Steven Lang
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 24 2007 (IPS) – Raw sewage flowing into Lake Chrissie is threatening to turn South Africa s largest natural freshwater body into a massive cesspool. Environmentalists claim that for seven years, local authorities ignored their pleas to upgrade water treatment facilities; officials only took action, they say, when local revenue was affected by the closure of tourism routes such as biking trails, as a result of pollution.
An eco-attraction at risk of ecological disaster. Credit: Gerhard Rheeder
Lake Chrissie, a shallow freshwater lake measuring roughly nine by three kilometres, is one of 270 lakes and pans situated in what has been dubbed South Africa s lake district, in the northern Mpumalanga province.
Known as Chrissiesmeer in Afrikaans, the lake and its surrounds form a popular eco-tourism destination where visitors can go bird watching, hiking, and mountain bike riding or participate in an annual frogging expedition, when tourists comb the lake shores and wetlands in search of new frog species. The lakes also provide water for a large farming district and several towns.
High levels of harmful bacteria and parasites including E.coli, Vibrio cholerae and bilharzia were detected in recent tests of water quality at Chrissie commissioned by a local non-governmental organisation known as Grass and Wetland Tourism. Chairman Athol Stark described the findings of the study as unbelievable , and the bacteria as too numerous to count .
This has been going on for eight years, so we believe at this point in time that this particular lake is, in actual fact, already an environmental disaster, he told IPS.
Stark said that over the past seven years, his organisation and other groups have complained on many occasions to the Msukaligwa municipality about the pollution but that authorities ignored all concerned parties: Only when we closed down the tourism (routes) in Chrissiesmeer, then for the first time did this municipality start to pay attention.
Tour operators have instituted legal action against the Msukaligwa municipality in terms of the National Environment Act 107 of 1998, which says that anyone who fails to prevent the environment from being polluted may be charged with a crime. The operators are also claiming compensation for loss of revenue caused by the closure of tourism routes.
A local resident and member of the Mpumalanga provincial legislature, Louis Marneweck, says the pollution occurs because local municipalities have not paid enough attention to the maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure. You find that local governments are not budgeting adequately for proper sewerage works to handle the amount of sewage. So they allow that to flow in, he told IPS.
Spillages became more serious after criminals stole sewerage pump fittings for their copper content. The pumps are used to control effluent levels at oxidation ponds, where sewage is treated through the interaction of sunlight, bacteria and algae; when the pumps are removed, the ponds overflow into the lake.
The Matotoland Eco-tourism Association was also involved in the closure of the mountain biking and hiking routes. Soon after, a technical team from the Msukaligwa municipality replaced the stolen sewerage pump fittings, and has been checking on contamination levels since the middle of July. A municipality spokesman, Surprise Nkosi, said the team would continue to monitor the situation.
Msukaligwa municipality is doing everything within its limited capacity and resources to ensure that Chrissiesmeer is restored to its former glory, he told IPS.
More than half of Msukaligwa s 4.1 million dollar capital budget for the 2007/08 financial year has been allocated to water and sewerage related projects.
The spillage caused by the missing pump fittings is one of the more recent episodes in a string of incidents posing an environmental threat to the Chrissiesmeer area.
In September 2005, the Mpumalanga health department cut water supplies to three towns in the region to protect local residents from health hazards brought about by the Chrissiesmeer Abattoir disposing of animal remains at a dump next to a reservoir.
While residents blamed local authorities for not regulating the dump properly, the municipality maintained the situation was under control.
Nonetheless, the abattoir appears to have continued acting irresponsibly. Earlier this year, the Msukaligwa municipality opened a criminal case against the company for another environmental violation: allowing thousands of litres of blood to flow into Lake Chrissie every day.
According to Nkosi, the abattoir has ignored instructions from the legal department of the municipality to refrain from their negligent practices .
Up to this point, the effluent flowing from the abattoir continues to pollute the environment.
However, the most serious threat to the future of Lake Chrissie and the surrounding wetlands may not come from sewage spills or illegal dumping, but from mining.
Hundreds of mining companies have applied for licences to begin digging opencast coal mines in the area. As international coal prices surge, even small scale mining can become a lucrative business.
Louis Marneweck said that just 500 metres from Tevrede se Pan, one of the largest lakes in the area, they want to do open cast mining for coal because everybody s now coming in and they want coal. Some farmers, people in the area, say that it s like the gold rush that you had in the 1800s.
He explained that under normal circumstances rainwater flowing towards the lakes has to seep through a layer of sandstone a natural filter that will have to be blasted away in order to give miners access to coal. Marneweck said once the sandstone is removed, water will mix with coal to form an acid that will increasing the toxicity of lakes.
Worryingly, government appears to be at cross-purposes concerning the hazards of coal mining in Chrissiesmeer.
The Department of Environment says we must protect the environment, while on the other hand the Department of Mining and Minerals is giving out these licences, said Marneweck.
