According to a statement released by, the human settlements, water and sanitation portfolio committee the broader solution to the problem was two-fold – improved legislative framework governing water infrastructure and dealing with operational and maintenance backlogs, it said in.

“The amendment of the two primary legislations, the Water Services Act and National Water Act, is now pressing to ensure synergy and efficiency between the two legal frameworks. We are of the view that the current legal framework must be strengthened to make it more effective,” committee chairperson Machwene Semenya said.

According to News24 last year, the Department of Water and Sanitation set aside R341m for the resuscitation of all wastewater treatment infrastructure in the Vaal Triangle to prevent further pollution in the Vaal River.

Directives by the department to municipalities – the source of the pollution – were not working, the committee said, which resulted in the need to reconsider the licensing of municipalities that were failing to run wastewater treatment plants.

It said it was concerned by the deterioration of infrastructure owing to both a lack of maintenance as well as adequate skills to run wastewater treatment plants.

“The justification of lack of skills can no longer be accepted as rational in an environment where the health of our people is of great concern. There must be a concerted effort to increase the skills pool from where municipalities can draw to run these wastewater treatment plants effectively,” Semenya said.

The committee called for vacant critical positions to be filled swiftly within municipalities to ensure a skills transfer when the intervention ended.

https://vaalweekblad.com/56758/reasonable-progress-made-polluted-vaal-river/