Greater intervention needed to tackle acid mine drainage

The environmental risks and hazards associated with acid mine drainage (AMD) and radioactivity within South Africa’ Witwatersrand goldfields are issues that need to be tackled more seriously, despite current initiatives by government, reports environmental protection group Federation for a Sustainable Environment CEO Mariette Liefferink.

Govt vows to solve acid mine water crisis

The Department of Water Affairs says it is committed to solving the country’s acid mine water crisis. Farmers in Mpumalanga have issued a warning that polluted water could lead to food shortages. Now an upgraded treatment plant is to be opened in Gauteng but the government concedes more needs to be done.

Plea for Clean Water

Without clean water, there is no dignity. And that’s why for Janet Love the acid mine drainage (AMD) crisis on the Witwatersrand’s goldfields centres on the preservation of human rights.

A toxic delay

Just as the Tweelopiespruit took its dying breaths, Garfield Krige scooped up the contaminated stream’s last surviving fish and took them home with him to his fish pond in the nearby Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. “I don’t think they’re unique in any way,” explains Krige, a hydrologist, of the hardy tilapia population that […]

Winde changes direction on AMD

“The findings of the recent Winde Report are significantly anomalous to the findings of public domain official reports and peer reviewed academic reports,” says Mariette Liefferink, CEO of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment.

Another AMD report, new and different findings

Following a request by two major banks, the Mine Water Research Group of the North-West University, conducted a desk-top study to assess how far underground infrastructure in the CBD of Johannesburg may be affected by rising mine water levels in the Central Rand. This follows the approval by Cabinet to allocate R225 million to mitigate […]

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