Water is the most valuable resource at our disposal. It is essential for all life. This precious resource ensures food security, livestock security, maintain organic life, industrial production and to conserve the biodiversity and environment.
Why then do we not look after this resource as it is more valuable than gold and silver? Without water there can not be life!
While parts of the country are facing droughts with some towns being on the brink of running out of water altogether, our precious water resources are being polluted and wasted by coal companies which have been found to be largely non-compliant with the conditions of their water use licences, which licence is required in order for them to commence mining and is supposed to ensure the sustainability of our resources.
A new report on the compliance of eight large coal mining operations in Mpumalanga, released by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), has uncovered many cases of significant non-compliance with water use licences – licences which are an essential requirement for the commencement of their mining activities.
“The assessment of the compliance of eight large coal mining operations in Mpumalanga with their water use licences paints a dismal picture: Gross violations and water pollution by the operators, as well as massive failures by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and supposedly independent auditors.”
The report send ripples through the pond as it hit headlines claiming that the regulatory system – from issuance of a water use licence to accountability for non-compliance – has effectively disintegrated.
Moreover, instead of ensuring the protection of water resources, companies and independent auditors are complicit in taking advantage of the regulatory breakdown.
“This large-scale non-compliance is enabled by the DWS which appears completely unable to monitor compliance with water use licence conditions, leaving companies to monitor themselves, with devastating consequences for the Olifants River Catchment and surrounding communities, including farmers who rely on the catchment for their livelihoods and sustenance. Moreover, the supposedly independent environmental auditors which monitor companies compliance with their water use licence conditions have been found to be negligent in their duties, writing up audit reports which fail to highlight issues of non-compliance and interpreting conditions in order to favour company compliance” the report reads.
The pollution of South Africa’s precious water resources occurs on a particularly egregious scale in areas with high levels of mining activity, which is the heartbeat of the Mpumalanga Highveld.
The report echoed what many other experts in the field said in the past, “The mining of coal is particularly harmful, with acid mine drainage from coal mines polluting surface and groundwater with acid, salts and metals. This, in turn, affects human health, livestock, crop production and aquatic ecosystems.
One of the key findings of the report is that on the Mpumalanga Highveld, coal mining has had a devastating impact on the Olifants River Catchment.
Water use in that catchment has increased dramatically in recent years due to extraction of coal for electricity production, mining of a variety of other minerals, large-scale irrigation schemes for agriculture, and urban development.
This, in turn, has had considerable negative impacts on human health, stemming from water contamination, water shortages, and pollution of air and land.
In particular, the Upper Olifants Catchment is characterised by a high density of active and abandoned coal mines, coal fired power stations and acid mine water discharge sites.
The rivers in the Upper Olifants Catchment drain into the Loskop Dam, which is the receiving body of the accumulated impact of coal mining and coal power generation in the Upper Olifants.
Water conservationists James Michael Dabrowski and Peter Ashton raised the red flag when they in 2011 said the concentration of over 650 active and abandoned mines and associated acid mine drainage and mining effluent, alongside eutrophication from waste water treatment facilities has resulted in severe degradation of water quality, including groundwater.
The CER is of the opninion that despite comprehensive research and damning reports about the impacts of coal mining on the Olifants Catchment and the recognition of the threat coal mining poses to water resources in the catchment, the DWS takes little or no action to stop the pollution, and to hold polluting mining companies responsible.
Moreover, given that the DWS has never published its own report on the results of its compliance monitoring and enforcement activities, and that the DWS does not force companies to publish compliance data themselves, it is usually very difficult for the public and affected communities to assess whether mining companies operating in the catchment are in fact complying with the conditions of their water use licences.
What we do know, however, is that mining companies are required by law to obtain and comply with the conditions of a water use licence, and that non-compliance with those conditions is a criminal offence and may lead to the suspension of that water use licence.
Monitoring and enforcement of compliance with water use licence conditions, or the absence thereof, is therefore vital to understanding why pollution prevention and control has gone so horribly wrong in the Olifants River Catchment.
The assessment by the CER found licence holders to have taken advantage of the delays by the DWS in processing applications for water use licences or licence amendments, instead of at least abiding by best practices for responsible water use.
They have pointed out that The Tweefontein South and Goedgevonden Colliery (Glencore Operations South Africa (Pty) Ltd), Manungu Colliery (Tshedza Mining Resources (Pty) Ltd), Leeuwpan Coal Mine (Exxaro Resources Limited), Khutala Colliery (South32 SA Coal Holdings (Pty) Ltd), Vanggatfontein Colliery (Wescoal Mining (Pty) Ltd), Isibonelo Colliery (Anglo American plc), (Glencore Operations South Africa (Pty) Ltd) and Kangala Colliery (Universal Coal Development 1 (RF) (Pty) Ltd) were the culprits.
The report also demonstrates how so-called independent environmental auditors – including large environmental consulting firms – are often failing to conduct audits of compliance with licence conditions in an objective manner, in some instances making unsubstantiated conclusions and even failing to report pollution incidents or violations of licence conditions.
“These audits are supposed to be a safety net for regulators, picking up violations and risks that may have been missed in regular compliance monitoring by inspectors,” said Leanne Govindsamy, head of CER’s Corporate Accountability Programme. “Instead, they have become the only compliance monitoring that takes place, creating a massive loophole for violations never to be reported or acted upon.”
Mr Moeketsi Mofokeng, head of corporate communications at Anglo American South Africa said, “Anglo American Coal notes the release of the CER report on compliance to water use licences. Anglo American Coal co-operated fully with the CER by granting them the relevant information they requested. We will study the details of the report and will comment further in due course.”
Exxaro also acknowledged receiving the report and said they are studying it.
The mining company will also respond in more detail once it has had the opportunity to review the findings related to Exxaro and recommendations made by the CER.
“South32 is aware of the CER report. As a matter of principle, we remain committed to compliance with legal environmental requirements. We further commit to following up on the substantive nature of the issues raised in the report and to communicate the outcome to the CER,” said Hulisani Rasivhaga, spokesperson for South32.
None of the other mining companies or the DWS responded to the media enquiry.
