Nkomazi Municipality found criminally liable for water pollution
Another municipality has been held criminally liable for water pollution in Mpumalanga.
The Nkomazi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga has been found guilty of contravening an Environmental Act. The Municipality was taken to court by the Komatipoort Despondent Residents Association for failing to fix spilling sewer systems.
This is the fourth municipality in the province, to be found guilty of polluting water catchments since last year.
Raw sewage was found to be spilling into the Komati and Crocodile rivers, as well as onto properties and streets. Residents claim the spillages have been ongoing for a number of years.
The municipality is the fourth to be found guilty of polluting water resources in the province.
Visual: Nkomazi Municipality found guilty of polluting Komatipoort water resources
A sewage treatment plant overflowing and raw sewage spilling onto the streets and into this vegetable garden.
A resident Lenè Roux says, “Children are playing and walking here, and they will get sick. Sometimes the community doesn’t have water for days and when it comes it’s dirty.”
This road has been closed for months and the trench dug here has become a river of raw sewage. The stench is unbearable posing a health risk.
One of the local business people, Ashley Coetzee, welcomes the court’s judgment. She says the spilling sewage is a health hazard.
“Well, it’s affecting us quite a lot because we have no entrance from this side to the businesses and if we do deliveries or pickups we only have one entrance. So with that entrance being opened the whole time, the flies are coming in. It’s a big health risk. So we don’t have a dispatch area due to this road being closed. When they fixed the pipeline a few years ago two of our containers were disrupted and it was totally busted they didn’t take any responsibility for it. They even sent the Department of Health to assess my drainage system and I was up to the standard the problem was with the municipality drainage systems.”
Transnet had to shut down its offices after they were flooded by raw sewage. The 100-year-old building is now deserted.
Aggrieved residents took the Nkomazi municipality to court. Komatipoort Residents Association Linda Roux says, “They had been engaging the municipality for years.”
The Nkomazi Municipality has been ordered to repair the spilling sewer systems within 21 days. Nkomazi Municipality spokesperson Cyril Ripinga says a service provider has been appointed to assist the municipality.
“We are trying to resolve it. We have already sent our team there to assist us to ensure that it doesn’t happen at all. But the problem that we are faced with is that we are experiencing an old infrastructure in that particular town. When the town grows every day, and also the infrastructure it becomes so strange.”
Until the problem is resolved, the residents continue to be exposed to waterborne diseases.
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