AfriForum had the water in Witbank, Middelburg, Delmas, Secunda, Standerton, Bethal, Trichardt, Kinross, Evander, Charl Cilliers, Kriel, Greylingstad, Morgenzon and Balfour tested in May 2017 to ascertain the quality of these town’s drinking water and sewage.
“We established that the drinking water in the province is clean and contains no heavy metals, while bacteria levels adhere to applicable standards. However, AfriForum will test the water quality continuously to protect the constitutional rights of residents of these towns and to ensure that they are provided with clean drinking water,” says Hillel Coetzer, AfriForum’s Regional Coordinator for Mpumalanga West.
The civil rights organisation expressed its concern that the sewage does not adhere to set standards in Standerton, Morgenzon, Balfour, Bethal and Middelburg.
“We must give attention to sewage plants. We cannot allow unfit municipal officers to pollute our water resources and we plan on taking action in terms of the mandate given to us by residents,” says Coetzer.
AfriForum’s national blue and green drop project focuses on the quality of the drinking water and sewage plants of towns. The project does not necessarily focus on the condition of the sewage plant itself, but rather on the quality of water released after the process as result in the form of drinking water (blue drop) and treated sewage (green drop).
“We request the residents of these towns to give AfriForum the mandate to continuously monitor their town’s water quality. SMS your town’s name to 45340 to support this project. Each SMS costs R1,” Coetzer concludes.