Spilltech workers near the river where a valve to the underground diesel pipe was damaged recently during a theft incident in Verkykerskop, 11 March 2022, Free State. Thousands of liters of diesel spilled into a nearby river causing an environmental disaster. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Verkykerskop’s artificial intelligence-powered surveillance camera system has allegedly identified those behind the massive diesel spillage from the Transnet pipeline into the Meul River in the Free State, but this is cold comfort considering the massive ecological damage potentially caused by the spill.
The river, which runs into the Vaal Dam, which supplies millions of people and animals, including the entire Gauteng province, with drinking water, is flooded with diesel that has also drenched swathes of dry grazing land.
It all started on the early hours of Wednesday morning, when Transnet Pipelines National Control Centre detected a pressure drop on the multiproduct pipeline between Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, and Heidelberg, in Gauteng.
By the time security tactical teams arrived on site in Verkykerskop, about 30Km outside Harrismith, the pipeline’s concrete enclosed block-valve was a fountain of diesel, flowing straight into the river, threatening an environmental and economic disaster.
Local farmer Jan van Niekerk explained that there was a 10Km distance between the first valve and the one tampered with, which he said could carry about 100 000 Litres, at a very conservative estimate.
“It is much more than that. I think there are hundreds of thousands of litres in the river and there is no way any company can catch up with all that amount of diesel,” he said.
Van Niekerk said the diesel could be smelled 50km downstream, where farmers use the river for irrigation and livestock.
“This is not supposed to happen. Though the environment will recover, that will take time because this is a massive spillage, an environmental disaster” he said.
Van Niekerk said the positive side to this catastrophic incident was that the high-tech CCTV (closed circuit television) system they installed four years ago managed to capture the tankers used in the incident.
“We managed to identify the vehicle that was stealing this diesel and is responsible for this disaster and there are clues that (police) are following up,” he said.
Van Niekerk pointed out that the heist had an element of inside job as sections of the pipeline (between the block valves) do not always have diesel, and particular skills were required to pump the fuel from the valve into a tanker.
Free State provincial Hawks spokesperson Christopher Singo said they would not discuss their operational matters in public, and thus could not confirm Van Niekerk’s claims.
Transnet has brought in hazardous waste management company Spill Tech to contain and recover diesel from the river.
The company has camped on site since Wednesday, using various techniques to mitigate the environmental ruin.
Transnet Spokesperson Saret Knoetze said they were not exactly sure how much diesel spilled into the river but that it was “a few thousand litres”.
She said their operations unit was still calculating the extent of the spillage, which involved looking into what was spilled, recovered, and lost.
Knoetze said they have deployed absorbents in the river to absorb the spilled diesel and erected booms further downstream to catch the diesel as it migrates.
“As a third layer, there are also ocean booms, which are larger, further downstream to prevent the oil from getting down into the Vaal Dam,” she said.
Knoetze said they were working closely with the Hawks, and SA Police Service Crime Intelligence to combat the scourge of fuel theft from their pipeline, but admitted that they were not winning the war.
She said the high-tech surveillance system played a huge in stopping the fuel thieves, but the fact that it was still happening was unfortunate.
“In this area we added three cameras to the ones that already existed from the local farmers’ associations. We have requested that they hand in the footage to the police. We have made a dent in the war and there is a huge reduction compared to last year, but I cannot say we are winning the war,” she said.
Local ward councillor Charl Kalamer said technology was important in combatting fuel theft and that the information they have collected in the past from the system has played a huge role in identifying the culprits.
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