Water Qualit y & Monitoring
Citizens take action
T
he biodiversity along the Hennops River is under serious threat, with much fish, insect and other animal life along the river having died off. In fact, Willem Snyman, director, FRESH (Fountain River Environmental Sanctuary Hennops), believes that the Hennops may have become one of the most polluted rivers in Gauteng. Snyman established FRESH roughly five years ago, when he began lobbying government over the declining state of the river. Although the river is in a better state today, he says that patches of black sludge and foam several metres high are still a common occurrence, along with vast quantities of solid waste, particularly plastic. The biggest polluters, according to Snyman, are the sewage treatment plants that discharge effluent into the river, particularly the Olifantsfontein and Sunderland Ridge wastewater treatment plants. Informal settlements have also established along the wetland source areas, resulting in further untreated sewage and solid waste polluting the river. Despite engagement with these treatment plants, Snyman says insufficiently treated effluent is still being discharged into the river. The result is
DID YOU KNOW?
56% of WWTWs are in
a poor or critical condition
5.3 million
households do not have access to reliable drinking water
14.1 million people do not have access to safe sanitation
20
JULY /AUGUST 2019
Roughly five years ago, the fish in the Hennops River began to die off as tides of black sludge and foam began to overrun the river. Today, little life is left in the highly polluted river that runs through Gauteng. By Danielle Petterson
a highly polluted river that carries this waste into Hartbeespoort Dam, which is an important source of irrigation and drinking water, as well as a site for recreational activities. The dam receives effluent from 11 wastewater treatment plants via a number of rivers, including the Hennops, many of which carry a high phosphate and sediment load. In recent years, community-led groups have undertaken activities to reverse the hyper-eutrophication in the dam. Similarly, FRESH has established a number of community-based clean-up initiatives to help restore the natural state of the Hennops River. The organisation is also lobbying the City of Tshwane to improve the efficiency and transparency of its treatment, as well as lobbying the Department of Water and Sanitation to get involved in the cleanup and preservation of the river. Snyman also advocates for green infrastructure solutions to address the growing wastewater pollution crisis. “Simple solutions like wetlands offer a cost-effective option for water treatment. Imagine if it were mandatory to have a wetland at every wastewater treatment plant outlet, in order to further treat the water and remove the pollution and chemicals. Everyone gets stuck on big engineering solutions,
which have big running costs, and they aren’t always necessary,” he says.
Getting citizens involved
“We’ve become alienated from our rivers and people aren’t aware of how bad the situation is. Unfortunately, people have begun to see these rivers as a way of disposing of their waste, and the rivers are so dead that they can’t restore themselves any longer,” says Snyman. He now runs monthly restoration campaigns along the Hennops River that include clean-ups as well as planting trees and other ecologically restorative activities. Over the past two years, these have grown from a small group of about 10 to well over 100 people in some instances. Encouragingly, Snyman reports that areas tend to stay cleaner following clean-up activities. This is connected to education and FRESH is engaging with a number of communities in order to raise awareness and prevent further pollution. These areas include Tembisa, where the focus is on Kaalfontein and Duduza, which are the source areas of the Kaalspruit, and in Olievenhoutbosh at the source of the Rietspruit tributary. “Education is essential so that we can