South Africa...the road ahead

However this being said 2011 saw some of the worst cases of acid mine drainage in South Africa. This year 2012 the country still has to deal with the effects and it is a long road ahead.

There are numerous reports documenting acid mine drainage in South Africa. In 2011 the Mail and Guardian online reported of the dangerous levels on radioactive and acid mine toxicity residue mine dumps in Gauteng near the Reef. Anthony Turton, a scientist said,  "There are at least 270 tailings dams on the Witwatersrand that will continue causing acid mine drainage for hundreds of years ". The effect of the water is not the only issue at hand as during the same time there were a considerable amount of families from informal settlements relocated. Informal settlements, including Bull Brand, Soul City and Baghdad, and an RDP housing settlement established close to Tudor Shaft all in the Witwatersrand area were considered danger zones.

(Mail and Guardian, Fiona Macleod, 04.03.11).

The question that needs to be asked is what was going on before acid mine drainage was even an issue? What living or toxic environment were those people living in? South Africa as mentioned depends on its mining sector, so why suddenly have legislations changed. When did people decide to notice? Now it’s too late the economy and mines of today have to pay the penalties of past mistakes.

The development of a concise plan to improve the environmental issue has to be commended. The South African Human Rights Commission managed to hold a workshop exploring the possibilities of a way forward. This team was a combination of non-government organizations, people living directly in the effected areas, engineers and scientists as well as senior officials from the Department of Water Affairs and Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority. (Earthlife.org. Rachel. 09.03.12)

From this event major issues were addressed. Starting with the “plans to remove most of the metals from the acid mine water not the sulphate salts. Discharging huge volumes of water with such a high salt load will severely impact our future water supplies, and affect natural ecosystems. The Department of Water Affairs already predict that by 2014 the Vaal River will have so much salt in it that it will have to be diluted with fresh water discharged from the Vaal Dam.”

(Earthlife.org. Rachel. 09.03.12)

Then on the political agenda the government of South Africa who never like to take the blame stated they inherited this so called acid mine drainage problem and out of political stance it is their human duty to take care of the issue.

The “Cabinet approved a report on acid mine water and the National Treasury put aside R433 million from this year's budget to deal with the issue. The team, headed by Marius Keet from the Department of Water Affairs, reported as part of a short and long term solution, installation of new water pumps at Rand Uranium shaft 8 were under way. The water will be treated and transferred through pipelines to the rivers. It identified priority areas, namely the Western, Central and Eastern basins. Work also began in December to upgrade the Rand Uranium plant that will treat up to 30 million liters of mine water a day.” (AllAfrica.com.22 March 2012).