On February 3, Africa Forum, together with several other organizations, businesses and community members, removed over 1,623 tonnes of water lettuce from the Vaal River.Photo: Africa Forum
Temporary government interventions to stop the rapid spread of alien invasive plants such as water lettuce in the Vaal River are not enough to save South Africa's rivers.
Scientist Anthony Turton, a water expert at the University of the Free State's Center for Environmental Management, says the continued recurrence of water lettuce in South Africa's rivers is due to infrastructure failure and sewage pollution upstream. He said the leak was the cause.
Last week, the region's Africa Forum and Freedom Front Plus reported that the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment are ignoring residents in Sebokeng area as they remove invasive plants to stop the spread of water lettuce. accused of doing so. .
To explain the government's inadequate treatment, Turton compared government intervention to treating a brain tumor with painkillers.
“This intervention is similar to when a patient goes to the doctor looking for a solution to a lingering headache. Instead of sending the patient for an MRI scan to find the root cause, the doctor sends the patient home with Panados. ”
“[T]Panados can help temporarily relieve headache symptoms, but it cannot stop tumors from growing in the brain. “This is the same as manually removing these plants without solving the sewage crisis we have in this country,” he said. .
He added that sewage pollution from the Vaal Dam has encouraged the growth of these plants. “This is because the high levels of nutrients contained in the sewage system nourish this plant and cause it to grow rapidly.”
What is water lettuce?
water lettuce (duckweed) is the world's fastest growing aquatic plant and is already choking water bodies across South Africa.
A floating plant with rosette-shaped leaves similar to lettuce, it is native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America and is often used as an ornamental in ponds and aquariums.
Water lettuce has already taken root in the Vaal River, forcing people in the Sebokeng area to manually remove the stalks from the river.
Mr Turton said if left untreated, the plant would cover the entire river, blocking sunlight from reaching the water's surface.
He added that excessive growth of water lettuce can contribute to water quality problems. This is because when large mats of water lettuce rot, they release organic matter, which can become rich in nutrients and cause algae blooms.
The plant is also found in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and Mpumalanga, including Kruger National Park, where it thrives in nutrient-rich, slow-flowing waters.
solution
Turton said the only solution to the problem is to resolve the sewage situation by putting experienced personnel in a position to deal with the problem.
“For example, the Vaal River supplies water to much of Johannesburg through Rand Water, but maintaining clean drinking water is nearly impossible due to broken infrastructure. Treatment of nutrients in these rivers “Non-native invasive plants will continue to grow because the requirements are inadequate,” he said.
According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Vaal River system provides water for 19 million people in Gauteng, the Northern Cape, the Free State and the Northern Cape through treatment systems owned by Rand Water.
The growth of exotic aquatic plants is occurring despite a successful lawsuit by NGOs in the region against Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu to stop sewage contamination of the Vaal River and its tributaries.
Mr Turton said: “We put technically competent people in positions of authority and then we hold them accountable. How is it that 50% of the drinking water we pump to municipalities is lost before it reaches the end user? Incompetent management of these services is leading to challenges in the water sector.”
The department's Blue Drop report, published in November, found that “about half of South Africa's water systems are microbiologically unsafe to drink,” and that “57% of municipalities have water quality problems. It was shown that the government had not notified people. Compromised or unmonitored. ”
Jaco Grobbelaar, Afriforum's central region director, said civil rights groups took the initiative to manually remove more than 1,623 tonnes of water lettuce from the Vaal River after both ministries ignored requests to remove invasive species. Ta.
“We as a community are actually doing the work that is the government's responsibility right now. The government doesn't care about our scarce resources and would rather spend time in meetings than actually do something about the issues. “It's clear that we want to spend more than 20% of the time. We can't just sit in meetings while the problems outside worsen,” Grobbelaar said in a statement.
Ministry of Environment spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa said the ministry was working closely with the Water and Sewerage Authority to resolve the issue.
Last year, the Ministry of the Environment launched a R2.6-billion water program aimed at protecting and managing invasive alien plants across 1.2 million hectares of the country. This program will be implemented for five years.
At the time of publication, the Department of Water and Sanitation had not responded to a request for comment.
