By Daniel Itai.
Emfuleni, South Africa (News of The South) -The breakdown of Emfuleni’s area pipes, pumps and wastewater treatment plants are causing sewage to overflow into the Vaal River one of South Africa’s largest rivers.
Local environmental groups such as Save the Vaal Environment (SAVE) and Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) said sewage pollution has gotten exponentially worse in recent years, and seeps into neighbourhoods at a rapid rate.
Nearly all of Emfuleni’s sewage infrastructure, which comprise of 44 pump stations, and three wastewater treatment plants, are in need of urgent repair.
“This is a national crisis, We have seen children playing in the raw sewage, the government needs to urgently prioritise funding so that it can restore the lives and the dignity of the people of the Vaal,” said colonel Andries Mokoena Mahapa.
At the non-operational plant near the township of Sebokeng large steel funnels are clogged with toilet paper, diapers and tampons meant to have been removed from the in-flowing wastewater.
Sebokeng is supposed to treat 100 million litres of waste daily but degraded, blocked pipes and pump stations mean only 20 percent was reaching the plant before it shut down.
Three in 10 people worldwide still do not have access to a water source free from faecal and chemical contamination, according to a 2017 report by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.
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