Is the water time bomb exploding on South Africa?
The civil rights organisation AfriForum believes that the proverbial ticking time bomb on water quality in South Africa has exploded. This follows the recent death of three children in Bloemhof due to contaminated drinking water.
According to Julius Kleynhans, AfriForum Head of Environmental Affairs, AfriForum is concerned about poor management of and policies related to water in South Africa. "Negligence in planning, operations, management and infrastructure maintenance are causing massive pollution of our water resources. What happened in Bloemhof is unfortunately exactly what we anticipated. In terms of the Water Act, water pollution is a criminal offence which individuals can be criminally charged for. This should however also apply to government," said Kleynhans.
AfriForum believes that the three deaths in Bloemhof should be thoroughly investigated, and the violation of the constitutional rights of the local community should be severely punished. "Someone must be held accountable for those lives that were lost", added Kleynhans.
AfriForum predicts that the water quality situation might get worse in the country. The organisation sent letters of demand to various municipalities throughout the country in March 2014, notifying them of the water quality issues within their mandated infrastructure and threatened those who failed to resolve the issues with legal action.
"Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of infant mortality in South Africa. The illness can be caused by water contamination. Most of our municipalities are major contributors to sewage pollution in our natural water resources. Why has no municipal manager been locked up for this continuous life-threatening negligence yet?," said Kleynhans.