Residents in the Hartbeespoort Dam area northwest of Johannesburg this week discovered a pipe dumping raw sewage into the dam, News24 reported on Friday.
It said the pipe was several hundred metres from the Madibeng local authority’s water-purification plant.
Dirk Bouwer of the Hartbeespoort Water Action group said he and other residents were ”disgusted” on Thursday to see thousands of litres of raw sewage being dumped into the dam.
”We are heading for a situation similar to the one in Delmas,” he said.
”This sewage is not being dumped into the dam by accident. This is being done on purpose. The pipe was installed in such a way that the sewage overflow from a nearby pump station could be dumped into the dam.”
Karen Versveld, a water scientist from Hartbeespoort, went with Bouwer on Thursday to look at the pipe.
Her first reaction after seeing the ”rubbish” was deciding to drink only bottled water in future.
Kenneth Ngubegusha, a spokesperson for Madibeng, said the local authority only became aware of the problem on Thursday.
”We are looking into it,” he said. – Sapa