We have lost our dilution capacity and our rivers have been turned into hazardous sewers breeding harmful pathogens. This means that cholera is only one of the risks we are facing from raw sewage in our rivers.
Mpumalanga's municipalities have left millions of people exposed to waterborne diseases by dumping untreated sewage into local rivers, prompting environmental crimes investigator Maanda Alidzulwi to compare it to"pouring buckets of shit [into our drinking water]".
The Democratic Alliance is piling the pressure on the Dawid Kruiper municipality to urgently stop a sewage spill from further contaminating the Orange River. Sewage has been spilling in the industrial area in Upington for four years. The spill has grown so extensively that it is now visibly and audibly gushing out of blocked manholes. It has created a river that runs from behind Dr Nelson Mandela drive, past CTM, behind Midas to the train bridge that flows under Schröder Street, into Steenbok Street and then onto the premises of Africa River Lodge and into the river.