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sewage leakinglatest news & developments
Dead water: Bonaero Park’s residents once saw flamingos on the pan, but they have disappeared. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANDRE DU PLESSIS

Sewage still flows into ‘Poo Lake’

Despite Ekurhuleni spending R2.8-million on a sewer line to prevent further damage to a pump station, raw waste has contaminated a wetland

  • Tshegofatso Mathe
4 min read
An order by the Pretoria high court has put on hold the City of Tshwane’s efforts to cancel a contract to fix the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant, which is at the heart of the Hammanskraal water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Court interdicts cancelling Hammanskraal wastewater contract

Meanwhile, the City of Tshwane’s leadership is being dissolved due to collapsing service delivery

  • Sarah Smit
4 min read
The Lekwa municipality has a huge mismanagement problem and has been taken to court by businesses around Standerton for failing to provide clean and sufficient water and electricity. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ATHANDIWE SABA

Tens of millions spent on repairs but sewage still flows in the Vaal

The Vaal River is the lifeblood for almost 50% of the South African population yet at its banks around the Lekwa municipality, sewage flows into it

  • Athandiwe Saba
8 min read
Rubbish litters the landscape of Bekkersdal. (Paul Botes/M&G)
2019 ELECTIONS

‘I don’t want my children to live like this’

During the last national elections in 2014, Bekkersdal, west of Johannesburg, was the site of protests, sparked by service delivery woes

  • Sarah Smit
6 min read
Concerns have been fuelled by many well-founded reports of mismanagement at the department of water and sanitation, which has oversight responsibility for water security. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
MUNICIPAL SERVICES

​The shit still flows through Deneysville and Refengkgotso

Two years after government promised to solve the problem, sewage sits in yards as pumps stand idle.

  • Sipho Kings
7 min read
People living close to the Vaal Dam suffer from diarrhoea and the long-term effects of mining and industrial pollutants include cancer
SEWAGE

Sewage in Gauteng’s drinking water

A breakdown in Vaal Dam sewage management is polluting the water for 10-million people in Gauteng while locals live next to streams of human waste.

  • Sipho Kings
10 min read
MUNICIPALITIES

Concern over rivers of waste

Concerns are growing that faulty municipal water treatment works that leak sewage are destroying South Africa’s rivers.

  • Yolandi Groenewald
1 min read