In a further development to our blog post “The state of South Africa’s waste water treatment”, the following was reported on Friday 7 May 2010.
“Pretoria – Criminal charges were laid against three Cabinet ministers at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria on Friday for their alleged pollution of the country’s water supply.
After laying the charges, Transvaal Agricultural Union of SA (TAU SA) chairperson Louis Meintjes said the organisation was forced to approach the police after Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Mining Minister Susan Shabangu, and Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica repeatedly failed to address the problem.
“We want them to act and get the water clean… a snowball that gets too big is a runaway snowball,” he said.
Meintjes said mines, which use 7% of the country’s water supply, were responsible for 75% of water pollution.
He said Sonjica should have acted in line with the National Water Act and that Shabangu should have known that mining, water supply and food security were directly linked.
In its allegations against the three, TAU SA lists more than 70 mines that have been operating without water licences and contravening the act.
“You can’t play with the future of the 53 million people of South Africa…. We won’t have food on our tables if we let this happen.”
He said the act provided that it was criminal for ministers to knowingly or unintentionally allow for natural resources to be jeopardised.
“If it’s not the ministers, who is responsible?” he asked.
– SAPA
Source: News24.com
As we wrote in our previous blog post the South African Constitution is admired and respected around the world for its pioneering approach to human rights and “third generation” rights. These include the right to have access to sufficient water and the right to having the environment protected as quoted below:
“24. Environment
Everyone has the right
- to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and
- to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that
- prevent pollution and ecological degradation;
- promote conservation; and
- secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.”
We are glad that someone can be held accountable for this and that there are people who are prepared to fight this fight.
Carte Blanche also featured a story on treatment of Mine Waste Water last night (9 May 2010). To view this programme click here.
For those of you interested in further reading on South Africa’s National Water Act, The Water Page website is an excellent source of information.
Click here to read South Africa’s Bill of Rights.
