Pretoria - The South African National Parks (SANParks) says it remains concerned over water pollution threats from the Bosveld Phosphate operation near Phalaborwa.
This follows unauthorised discharge of polluted water from the fertilizer production plant into the Selati River between 30 December 2013 and 5 January 2014. The incident resulted in immediate acute toxicity, resulting in a many fish being killed.
The Department of Water Affairs (DWA), Department of Environmental Affairs and SANParks are continuing to work closely on both the operational responses and the investigation associated with this incident.
Senior representatives from the DWA’s Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) Directorates and SANParks met with the Board of Directors of Bosveld Phosphate last week.
A number of immediate response actions are being developed and technical task teams have now been established to deal with both short term and longer-term threats and risks.
Last Thursday morning, a new spillage, which was observed by SANParks personnel, drained into the Selati River.
Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, accompanied SANParks and DWA CME officials to the spill site on Thursday afternoon. Mabudafhasi said she was committed to ensuring that the matter received high priority attention.
According to the SA Weather Services, there will be relatively stable weather for the next two weeks, which will enable the implementation of the immediate response measures by Bosveld Phosphate to alleviate the threat of further spillages.
SANParks is, however, concerned that the industry is not adapting fast enough to climate variability in their risk management approaches and that further incidents of this nature may become more frequent.
Reacting to the new developments, SANParks’ Dr Stefanie Freitag-Ronaldson said that sincere commitment needed to be shown by Bosveld Phosphate to address the new spillage and its effects, as well as to ensure that no further spillages occur.
“Real urgency is required from Bosveld Phosphate’s Board and management, and the team needs to move fast to avoid a catastrophic ecological disaster” said Freitag-Ronaldson.
Olifants River
The Olifants River is an important river for the economies of South Africa and Mozambique and as a result, is highly pressurised.
It is also a very important component of the ecosystem of the Kruger National Park. In recent years, this river has shown signs of chronic ecological degradation, including the disease and death of top aquatic predators such as crocodiles.
Three tourist camps in the Kruger National Park, usually supplied with water from the Olifants River, continue to be supplied by safe potable water from nearby boreholes.
A detailed monitoring programme has been implemented by SANParks to evaluate the short, medium and long term impact of these spillages on the aquatic ecosystem. – SAnews.gov.za
