Local resident Gert Jacobs said it’s so bad it makes him sick.
“I was just wondering if someone in the municipality is doing something about that stench hanging in and around the lake,” he said.
“I drive on Rondebult Road towards Sunward Park every morning, and the stench is so bad, especially when you approach the traffic lights at the Hyperama/McDonalds.”
The DA’s ward 32 chairperson, Marius de Vos, said the August wind is currently conveying a putrid odour from the Boksburg Lake.
“It is stinking like an unsanitary toilet and it is a health hazard for our beloved community with chest infections,” he said.
“I respectfully request the Water Quality Section to urgently take chemical and bacterial samples of the polluted lake water in order to resolve this unacceptable pollution.”
DA councillor Johan Hendricks also weighed in, saying he has it on good record that the appalling conditions are also an economic deterrent.
“Apparently Boksburg hotels could not be accredited for the 2010 World Cup because of the stench, and I am sure the same applies to any improvement or development of the business and residential areas around the lake,” he added.
In March, the DA organised a clean up of the environment surrounding the lake and, although good work was done, it was only possible to scratch the top of the iceberg (or putrid pollution).
Hendricks, Clr Ashley Rutherford from ward 92, Janet Semple from the DA Provincial Legislature and numerous members of the local community helped to clean up.
A petition was submitted to the Ekurhuleni Metro Council, who committed to cleaning the river leading to the lake, to rehabilitate the toxic water and to remove dead trees.
“None of these things have happened to date,” said Hendricks.
He added that it is imperative that the Ekurhuleni Metro take urgent action, as “we believe that the lake in its current condition constitutes a health hazard”.
The metro is aware of the condition of the lake and that the putrid smell is due to the anaerobic condition (lack of oxygen) of the water.
Metro spokesperson Themba Gadebe said this is as a result of many years of silt, sand, sludge and debris deposits in the lake and very badly polluted urban run-off.
He said the low flow entering the lake is not sufficient to supply fresh oxygenated water to the lake and this enhances the anaerobic conditions in the water, disrupting the ecosystem and causing the water quality to deteriorate, resulting in a foul odour.
“Test samples conducted recently did not indicate any significant effects of pollution other than urban run-off, which is prevalent during this time of the year,” said Gadebe.
