Livestock drinks sewage water on this field in free state

Cows graze around the rivers with unpurified sewage water in Phuthaditjhaba. Photos: Tladi Moloi

• All seven waste water treatment plants of the municipality of Maluti-A-Phofung are in a state of failure, so that untreated or hardly treated sewage water ends up in the rivers that flow to the Vaal-Dam.
• The sewer pipes and pumping stations are also broken, so that sewage water flows into the field.
• Livestock farmers, who are dependent on their small herds for their livelihood, say that their cattle gets sick and dies.

The collapse of the sewerage system of the municipality of Maluti-A-Phofung contributes to the pollution of the virginity of the Vaalddam, which affects small farmers and causes an extensive contamination of the environment.

None of the seven waste water treatment plants (RWTWs) of the municipality is functional. The up to 31 million liters of sewage water that flows into the factories every day is not treated properly, in most cases not at all, and ends up in the rivers that flow to the Vaalddam. The Dam also receives untreated sewage water failing sewage treatment Factories in Mpumalanga.

The effluent that is released from waste water treatment plants must be tested once a month and the results are uploaded to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) Integrated regulatory information system (IRIS). The waste water that meets the national guidelines is clean enough for intermediary contact activities such as canoeing and fish, but the treatment plants of Murruti-A-Phofung fail so that the results, if tests are performed at all, have not been delivered since then. At least 2016.

The last audit of the DWS of the South African waste water treatment plants-the Green Drop Report 2022-gave the municipality a general score of only 18%, with individual treatment plants scored between 6% and 22%. A score of 90% is considered sufficient. Scores among the 31% indicate that a waste water treatment plant is in a ‘critical condition’ and ‘urgent action must be taken’, the report said.

But as a result of broken pipes and pumping stations, a large part of the 31 million liters of sewage water per day for which the waste water treatment plants have been designed, the treatment plants do not agree.

In and around Phuthaditjhaba there are permanent amounts of unpurified sewage of broken and leaking infrastructure.

Eventually the long-standing sewage water leaks flow out in the Wilge River, which flows into the Vaal-Dam, and pollute the local environment and have consequences for farmers.

Impact on small farmers

Rough sewage is a biological danger that contains different types of bacteria and pathogenic pathogens, microplastics, pharmaceutical products that cause antibiotic resistance and hormone disruption, toxic metals such as lead and harmful industrial per- and polyge-flubby alkyl fabrics).

Blessing Moxe Hlongwana, a master student Zoology at the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State, said that these contaminants accumulate in water, a process known as bioaccumulation. The contaminants can move over various trophic levels: from plants to animals and people, in a process called biomagnification. While the cattle drinks or grazes from water sources or plants that are irrigated or contaminated with pollutants, they accumulate in the deep tissues of the animals.

“Some can die or get sick, depending on the concentrations of the pollutants, while some may not even show symptoms because of low concentrations,” he said.

But when this cattle are slaughtered, the pollutants in it can influence human health.

In one Research into microbial contamination In water, the Canadian scientists Tim Mcallister and Ed Topp state that PFAS can have negative health consequences “even with ultra-lower concentrations”, and “it has been found that they bioaccumulate in lung, kidney, liver, liver, liver, liver, liver Brain and bone tissue ”. They say that exposure to PFAS is associated with reproductive and development, liver and kidney and immunological effects, as well as with tumors in laboratory animals.

Cow shepherd Nduko Mkwanazi said the field is full of sewage water.

“Sew water is not good for the animals. They get sick, “said Mkwanazi. “I do my best to give cattle [clean] Water in the morning, but they drink from the spilled liquid as soon as they are thirsty. “

He said he is trying to prevent the cattle from wading through the sewer, especially because any scratches or wounds on the legs get worse.

Tshepang Moleleki, who keeps a small herd cattle, says he often has to buy medicines for his herd. He blames the polluted water, but there is no way to prevent them from drinking because the sewer is “everywhere”. Sewerage leaks are so widespread, says Moleleki, that no unconcerned grazing is possible.

Mohlomong Maine, chairman of the anti-advocate organization Tshireletsa Tlhao Le Phoofolo in Qwaqwa, said he had to give up his little herd. He gave his five cattle to his son -in -law in Welcome, where they could graze on a healthy field. This was after some of his cattle died, he thinks, through polluted fields and rivers.

He said that cattle were a means of income and sold animals for slaughter, especially for funerals and family gatherings, but he was afraid that people would get sick if they eat the meat from animals that had drunk contaminated water.

Renovation plans

Tseliso Ntili, head of the free state DWS, confirmed that none of the seven sewage treatment plans of the municipality is functioning and that the waste water that is released in the Willge River and further flows to the Vaal-Dam.

“We recently went to Maluti-a-Phofung and … one of the things we have observed was the pollution that begins to occur, which goes directly to the Willge River, which of course affects the Vaal-Dam,” said Ntili.

He said that “all seven” sewage treatment plants of the municipality “didn’t work”. “We have to work with them from the start.” He said that the exploitation and maintenance of the power stations were a problem, as well as vandalism.

Maluti-a-Phofung Water (Water MAP), the water service provider established by the municipality, has stated that untreated waste “unfortunately ended up in the rivers” because “some waste water treatment plants did not function properly”.

In an unaccompanied statement, Map Water said that the outdated infrastructure, under-financing, the increased demand, vandalism and the removal of foreign objects in the sewer had all contributed to the problem.

It said it worked on “a comprehensive plan” to renovate the sewage treatment plants, after the intervention of the Vice Minister of DWS, his department, the Central Water Board of Vaal and the municipality.

DWS spokesperson Wisane Mavasa said that consultations took place on March 29, 2023 with Maluti-A-Phofung and other municipalities in the district about the state of the sewage treatment work, where they were trained in drawing up a corrective action plan. They would have submitted a revised plan, but Maluti-a-Phofung only submitted his plan almost a year later.

Mavasa said that the plan was not accepted for implementation after assessment and that this was communicated to the municipality in August 2024.

When asked what is being done to ensure that the sewage treatment plants of the municipality work properly again, Mavase said that as part of the ministerial intervention, all sewage treatment plants of Maluti-A-Phofung would be renovated, whereby the projects would be carried out by the Central Water Board van Vaal. . This was made possible by the regional subsidy infrastructure bulk.

She said that the planning phase for most projects has been completed, and that some are already in the pre-implementation phase. “From April 2025, Vaal Central Water expects to start appointing contractors for a number of projects,” she said.

Sewage flows into the streets of TSHIAME B under the local municipality of Maluti-A-Phofung.

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