{"id":217531,"date":"2022-02-24T10:56:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T08:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/kromdraai-mine-taken-to-task-for-water-pollution\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T10:56:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T08:56:27","slug":"kromdraai-mine-taken-to-task-for-water-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/kromdraai-mine-taken-to-task-for-water-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Kromdraai Mine taken to task for water pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has ordered Kromdraai Mine to take accountability for discharging acid mine water into the Kromdraai River.<\/p>\n

This comes after an incident where an old shaft at the mine collapsed on or around 14 February 2022.<\/p>\n

The department has since issued a directive, in terms of Section 20 (4) (d) of the National Water Act, 1988 (Act No 36 of 1998), to the mine for failure to take all reasonable measures to contain and minimise the effects of the incident, which led to the pollution of Kromdraai River, and consequently affecting Wilge River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Directive instructs Kromdraai Mine to take all reasonable measures to contain and minimise the effects of the incident, undertake clean-up procedures, remedy the effects of the incident, and appoint a suitably qualified professional to compile a rehabilitation plan for all the affected areas within 10 days upon receipt of the Directive,\u201d DWS said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The plan must be submitted to the department for consideration.<\/p>\n

The department wants the mine, located in Gauteng, to implement all the recommendations contained in the rehabilitation plan, and rehabilitate the areas affected by the unauthorised water activities within 30 days upon the department\u2019s approval of the rehabilitation plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to comply with the directive constitutes an offence, in terms of Section 151 (1) (d) of the NWA.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny person who contravenes any provision of Subsection (1) of Section 151 of the NWA is guilty of an offence and liable, on first conviction, to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or both a fine and such imprisonment, and in the case of a second conviction or subsequent conviction, to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both a fine and such imprisonment, in terms of Section 151 (2) of the NWA,\u201d the department warned.<\/p>\n

The DWS said it is taking appropriate actions in the meantime, with continuing engagements with the mine and affected parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mine has acknowledged culpability. There is a decision to release water from the Loskop, Wilge, Bronkhorstspruit and Middelburg Dams in order to flush the pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will determine how much water will be required for this action, and then a determination of the cost of such water will also be determined, and that money will be reimbursed by the mine to the DWS. <\/p>\n

\u201cPollution of water resources will not be tolerated, and polluters must pay for their irresponsible actions,\u201d the department said. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has ordered Kromdraai Mine to take accountability for discharging acid mine water into the Kromdraai River. This comes after an incident where an old shaft at the mine collapsed on or around 14 February 2022. The department has since issued a directive, in terms of Section 20 (4) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-217531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/kromdraai-mine-taken-to-task-for-water-pollution.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}