Action required to address water pollution

Balfour Magistrate Court imposed the fine on Friday after the Dipaleseng Municipality pleaded guilty to charges touching on environmental misconduct, which caused significant pollution to the environment between December 2018 to August 2023.

This entailed the disposal and distribution of raw blood sewage sludge, affluent or raw and untreated sewerage with high amounts of Faecal Coliform and E. coli into various water sources, including the Suikerbostant River, Gasteplaas Dam, Vlakfontein Farm Wastewater Treatment Works.

Affected areas included Balfour Town, Kanini Township, Greylingstad, Grootvlei, Nthoarane and Siyathemba Township.

The court suspended R40 million of the R160 million fine for a period of five years on conditions that the municipality did not contravene Section 49 A of the National Environmental Management Act of 2000 and Section 151 of National Water Act 36 of 1998 or commit any other offences of which pollution is an element during the period of suspension.

Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Sello Seitlholo described the ruling as a pivotal step in holding environmental offenders accountable.

“The court ruling should be a wake-up call to other municipalities that fail to comply with environmental and water management regulations,” Seitlholo said in a press statement.

He added that the court judgement came as several complaints were made by members of the Balfour community about water pollution, which resulted in the death of their livestock and affected the livelihoods of residents.

Janse Rabe, Agri SA’s head of natural resources, welcomed the fact that action was taken to address the pollution problem, but said that the court’s decision punished the same people who were negatively impacted by the poor service delivery of municipality.

“Municipal members can be held responsible for service delivery failures for which they are responsible due to mis- or poor management, but in this case the municipality is fined and that fine and the legal costs will ultimately be paid by taxpayers,” he said.

“Fining municipal members, on the other hand, are often symbolic, as they are usually unable to repay the fines. They might also lose their jobs, but then be reappointed elsewhere in the same capacity.”

What was needed, according to him, was a strengthening of municipal capacity to ensure municipalities were able to reduce water wastage, supply communities with clean water and provide good sewerage treatment services.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation’s intentions are good, but unfortunately, they have little influence on a local level. Perhaps we need a special task team to address the issue,” Janse said.

Ronnie Schilling, TLU SA’s manager of the Eastern District, said that the pollution caused by the Dipaleseng Municipality negatively affected people’s health, led to livestock and crop losses and negatively impacted the ecology.

What is worse was that this type of pollution is also taking place in other regions. Schilling pointed out that TLU SA recently helped one of his members, a farm owner in the Sheepmoor area, to open a criminal case against the Msukaligwa local municipality, after he witnessed municipal workers dumping raw sewage in the area.

“The illegal dumping of sewage in the area has been ongoing for years, but we never knew who the culprits were. The pollution is having a serious impact on the Sandspruit, Morgenstond and Jericho dams, which are crucial water sources for thousands of residents and important source of water for many farms, and in effect food security” he said.

He said that fining municipalities was not going to solve the problem: “We need municipalities to be held accountable, and to see action plans to ensure the rehabilitation of water resources. This is a water scarce country. We will run into big problems if municipalities do not step up water resource and sewerage management.”