Sewage causes national stink

The Director-General (DG)of environmental affairs, Nosipho Ngcaba, last week instructed the Limpopo economic development, environment and tourism department to look into complaints by Mokopane residents over the ongoing spillage of raw sewage into the Nyl/Mogalakwena river system.
Responding to residents' complaints the DG vowed to give them feedback as soon as “the matter has been concluded.”
This follows a letter of complaint by the Nyl Action Group and an article: 'Sewage system bursting at the seams" that appeared in Northern News in March which was sent to national government’s environment tip-offs desk at the end of October.
Subsequent to a ‘Sewage Tour’ by members of the Nyl Action Group last month a similar letter of complaint has also been sent to Mogalakwena municipal manager (MM), William Kekana.
The matter has also been reported to the blue and green Scorpions.
Even the Western Cape Government's Chief Engineer has thrown his weight behind concerned Mokopane residents when he drafted a letter to officials at the national department of water affairs last week, warning that sewage seems to spill directly into the river and noting that this is "serious pollution".
“Please also assist the municipality so that they can develop a sustainable solution,” he requested in his e-mail to these officials.
Meanwhile the Nyl Action Group, in their letter to the MM, wanted to know weather the municipality was aware of sewage spilling into river systems at three places: in RDP Extension 20, at the Dorps River Bridge between Sekgagapeng and Moshate and at the Sekgagapeng sewage works. The group also enquired as to what the municipality was doing to address the problem.
While Kekana could not be reached for comment on the latest turn of events he, earlier this year, told Northern News that the municipality was aware of the problem and was negotiating with several mining companies in the area to assist the municipality in upgrading the town’s sewage system. In March Kekana said mining houses were already competing for rights to Mogalakwena’s treated sewage water. “The winning bid will be responsible for building three modern sewage-treatment plants.”
Two of these plants would most likely be built in the Sekgagapeng area and the third would be in the vicinity of the current works. In the meantime, the municipality was supposed to contain the effluent by using the two new sewage dams by pumping all treated sewage into these new dams and repairing leaks in the old purification ponds.
In March Kekana, promised residents would see a difference "within the next month." Eight months later the problem seems to have taken a turn for the worse.