Acid mine drainage is the flow, or seepage, of polluted water from old mining areas. Depending on the area, the water may contain toxic heavy metals and radioactive particles. These are dangerous for people’s health, as well as plants and animals.
Acid mine drainage on the Witwatersrand has reached a crisis point. This is because some mining companies allow acid mine water to flow into streams, dams and sources of groundwater.
On the West Rand, toxic water has already destroyed life in the Tweelopiespruit and the Robinson Lake near Randfontein. Even some borehole water is polluted. In some areas the water has polluted the soil, so people cannot grow vegetables. The Tweelopiespruit is part of the Crocodile River system and the Limpopo River catchment area.
On the East Rand, as of June 2010, unpaid mineworkers at Aurora mine are bravely keeping the pumps going in an attempt to control the rising acid mine waters that have already begun to pollute the Blesbokspruit. The Blesbokspruit is part of the Vaal River catchment.
The mining companies and government have until about 2012 to control acid mine drainage before the toxic water under Johannesburg reaches an environmentally critical level.
Want to find out more? For some fact sheets and useful articles about acid mine drainage see: http://www.earthlife.org.za/?p=1150
Also search on Acid Mine Drainage to find all the related news items on this site, as only the most recent items will be shown in the list below.
What can be done about acid mine drainage? For some of the recent work that Earthlife Africa Johannesburg and other civil society groups have been doing, and for ideas for what individuals can do, see: http://www.earthlife.org.za/?p=1159
To find out about Earthlife Africa Johannesburg’s Acid Mine Drainage Working Group, see: http://www.earthlife.org.za/?p=1163
-
- The Tweelopiesspruit, a stream of acid mine water, June 2010
Pic Left: Children’s health at risk as they play in Donaldson Dam, stirring up mud that contains toxic elements
Pic Right: Acid mine water on the West Rand goldfields (Photo: Henk Coetzee)
Civil society rejects state secrecy law Right2Know 31 August 2010 Right2Know campaign calls for amendments to Protection of Information Bill Right2Know Campaign Let the truth be told Stop the Secrecy Bill! A responsive and accountable democracy that can meet the basic needs of our people is built upon transparency and the free flow of information. The gains of South Africans’ struggle for [...]
Earthlife Africa Jhb 3rd of September 2010 On the First of September 2010, Cabinet held a “secret” session on the closure of the PMBR company. Earthlife Africa Jhb has learnt that all may not be as it seems, and that issues such as conflicts of interests, accounting for taxpayer money spent, and rehabilitation of PBMR staff are [...]
CONFERENCE ON WOMEN IN ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE HOSTED BY EARTHLIFE AFRICA JOHANNESBURG 5 AUGUST 2010 Energy and climate change have often been viewed as an environmental and economic issue – not one with a human face, much less a woman’s face. The longer we take to respond to climate change the sooner we run the risk of [...]
PRESS RELEASE: CONFERENCE, WOMEN IN ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE 5th AUGUST 2010 Earthlife Africa Jhb As we commemorate Women’s day on 9th August, we are reminded of the power that the 20,000 women demonstrated in 1956. It is a power that we must not forget nor leave behind. While many things have changed in South Africa, the role of [...]
Press Release: $3.75 Billion World Bank Loan to Eskom to Face Full Enquiry groundWork, Earthlife Africa Jhb 4th of August 2010 The World Bank Inspection Panel it to undertake a full investigation of the $3.75 billion loan by the World Bank to Eskom, the South African energy utility. This was the finding of the preliminary investigation undertaken in [...]
