 years ago and are now "broken". All the SOEs

[Lisbeth]

The reason for the above situation

Awhistle-blower frustrated by a lack of action against more than 65 top officials in the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) who were implicated in widespread corruption has given DM168 access to reports that reveal the department to be what the whistle-blower calls “probably the most perfect and comprehensive example of ANC State Capture”.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

Watergate – Whistle-blower lifts lid on ‘probably the most perfect example of ANC State Capture’

[Lisbeth]

SA'S WATERGATE

Corruption and fraud sends South Africans down the drain


Mark Clue and Helen Duigan of Armour – Action for Responsible Management of Our Rivers – at a river-trap built by the NGO on the Kalkspruit, which flows into the Hennops River. Photo: Supplied

By Angus Begg | 10 Apr 2022

Poorly maintained infrastructure — much of it more than 100 years old — dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants, fraud, corruption and collapse of local governance mean taps in many towns and villages have either run dry or have undrinkable water.
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Corruption and fraud in the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the collapse of local governance mean taps in many towns and villages have either run dry or have undrinkable water.

A month ago we found a frog in the water truck sent to supply us with water,” says Graaff-Reinet farmer Sias Smith, in a delightful Karoo accent.

He says water is “a big problem” in the desert dorp and surrounds.

This is despite the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) providing R71.8-million in funding to the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality for the Graaff-Reinet Emergency Bulk Supply Scheme.

The project, which started in 2016, is aimed at addressing water-supply challenges in the dry but beautiful Karoo town. It’s a project that could justifiably invite frightening comparisons with the department’s failed seven-year, R4-billion Giyani Bulk Water Project in Limpopo.

“Here, we get huge accounts for water but, for the past two years, the supply is sporadic,” says Smith. “We get no advance warning. They just say, ‘load shedding’. But after load shedding, it still happens.”

He says the coloured and black areas are most affected, “because people in the CBD have boreholes”.

Dysfunction floods the country

Smith’s story is not restricted to this historical town. The same one can be heard in Cradock, Gqeberha, Dordrecht, Port St Johns or Amatola – any town or city in the ANC heartland of the Eastern Cape and beyond. Anywhere in South Africa.

The leaked official DWS documents found in two million files shared with DM168 show similar infrastructural breakdowns throughout the country, whether a village such as Mnquma in KwaZulu-Natal – where villagers walk kilometres to collect water in a bucket – or Parys and Brandfort in the “service challenged” Free State.

Forensic auditor Bart Henderson’s investigation into fraud and corruption estimated at billions of rands at the Lepelle Northern Water board – specifically connected to the Giyani Bulk Water Project – assisted in paving the way for the eventual suspension of CEO Phineas Legodi and ultimately his (Legodi) facing criminal charges.

The project, started in 2014 and meant to provide clean water to the taps of about 55 villages in and around Giyani, essentially received “and wasted R3.2-billion”.

Dr Ndweleni Mphephu, the new board chairperson, has said the project would be completed by September, but the mostly impoverished residents of those villages still have no water.

Taking a random, less-profiled example elsewhere in Limpopo, villagers in Moutse have not had consistently running water for years. Despite the millions and billions spent, whether in Moutse or villages outside Giyani, residents still have to get their water from quarries where animals drink.

In the leaked documents made available to DM168 are details of every DWS transaction over a 10-year period relating to the Limpopo project and others, laying bare what Henderson describes as apparent “rampant corruption” in the department.

Vaal might be ‘worst in water’


Dead and rotting fish greeted canoeists at Johannesburg’sWemmer Pan Dam in February 2020, according to Wemmer Pan Aquatic Clubs chairperson Rod Mackinnon. He said they have consistent acid mine water drainage, and he believes that effluent put directly into the stormwater drains ends up in the dam. Photo: Supplied

Well over 100 municipalities could vie for the title of “worst in water”, but the Vaal Triangle would give the Limpopo DWS debacle a run for its money, says Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE).

The NGO has engaged with DWS Minister Senzo Mchunu and his predecessors at a high level over the years, and Liefferink holds a microscope to DWS’s responsibilities and actions.

Much has been written about the raw sewage that makes its way into the Vaal Dam via the Vaal River. The region’s wastewater treatment works, such as Vereeniging’s Leeukuil, Rietspruit and Sebokeng, are either dysfunctional or close to it.

“We can link the disappearance of funds from Emfuleni Local Municipality to the sewage running through houses and streets and the measured poor quality of the Rietspruit, the Klip and the Vaal rivers,” says Michael Gaade, a committee member with Save the Vaal Environment (Save).

“DWS is responsible for bulk infrastructure and monitoring of the situation. New infrastructure was delayed and has never been built and the oversight never happened.”

Samson Mokoena, of the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance, lives in the Emfuleni area. He says residents in parts of Sebokeng and surrounding areas have experienced “the collapse of the infrastructure where we live, with [sewage] in our houses and running in our streets. We have health problems, such as skin rashes.”

Rand Water’s 2021 water quality reports show E. coli counts of almost nine million per 100ml in the Rietspruit, downstream of the Sebokeng wastewater treatment works. The regulatory (safe for humans) limit is a count of 400 per 100ml.

This can be compared with the E. coli count “crisis” in Knysna, where, at their upper limit, counts of 26,000 per 100ml have been recorded flowing into the lagoon from the densely populated areas above via the Bongani stream.

The South African Human Rights Commission (HRC), for whom Liefferink acts as a “human rights champion/monitor”, launched an inquiry into the sewage pollution of the Vaal River in September 2018.

In February 2021, the commission directed that the DWS officials in noncompliance with legislation be dismissed and the corruption be referred to the Public Protector and SAPS. It also said the DWS should develop and implement policies to deal with the water crisis in South Africa, including the contamination of the Vaal.

Among the other directives was that the DWS takes over the running of Emfuleni municipality, which includes the refurbishment of the three wastewater treatment works, 48 pump stations, and the unblocking of sewer populations.

The fact that the HRC had to direct the department to intervene is an illustration of just how bad things have gotten in the region.

Henderson says R36.4-million was spent on the Leeuwkuil wastewater treatment plant – from a total of R323-million allocated to municipalities in the Vaal catchment area – to address the sewage pollution of the Vaal River in 2016/2017.

“The sums mentioned were clearly deemed irregular expenditure. This is intervention capital. What in God’s name have the municipalities that have got their [wastewater treatment works] into such parlous state been doing? Budgeting? Spending? On maintaining their infrastructure? Nothing?”

Contaminated water on crops

North of Pretoria, former Roodewal wastewater treatment plant manager Corrie Snyman told DM168 late last year about the broken infrastructure inside the plant.

He said water contaminated with effluent was being used by nearby farmers to irrigate crops and slake the thirst of their cattle.

Now, he says: “If anything, the problem has got worse.”

Alexandra east bank resident Busisiwe Tyala, while helping in an NGO-sponsored clean-up of Johannesburg’s Jukskei River in October last year, told DM168 that “people use the river as a bin – there are no skips, no bins”.

Tyala also spoke of an eight-year-old child who was killed after playing with an exposed, illegal electricity connection lying next to the river. Anecdotes from around the country confirm that Tyala’s experiences are not unique.

Suburbs south of Johannesburg, Africa’s financial capital, have experienced their own frequent water disruptions.

Governance has collapsed largely at the local government level, as problems at Mpumalanga’s Lekwa Local Municipality in Standerton demonstrate.

“Water and sanitation have not been a priority for several decades now and here we are!” says Benoît le Roy of the South African Water Chamber.

An engineer with 40 years of experience in water and sewage infrastructure in the private and public sectors, Le Roy told News24 in September last year that “infrastructure in most parts of the country is close to 100 years old”.


Outside toilets in an area called Vrygrond in Graaff-Reinet, Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality. Emerging farmer, Sias Smith says raw sewage runs into the Sundays River.Photo: Sias Smith

He confirmed to DM168 that maintenance and replacement have been absent in the past three decades, adding that Maluti-a-Phofung in the Free State, Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, Johannesburg and Emfuleni municipalities in Gauteng are all in very poor condition in regard to water infrastructure. This, he says, is typical of about 150 municipalities around SA.

“In South Africa, water is not treated by the government as a priority, resulting in water leakage reaching over 30%, with total and/or occasional collapse of water supply in many areas and towns,” Le Roy says.

In an interview with DM168, Mchunu said: “We cannot control the municipalities.”

This statement offers a reminder that dealings with local government in South Africa can be likened to a parent’s relationship with a rebellious child. Although local municipalities are subordinate to state authority, they nevertheless act independently of control by the state authority.

Mchunu has, however, proved that the DWS can – and has – issued Section 63 investigations against a number of water boards and municipalities for not fulfilling their mandates.

Section 63 investigations determine whether it is necessary for direct provincial or national intervention and whether there are grounds for placing an entity under administration. The Amatola Water Board, which was dissolved last week, is a refreshing case in point.

Politics before the people

Who the DWS chooses to act against, as with the 65 senior department officials implicated in irregular (not wasteful) expenditure, and if such decisions are related to ANC factional battles, is a separate-yet-connected matter. Such power struggles have resulted in the absence of effective day-to-day governing.


Cape Town’s Black River is being cleaned up by NGO Help Up. The NGO’s founder, Georgia McTaggart, says “to rebuild the city’s sewerage system, which was last updated in the 1950s, will cost a packet”. Photo: Help Up

Liefferink indicates what many in the water sector voice in private: that the ruling ANC was more focused on winning back lost votes in the 2021 municipal elections than on governing the country.

“The engagements by Minister Mchunu and the proposed interventions … focused on local opportunities for employment and not the issues raised by environmental NGOs.”

Liefferink refers to the intervention plan for the Emfuleni Local Municipality, which, she says, primarily addresses procurement and local labour employment opportunities and has a limited focus on environmental challenges.

She adds: “Issues raised by NGOs pertaining to the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure and water resource quality – and the promulgation of aggressive restrictions in the legislation – in this regard are viewed as secondary [to winning votes].”

The legalities involved in ensuring proper water management take time, lots of it, and cost significant amounts of money.

Liefferink says that participating in various DWS “task teams, steering committees, advisory committees, and forums” requires “significant financial investment”, for both herself and the NGOs that have been established simply to protect South Africans’ constitutional right to clean water.

The water activist says questions she put to Mchunu in October 2021, “following his engagements with herself and civil society”, still await a response.

Mchunu told DM168 that Liefferink and any others with relevant water concerns were welcome to call him.

Two kinds of water

“There are two kinds of water,” says Karoo farmer Smith. “The bottled water for the middle class and those who can afford to buy it. Then you have the municipal water running through one’s tap, which changes from brownish to greenish, dependent on the day.”

Le Roy says he sees promise in the public affirmation of the country’s failings by the DWS minister.

Mchunu has permanently appointed Dr Sean Phlilips as director-general – someone who is, Le Roy pointedly says, “also an engineer”. He says senior people have been in acting positions for over a decade, “resulting in uncertainty and no continuity or hope in the ministry”.

Le Roy says recently released Green Drop reports – last published in 2013 – demonstrate the extent of the decline. It is important that the issues are no longer kept from the public.

He speaks of a “radical policy change” to enable the necessary turnaround.

“The only remaining part of the puzzle to resolve is that of dysfunctional municipalities.” DM168

[Richprins]

The only solution is to vote the ANC out!

[Lisbeth]

That's for sure, but is there someone good and strong enough to take their place?

[Lisbeth]

Oh crap! Prolonged closures likely for Durban’s flood-polluted beaches


Sewage pours into the Umgeni River from a collapsed section of above-ground sewerage pipes in Prince Mhlangane Road north of Durban. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Carnie | 12 May 2022

‘All water activities are prohibited. Beachgoers are urged to heed this warning unwaveringly, because disregarding it could result [in] outbreaks of waterborne diseases, that may be fatal,’ the city cautioned.
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Several Durban swimming beaches are facing extended closures because of high sewage pollution levels and chemical and oil pollution from a variety of sources — including a sludge overflow from the mothballed Sapref oil refinery during the devastating floods last month.


A ribbon of crude oil from the Sapref refinery flood overflow stains the beach at Isipingo, south of the Sapref refinery in South Durban. (Image: Google Earth)

Across the city, several municipal sewage treatment works, pump stations and effluent pipelines have been damaged — prompting the city to issue a strong warning to bathers to stay out of the water until E. coli (sewage bacteria) levels drop to safe levels.

“All water activities are prohibited. Beachgoers are urged to heed this warning unwaveringly, because disregarding it could result [in] outbreaks of waterborne diseases, that may be fatal,” the city cautioned in a statement.

Government sources suggest that six municipal treatment works (in North Durban, Tongaat, Umhlanga, KwaNdengezi and the South Durban area) and up to 50 sewage pumping stations around the city were damaged by the severe April floodwaters.

The contents of a sludge dam at the Sapref (Shell/BP) refinery in South Durban also ended up in the sea south of the city after the Umlaas Canal overflowed early on 12 April.

While Sapref spokesperson Hlengiwe Hlela confirmed at the time that several refinery staff had been evacuated because of flooding, she offered no details about the environmental impacts.

However, Facebook posts from refinery staff show clear evidence that at least two large fuel storage tanks were leaning over at nearly 45 degrees. Google Earth satellite imagery also reveals visible evidence of a long, dark oil pollution stain along the beach immediately south of the refinery.

Neither Hlela nor Shell communications officials responded to requests for further information on Thursday, but two independent sources have confirmed that a large sludge dam at the Sapref refinery overflowed when the Umlaas Canal burst its concrete banks at the height of the recent KZN flood.


Leaning fuel tanks at Durban’s Sapref fuel refinery at the height of floods. (Screenshot: Facebook)

One source estimated that somewhere between one million and two million litres of sticky bituminous sludge and heavy hydrocarbons were involved, and said that a clean-up crew from Spill Tech had been engaged to clean up the mess in the vicinity of the Isipingo Beach and estuary.

As many as 130 refinery staff were also reported to have been airlifted to safety by helicopter teams at the height of the disaster.

Now that the pulse of oil/chemical flows from Sapref and other flood-hit industrial sources has ended, the bigger worry is the continued flow of untreated, raw sewage into the sea.

The eThekwini municipality did not respond to queries late on Thursday about the number of sewage treatment plants and pumping stations that are out of action

Nor could the city give a clear indication of how long the Durban beach closures would last.


Sewage pours into the Umgeni River from a collapsed section of above-ground sewerage pipes in Prince Mhlangane Road north of Durban. (Photo: Supplied)

In response to queries, municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said: “It is hard to tell at this very moment, as that depends on many factors such as resolving blockages and sewer overflows, as well as the completion of repairs on the damaged sanitation infrastructure.

“The city is very concerned, hence the necessary precautions that have been taken so far, including but not limited to the [beach] closure and the public warning notifications. The city is continuing with daily water tests. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

The other burning question is: Where will the money come from to fix the mess timeously?

While there have been promises of up to R1-billion in emergency flood repair funding from President Cyril Ramaphosa and a further R371-million via disaster relief funding, city officials fear that these sums will be far too little and too late


A fleet of earth-moving machines pile up tree trunks and other flood debris from the Ethekwini beach on 12 May 2022. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

“It’s close to the end of the financial year when most budgets have been expended and now we are being asked to perform financial miracles… it’s just not going to happen,” lamented a senior official, noting that department heads also feared the consequences of contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act.

As an example, he noted that nearly R45-million had been spent to replace a single substation to restore electricity to the Hillcrest area.


A diesel or chemical storage vessel comes ashore amid other debris at Durban’s Blue Lagoon on 12 April 2022. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

As departments juggled exhausted budgets at the end of the financial year, what was the likelihood of immediate, adequate funding to repair the city’s sewage treatment network?

Apart from flood damage at several sewage treatment works, many pipelines were also damaged.

One example is the collapsed sewer line on Prince Mhlangana Road in the Riverhorse Valley area near Effingham, with raw sewage spilling into the Umgeni River which ends at Blue Lagoon (or “Poo Lagoon” as it is has been dubbed following a series of unresolved sewage leaks from the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works).


A notice at Ushaka Beach warning that no swimming is allowed. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

The Mahatma Gandhi Road sewage substation in Durban harbour has also been dysfunctional for several months, leading to a ban on any diving and ship-cleaning operations.

“I am not very hopeful that any of this can be fixed in a hurry,” the official said. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

POLLUTED RIVERS

Eastern Cape municipalities pump raw sewage into waterways


Raw sewage flows into the Sundays River from Kroonvale Brug Sewage Pump Station in Graaff-Reinet. (Photo: GroundUp / Joseph Chirume)

By Tembile Sgqolana | 22 May 2022

Municipalities are behind the contamination of freshwater sources, admits the provincial Cogta, with the DA accusing the provincial government of failure to hold local entities to account.
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Eastern Cape municipalities are discharging raw sewage into rivers, contaminating freshwater sources, endangering health, and affecting animal and plant life.

In response to written questions from Democratic Alliance MPL Vicky Knoetze, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Xolile Nqatha revealed sewage contamination of water sources was widespread in the province.

Nqatha revealed that 31 pump stations, collector systems and wastewater treatment works (WWTW) had been issued with notices and directives for non-compliance by the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

Asked by Knoetze if the department had been monitoring these notices, Nqatha admitted it has not been doing so but that Cogta would monitor selected municipalities through its Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA).

In accordance with the Division of Revenue Act, when the municipality fails to comply or fix something, national Cogta has a right to stop the funds and relocate them.

“Since the 2020/2021 to 2021/2022 financial year, the department has issued 30 notices on intention to issue directives. Only four have been satisfactorily resolved; others have recurring problems or not yet been resolved,” he said.

Six municipalities and 31 WWTW or pump stations have been found to be pumping raw sewage into the rivers or streams.


Sewage has been leaking into the Gcuwa River near Butterworth for more than a year. (Photo: GroundUp/Mbulelo Sisulu)

The municipalities are:

• Buffalo City Municipality: Cambridge Collector System, Kidd’s Beach WWTW and Maldives Collector System;

• Amathole District Municipality: Butterworth Collector System, Seymour WWTW, Seymour Collector System, Peddie WWTW, Stutterheim WWTW, Idutywa WWTW, Middledrift WWTW, Keiskamma Collector System, Alice Collector System, Fort Beaufort WWTW and Fort Beaufort Collector System;

• OR Tambo District Municipality: Mthatha Pump Stations, Tsolo WWTW and Port St Johns WWTW;

• Joe Gqabi District Municipality: Prentjiesburg and Steynsburg WWTWs;

• Chris Hani District Municipality: Queenstown WWTW, Middleburg WWTW, Middleburg Pump Station, Elliot WWTW, Ilinge WWTW, Tarkastad WWTW, Qamata WWTW, Indwe WWTW and Lady Frere WWTW;

• Blue Crane Local Municipality: Somerset East Pump Station and Somerset East WWTW; and

• Sundays River Valley Local Municipality: Addo WWTW.

Knoetze said the provincial government has failed to hold local municipalities, which are guilty of contaminating freshwater sources with raw sewage, to account.

“It has become abundantly clear that the ANC leadership in this province will rather do nothing, while the people they serve are placed directly in harm’s way through contaminated water sources, than act against their own incompetent cadres,” she said.

In 2021, the DA laid criminal charges against the municipal manager Gcobani Mashiyi in the Chris Hani District Municipality after responses to Public Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications revealed widespread non-compliance with directives and pre-directives issued by the DWS.

“A PAIA application further revealed that at least eight freshwater rivers, the Fish River and some of its tributaries, are being polluted by raw sewage. The ongoing collapse of WWTW facilities across the [Chris Hani municipality] continues to result in raw sewage spills polluting the environment and numerous freshwater sources,” she said.

Knoetze said the DA is appealing to Cogta to invoke section 19 of the Division of Revenue Act, to ensure enforcement of notices and directives in terms of non-compliance by Eastern Cape local and district municipalities.

“The purpose of re-allocation of such MIG funding is to ensure that such grant funding is spent on addressing the reason for non-compliance. Ultimately, there must be a renewed focus in the province on repairing and maintaining wastewater treatment systems.”

“The Green Drop Report which was released a few weeks ago estimates that a budget of at least R654-million will be needed to restore existing treatments works in terms of their design capacity and functionality, and a further R138-million per annum per water services authority for maintenance,” she said.

Knoetze said it is critical that money earmarked for wastewater infrastructure is allocated to the restoration and maintenance of these essential systems to ensure that the health and safety of the communities are sustained. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

This behaviour is past my comprehension

Is it because of ignorance, "I couldn't care less" or do they simply spend the money on something else and hope not to be discovered

and the inhabitants?

[Lisbeth]

Pollution trap gives Alexandra Water Warriors a new weapon in fight to clean up Jukskei River


Sibusiso Sangweni (centre) helps to set up the pollution trap on the Jukskei River in Alexandra with Willem Snyman (left) and Nhlangano Zwane on 29 April 2022. (Photo: Julia Evans)

By Julia Evans | 25 May 2022

‘Water is our oldest resource,’ says Paul Maluleke, a volunteer with the Alex Water Warriors, who are now deploying a nifty device to snare sewage and plastic in the Jukskei.
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Living on the banks of a river polluted by tonnes of plastic and sewage, residents of Alexandra in Johannesburg have taken it upon themselves to protect their oldest resource.

In March 2022 – World Water Day – members of Alexandra Water Warriors, along with environmental and empowering organisations, set up a pollution trap on the Jukskei River opposite the Alexandra cemetery to catch plastic bottles and polystyrene floating on the surface.

Willem Snyman, of the environmental conservation organisation Fresh, who has been experimenting with river traps on the Hennops River for about three years, helped build the trap in Alex.

He says the trap empowers the local volunteers to catch and remove pollution.

“In a way, it also just exposes the problem. Normally you don’t really see it, it just goes past,” he told Daily Maverick.

Now, using the trap, the warriors collect at least 50 bin bags full of waste every week, which is taken to Pikitup, the City of Johannesburg’s waste management company.

The warriors try to separate recyclable material that isn’t water damaged and take it to a recycling company, but it’s a work in progress with more plans under way.


Nhlangano Zwane helps to repair the pollution trap on the Jukskei River in Alexandra on 29 April 2022. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Sibusiso Sangweni, a tourism development officer in Alexandra, helped initiate the Alexandra Water Warriors after realising that “we need to bring tourists here, but when tourists come they ask about the river”.

With Paul Maluleke, founder and CEO of the Greater Alexander Tourism and Heritage Association, they began developing the Water Warriors in September 2021 and now have 250 volunteers from the surrounding community.

Mary Ngobeni joined the Alex Water Warriors because of South Africa’s water scarcity problem and she is worried about her children’s future.

When asked if she becomes disheartened in the face of so much pollution and social problems, Ngobeni said she won’t give up, adding: “I’m telling myself that, one day, everything will come alright.”


The pollution trap uses bottles as litter skimmers on the Jukskei River. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Bridget Ndobela joined Alex Water Warriors because “I want my kids to live in a nice area”. She volunteers four hours of her day twice a week without payment, but said: “I don’t care because I believe one day… something will come of it.”

Maluleke is a third-generation Alexandra resident – his grandfather was born there in the 1930s.

He reflects that “Alex on its own has a bad stigma”, but wants to be part of the transformation and encourage his community to take responsibility for their surroundings.

“We need to tell our own stories as low-income communities. Because we believe that since 1994 we don’t hear our true stories out there.

“We also needed to learn as communities to be independent. For so many years we’ve been relying on the government and other institutions. But now we must learn to manage our resources.”

At gunpoint

The project, however, has not been without setbacks.

The trap had been up for two weeks before it was damaged by heavy floods, so on 29 April, Snyman, the Water Warriors and Faaizah Mohomed and her 12-year-old son Khaleel Akoojee went to repair it. Mohomed and Khaleel had built a trap downstream from Alex in their neighbourhood, Buccleuch, a few years ago and wanted to help another community.

But they were held up at gunpoint and their car was stolen.


Alex Water Warriors use a pole to secure the pollution trap on the Jukskei River, as Alexandra residents watch on 29 April 2022 (Photo: Julia Evans)

Still shaken, Mohomed said they had come to get involved in the project. Khaleel, who was seven when he first built a pollution trap for a school project, said he came to Alexandra to set up the trap because “this is where the centre of the dirt is coming from”.

An eco winner

Floods in November 2016 had left the Jukskei River in Buccleuch filled with pollution. By April 2017 it had still not been cleaned so residents decided to do something about it.

Mahomed and her family joined the clean-up and began to think about solutions to river pollution. In her research, Mahomed discovered the idea of using milk bottles as litter skimmers and decided that along with benefiting the environment, it would be a good project for her children for their school’s science expo.

They collected milk bottles at home and a few months later, with help from his grandfather, Ali Bhai Mohomed, Khaleel and his sister Hanaan (now 16) built the first prototype of their “river dirt catcher barrier”.

By July 2017 they had collected 49 bags of waste stopped by the trap.

For their efforts the siblings won the environmental management award at the Eskom Expo for young scientists in 2017 and took bronze in the Enviropaedia Eco-Logic Awards in 2018.

Khaleel explained that he built his “dirt catcher 2.0” by covering plastic bottles with netting, while a pulley meant they didn’t have to wade into the river to collect the trapped material.

“The good thing about this project is that it is made out of recycled materials – it’s a cheap, efficient way of stopping [waste],” said Mohomed.

Khaleel, who attends the Qurtuba Islamic Academy, said he cared about cleaning up the river and looking after the environment because we only get one Earth.

Mohomed, who runs the community support group Ask Nanima, added that “basically, water is life”.

Source of the problem

The pollution trap is a great way to collect pollution and raise awareness, but it doesn’t address the root of the problem.

Pollution in the Jukskei River is a multifaceted, generational problem influenced by population expansion, illegal dumping and overwhelmed service and infrastructure.


Illegal dumping on the banks of the Jukskei River in Alexandra. (Photo: Julia Evans)


The Alex Water Warriors collected 50 bags of waste from the trap on the Jukskei River. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Lori Coogan, the DA ward councillor for part of Alexandra, Buccleuch, Marlboro and Marlboro Gardens, told Daily Maverick: “The litter pollution is just one aspect of what has to change in the Jukskei River.”

She explained that raw sewage runs into the river from informal dwellings on its banks, leaks from blockages in the township, and even sewage leaks from hijacked buildings in Marlboro South.

“This faecal contamination makes the river highly problematic health-wise, with high E. Coli levels.”

As in many areas in South Africa, many informal settlements aren’t connected to proper water and sanitation facilities and aren’t serviced by refuse collection, but, Coogan says, this area does have water standpipes, ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets and skips for refuse and daily refuse collection.

Maluleke says they often see trucks from construction sites in Sandton illegally dumping rubble onto the riverbanks. They reported this to the media, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and councillors – “we make noise every day”.

Tired of constantly being ignored, “us, as a community, said, you know what, we are going to clean the river ourselves”.


The pollution caught in the trap after it was repaired on 11 May 2022. The trap is emptied weekly and fills about 50 bags of waste. (Photo: Faaizah Mohomed )

To make matters worse, Coogan said, informal houses have been built within flood lines on the dumped construction rubble, which has narrowed the course of the river in places.

Living within flood lines and on floodplains is not only detrimental to the environment but poses a health and safety risk for residents and they are more prone to flooding.

“It’s not sustainable in its current form. And it also means that not only is the environment seriously degraded, but people are living an unacceptable quality of life,” said Coogan.

What now?

Mahomed says she hopes the project with the Alexandra Water Warriors will change residents’ mindset.

“These Alex Warriors are heroes, because they are the start of the revolution of changing the whole mindset of the community to be more proud of the river.”

“We as Alex Water Warriors, we’re going to be the water monitors monitoring people, teaching people that they mustn’t dump in the river,” said Sangweni, standing knee-deep in the river, helping to repair the trap.

Sangweni said the Warriors want to be part of educating residents about their environment, recycling and pollution, and help to provide real solutions.

Coogan said they need to come up with a sustainable plan for a more hygienic and better quality of life.

“I believe we can improve the situation considerably,” she said. “I think the very important thing is to start looking at an upward trajectory and trying to work out solutions that have a positive impact on the people who are living there… so that both they and their children can have a better environment to live in.”

Nodbela, who has lived in Alex most of her life, said: “I know a lot of people don’t care. But they must know that our generation must see this place clean.” DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

This is all very well and admirable, but if people are not taught not to dump their trash where it is most convenient and the municipality does not learn to collect the garbage, they will never be able to control the problem.

For a start, tax every household for their refusals and teach them to bring it, in sacks, to places where it will be collected.