This was stated by Mr Sputnik Ratau, spokesperson for the department, in reference to Mr Paul Fairall’s belief that City of Johannesburg (CoJ) is posing a health risk by disregarding a warning issued on the condition of the wetland.
Earlier this month, the NEWS published an article in which Mr Fairall, environmentalist and chairman of the Jukskei River Catchment Area Management Forum, said despite over R4-million spent by council on the reinstatement of the wetland, an enormous amount of sewage is still flowing through the Jukskei River.
His recommendation to reinstate the Queens Wetland was implemented by the city. However, his recommendation to construct a forebay, which he believes would have resulted in the success of the wetland, was not implemented.
He also said that council’s lack of action against building hijackers and overcrowding in the inner city, the presence of alien vegetation in the wetland and the lack of maintenance, could have a catastrophic impact on the environment.
Mr Ratau said that when officials visited the wetland, they found it was improving the water quality by trapping litter, debris and silt. He also said the city appointed a contractor to collect litter trapped in the wetland.
The department issued a pre-directive in November 2010 to the city because of water quality problems in Bruma Lake. In response to the pre-directive, the CoJ apparently supplied a detailed action plan with measures to address the problems.
Measures included debris and litter removal from the lake, sewer network cleaning and bad buildings and super-imposed sewer investigations.
Officials from the department issued a directive to the city in June 2012 after they established that some of the measures were not implemented.
Mr Ratau said the directive directed the city to reinstate the Queens Wetland and address the pollution.
He said the deadline for the re-instatement of the wetland and superimposed sewer study was adhered to. “However, implementation of the recommendations of the study had not yet commenced due to the financial requirement which the city did not have at the time. It was estimated that R200-million was required to address the superimposed sewer. Progress reports and further actions to be taken to address the problems were discussed with the city officials.
“The department is aware that SolarBees were installed in the lake as part of initiatives to improve the water quality. Further authorisation processes to address the Bruma Lake issues have been initiated and the first consultation meeting was held earlier this year,” said Mr Ratau.
He said there are sporadic sewage overflows which occur and end up in the lake. “Due to the difficulty of the situation, such spillages will continue to happen. Regular sewer network clean-ups are conducted to reduce the extent and frequency of these spillages,” said Mr Ratau.
Speaking about the construction of a forebay, Mr Ratau said, “Studies were conducted with regards to the treatment methods. However, experts in the water treatment department from Johannesburg Water found the system recommended was not going to be efficient due to varied water volumes entering the lake.”
He said the department will ask staff to investigate allegations that alien vegetation is posing a danger.
Water samples
“Water quality entering the lake is of unacceptable and poor quality and there are improvements on the outflow of the lake. The lake therefore acts as a pollutants trap. Hence by its unacceptable state, it forced the department to issue the directive to the city. Water samples are taken and the last results received were until May 2013. The department conducted independent sampling at some points in the past and the results were comparably good,” he said. The NEWS forwarded an enquiry about Mr Fairall’s concerns to CoJ on July 9. At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
