It's a ticking-time bomb

While going through The Independent Newspapers website,iol.co.za, today, I came across an article titled "Just how poisnous are Gauteng's rivers?", authored by Anna Louw and Anna Cox in September 2007. The article reveals shocking E.coli levels in some of the prominent rivers in the country.

 E.coli is a bacteria that comes from human and animal waste. It was stated in the article that the Cheetah bridge in Alexandra shows E.coli levels of 2.4 million per 100ml, 240 times the acceptable level of 100 000 per 100ml. "Also up in the danger zone is the Kaalspruit near Ivory Park, Tembisa, with 1.9 million E.coli per 100ml," the article reads.

 Chairperson of the Environmental Conservation Association (ESA), Nicole Barlow, warned in the same article that E.coli levels could eventually render our rivers and streams sewage catchment areas if the quality of the rivers was allowed to go unchecked and to deteriorate at the current rate.

 The question at this point is whether anything was done about the state of our rivers between then and now. It would seem to me that not much was done, especially about the state of the Jukskei river in Alex. There are institutions which have been erratically conducting clean-up operations in the river.

These organisations are, inter alia, the Soul Foundation, and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT). These organisations complained of not having sufficient resources to effectively execute their mandate in the river. Kim Keiser, founder of the Soul Foundation, an environmental non-govenrmental organisation dedicated to river health, accused the City of Johannesburg of not doing anything to prevent pollution of Jukskei river.


"There is not enough street cleaning done and all the rubbish lands up in the stormwater drains and goes into our rivers. The City needs a consistent river health programme, which does not exist. There is also no refuse whatsoever in some squatter areas in Alex and all their waste lands up in the Jukskei," Keiser said.

 One of the Kayalami Waste Management workers, whom I found cleaning up the river banks on Monday, echoed Keiser's sentiments about the City's attitude towards environmental issues. "I think they don't take environmental issues seriously. It's because they are not directly affected by this pollution in this river," she said.

The lack of consistent clean-up programmes is caused by corruption in the City's tender procurement system. I have always maintained that nepotism and any other form of favouritism in tender allocation compromises service delivery.  I have a  feeling that the City gave out money for clean-up programmes to some unscrupulous entities which never executed their contractual obligations. It must all be blamed on corrupt political relationship between government officials and company bosses.

Like Wits' Professor Cathrine Vogel said, any development plans that the city makes must incorporate environmental considerations. Vogel said environmetal considerations had not been formally translated into policy at the local level. One municipal officer said the country had the best environmental laws, "but the environmental officers in the metros are experiencing a situation that can be equated to sending policemen out to crime scenes with cap-guns".

 The City should dedicate more resources to environmental issues before this ticking time bomb detonates. We don't want to see yet another violent strike in this country. What if the Alex residents decide to go on a rampage during 2010 Soccer festivities? Can you imagine the consequences thereof? The City must remember that prevention is always better than cure.

Feel free to leave me comment.