No chlorine at Brits sewage works

Written by Kormorant | 3 November 2011

According to water tests conducted at the Brits Sewer plant earlier this month, no chlorine dosing was done and the e-coli count was too high to calculate, Madibeng councillor Eddie Barlow said.


In a letter to the acting Madibeng municipal manager and the director of technical services, Barlow said an estimated 1.2 million to 1.6 million liters of untreated sewage have been running into the Crocodile River.


“The samples were taken in the effluent canal flowing to the Crocodile River. The results prove that no chlorine dosing was done. The coli and e-coli from both were too numerous to count,” he said.


“I was at the plant on Tuesday and still no chlorine gas dosing is taking place. It is estimated that no gas treatment took place for the past month.”


Barlow said it is clear that the Madibeng municipality blatantly and intentionally disregards the Water Act which makes them guilty of an offense.


According to the act no person may “unlawfully and intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which pollutes or is likely to pollute a water resource;
151.(1)(j): unlawfully and intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which detrimentally affects or is likely to affect a water resource.”


“We want to know why no chlorine dosing has been done for the past estimated month and who is to blame,” Barlow said yesterday.


This letter with all previous letters will be handed to the Administrator when the person is appointed, not if, but when. It is clear that there is no discipline and no management to talk of in the Municipality of Madibeng.


Neither did the mayor’s or the acting municipal manager’s offices acknowledge any letters.
I predicted that the Municipality will pollute the river as was done two years ago, and that it will

happen before December 2011. I rest my case.”


Kormorant has sent an enquiry about the situation at the Brits sewage works to the Madibeng municipality.