PARLIAMENT (Sapa) - Millions of litres of highly acidic mine water is rising up under Johannesburg and, if left unchecked, could spill out into its streets some 18 months from now, Parliament's water affairs portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.

The acid water is currently about 600 metres below the city's surface, but is rising at a rate of between 0.6 and 0.9 metres a day, water affairs deputy director water quality management Marius Keet told MPs.

"[It] can have catastrophic consequences for the Johannesburg central business district if not stopped in time. A new pumping station and upgrades to the high-density sludge treatment works are urgently required to stop disaster," he warned.

Speaking at the briefing, activist Mariette Liefferink, from the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, said the rising mine water posed an "enormous threat", which would become worse if remedial actions were further delayed.

"This environmental problem is second [in South Africa] only to global warming in terms of its impact, and poses a serious risk to the Witwatersrand as a whole. At the rate it is rising, the basin [under Johannesburg] will be fully flooded in about 18 months"

“Like confetti at a wedding!”

This is the way South African environmentalists describe the government’s Department of Water and Forestry’s ( DWF) plan to stop toxic pollution of the country’s water supply. Now the Deputy President of TAU SA and chairman of the National Water Forum (NWDF) Louis Meintjes is laying a criminal charge with the South African Police against three SA cabinet ministers for violations under the National Water Act.

Persistent warnings over the years by individuals and groups about our polluted rivers and dams, collapsing water infrastructure and dysfunctional sewage works have fallen on deaf ears. Denialism is something of a fetish with the government – say it isn’t so and it will go away!

“It is clear that the ministers in question do not comply with the provisions of the Act, either intentionally or by negligence. Thus we have no choice but to charge them criminally and to demand that the matter be investigated thoroughly and that these perpetrators be prosecuted”, said Mr. Meintjes.

It is axiomatic that you cannot manage what you don’t comprehend! If you don’t understand nuclear physics, or water safety, or municipal accounts, then how can you assume to manage these important elements of South Africa’s daily life? The difference between South Africa and much of the rest of the world is that those in positions of “management” somehow don’t comprehend they are incompetent:  those who criticize them are either racists or a “scoring political points”. This is a dangerous attitude for the future of South Africa.

South Africa faces a far more disruptive threat than Eskom power failures, one that is potentially calamitous and may even be seen by religiously-minded citizens as the coming of the biblically predicted apocalypse.

It will be characterised by the failure of wastewater purification systems, the pollution of rivers and damns and even the poisoning of waters in reservoirs or damns serving as reservoirs if the purification process is inadequate at that level.

The first signs of the disaster are already visible in remote rural areas where the municipalities - which are responsible for wastewater purification - are too poor to attract appropriately qualified personnel to operate purification systems and ensure that they ae s properly maintained.

Though water and environment affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica denies that there is a water crisis at present, she implicitly admits that one is inevitable unless strenuous action is taken to prevent it when she warns that South Africa will have to spend R23-billion to prevent the collapse of the wastewater treatment system.

An excellent synopsis of the main dimensions of the impending crisis if appropriate and urgent measures are not taken is contained in a publication by the Centre for Development and Enterprise and Business Leadership SA.

Johannesburg - Suburbs around Sandton and the east of Johannesburg were left without water on Friday after technical problems shut down their supply, Johannesburg Water said.

"Suburbs in the eastern parts of Johannesburg such as Bramley, Wynberg, Savoy and surrounding areas, as well as Sandton and surrounding areas have been affected," spokesperson Baldwin Matsimela said.

Technicians began working on a faulty valve on Thursday evening when they were interrupted by a leak in one of the pipes, he said.

"Technicians, who were working to replace a faulty valve yesterday, were expected to finish at 18:00, however they experienced technical problems and were delayed until midnight.

Another six to 10 hours

"They were welding a pipe, which had opened and noticed that there was water coming through the pipe so they had to postpone everything to identify the source which caused further delays," Matsimela said.

The source of the leak had been identified and the technicians were currently in the process of welding the pipes together, he said.

However Matsimela did not expect water to return to the areas for another six to ten hours.