This document records a chronological timeline of Government efforts regarding the treatment of Acid Mine Drainage: West Rand goldfields. Download here
Carte Blanche visits Grootvlei mine at Marievale Wetland
Marievale wetland, near Springs on the East Rand, has been world-famous for its abundant birdlife for decades. Listed under the Ramsar convention on internationally important wetlands, one of only a few such sites in South Africa, this paradise is in danger. An upstream gold mine has been dumping billions of litres of contaminated water into […]
Where poison water seeps through the earth
Mariette Liefferink calls it the smell of death. And after all the years she has spent fighting mining pollution, the environmental activist doesn’t even gag at the strong stench of sulphur wafting from the old mining shaft behind her.
Acid Mine Drainage – West Rand
The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) as part of the Government Task Team on mine closure and water management together with mining companies have agreed on a model to deal with the Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) challenge that is affecting the Western, Central and Eastern Basins (the Witwatersrand gold fields area) which is impacting mainly […]
Disaster at Vaal River caused by Emfuleni officials
Save the Vaal Environment (SAVE), an NGO striving to protect the Vaal River and its environs, obtained a court order in the High Court of Johannesburg on Tuesday 2 June 2009 against the Emfuleni municipality. Despite strenuous opposition to the application by Emfuleni, Judge John Horn ordered Emfuleni to stop the deliberate sewage spillage into […]
Mine Dumps – Urgent Treatment Needed
Acid and metal polluted water poses a risk to all Gautengers The discovery of gold changed the fortunes of those who made Johannesburg their home. But 120 years later, abandoned gold mines on the West Rand have left a legacy of pollution that is threatening the security of the water supply. This pollution has also […]
Suur mynwater bereik glo Wieg van Mensdom
Krugersdorp. – Suur mynwater het vermoedelik reeds die Zwartkranskompartement bereik waarin die Wieg van die Mensdom (Sterkfonteingrotte) geleë is. Dit is ’n kommerwekkende situasie wat dopgehou moet word,” het mnr. Phil Hobbs, navorser van die Wetenskaplike Nywerheidsnavorsingsraad (WNNR), gister gesê by ’n vergadering oor die “krisis” met suur mynwater wat in die Tweelopiespruit beland en […]
Water Quality and Pollution Challenges Facing South Africa
“It is …clear that the (Vaal River) system is under severe pressure and there is no reserve for further dilution to take place. It is this fact that is making the option of transporting more water from the Vaal to Witbank so precarious. All of the clean water out of the Lesotho Highlands Project is […]
Omgewingsaktivis kla by OB nadat sy vergadering belet is
Die hoofamptenaar van die Federasie vir ’n Volhoubare Omgewing (FVO) wat op ’n vergadering oor die toekoms van die Wonderfonteinspruit en die Mooirivier in Potchefstroom weggewys is, het ’n klag by die openbare beskermer (OB) ingedien. Me. Mariëtte Liefferink het in ’n brief aan die OB beweer mnr. Ben Nell van die Tlokwe-plaaslike owerheid het […]
Beplan
Die omgewingsorganisasie die Federasie vir ’n Volhoubare Omgewing (FVO) se voorstel dat die nasionale regering ’n geïntegreerde beplanningsraamwerk vir Suid-Afrika se waterbronne moet opstel, is nie alleen sinryk nie, maar in dié stadium waarskynlik noodsaaklik.