NNR: Contaminated food causes radiological exposure -
or does it?

The NNR has created confusion by sending out a media statement on 7 February 2008 denying that there is a problem with the contamination of food by radiation in the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment.

It stated that the analysis of food samples comprising spring onions, oats, asparagus, carp, barber, and meat, found the radiological levels to be "below the 0.1 Bq/g level.The internationally determined radiological levels and standard used to establish whether food contamination is within or outside the acceptable level is 0.1 Bq/g of radioactivity concentration measured in the samples.

"In line with international standards of radiological protection in case of intervention which is the case with the WCA situation, the public dose limit for normal operation of 1 mSv/a does not apply to determine the whether food contamination is acceptable or not."

This statement flies in the face of a report in which the NNR stated last year that the calculated dose of exposure to radiation in foods like oats, asparagus onions and fish in the Wonderfonteinspruit area that a one year old child will be exposed to, is 3106 µSv/a, although the dose constraint is only 250µSv/a. More

Media statement

Report of the NNR

Hydrogeology

Example of a problem with the water in a district municipality

Example of problems with infrastructure

 

Dead carp in the Wonderfonteinspruit in November 2006. Carp are bottom feeders. In parts of the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment the sediment contains elevated levels of heavy metals such as uranium, which is radioactive. Could the carp deaths have been due to the level of radiation in parts of the catchment? According to a report by the National Nuclear Regulator "at 6 of the 10 investigated sites the U-238 activity concentration exceeded 0.2Bq/g". The highest values were measured in sediments from the Tudor Dam and Coetzee Dam. Uranium might be remobilized from the sediments by changes of pH, redox potential or TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) in the water. (Source: Radiological Impacts of the Mining Activities (report) to the Public in the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area 13 (Report No TR-RRD-07-0006; Photograph: Paul Neal of Dream Africa)

 

 

Green scorpions sting ferro-polluters
The "Green scorpions" found significant contamination of groundwater at the Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation’s vanadium plant, Vanchem, in August this year.

The groundwater was contaminated because of an unlined and unpermitted hazardous waste dump on site (hazardous primarily because it contains the heavy metal vanadium) as well
as the lack of separation of storm and process water on site.

Non-compliances with environmental legislation and permits include:

• Excessive emissions of sulphur dioxide from the plant’s processes - between 40 and 60 tonnes of SO2 are emitted by the plant every day.
• Serious exceedances of permit emissions limits for ammonia (up to 15 times the limit) and particulates (dust) (up to 27 times the limit).more

Water Affairs threatens council with legal action

The Witbank News reported on Thursday 27 September 2007 that the local branch of the Department of Water Affairs sent a letter to the Emalahleni city council reprimanding it about the sewerage spills in the municipality.

"The municipality is dragging its feet in addressing pollution in its area of jurisdiction," reads a letter sent to Mr Anias Langa, municipal manager, by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) on September 17. In this letter Emalahleni DWAF stated that the pollution of water resources is impacting negatively on the health of the public. It continues: "The municipality therefore leaves the department with no choice but to take the issues up with higher authority (legal department)." Full article

 

 

The Witbank dam on 16 August 2007. The photograph was not touched up in any way. Note the dark colour of the water in the dam. There are relatively few birds in the neighbourhood on the other side of the dam.

The dam is the only source of raw water for Witbank, Phola and Ogies. The current raw water demand is approximately 120ML per day. The future raw water demand is estimated to be 170Ml per day by 2020. The dam has a volume of 104Mm and an assured yield of abstraction of 75ML per day. The current over abstraction is only sustainable during relatively wet seasons and if it persists during future dry seasons without augmenting, water shortages will occur. (Source: Emalahleni 2007 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) 15)

Pollution causing environmental havoc

Fourteen tons of dead mud fish have been removed in a week from the Loskop dam, north of Middelburg, reported Beeld newspaper on Saturday 18 August 2007. At that stage there were fears that the dam might have turned toxic within a few days. More

Industrial wastewater from an open manhole pours into a stream north of Witbank that eventually flows into the Brugspruit and then the Olifants River. The wastewater has an unpleasant chemical smell.

 

Silt from the industrial area in Witbank on its way to the Brugspruit. The Brugspruit (bridge stream) flows into the Olifants River. The Brugspruit Water Pollution Control Works was officially opened in 1997, but pollution of the Olifants river and the Brugspruit are some of the factors that are blamed for the state of the Loskop dam.

 

Photographs by Marika Van Der Walt, unless otherwise stated. As a matter of courtesy, please inform us if you would like to use the photographs. Please mention the source.

Children at Springvalley informal settlement every day fetch water from a stream in the area. The water is clean. (Photograph published with permission from Witbank News.)

Medium to long term water and sanitation needs

The eMalahleni local municipality projects that it will need to spend about R317 million on water infrastructure and about R76 million on sanitation infrastructure in eMalahleni (Witbank) by the year 2020.

It has budgeted to spend about R28 million on water infrastructure and about R24 million on sanitation infrastructure in the 2007 / 2008 financial year.(eMalahleni 2007 IDP 71-76.) The infrastructure is 50 years old in many cases and was not designed to cope with the expanding population.

Purified sewerage water, top, pours into the Olifants River at the Riverview sewerage treatment plant in Witbank. Should the plant suffer a power failure when a cable is stolen (it happens all over SA), there exists no back-up power supply. The result is that untreated sewerage would pour into the river. More