The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is preparing to launch a new forum aimed at mitigating the years-long pollution impacting the Vaal river’s water quality.

The Vaal River Anti-Pollution Forum, to be launched on October 3, will be a non-statutory forum comprising various stakeholders, particularly those directly affected by the declining water quality of the Vaal river from the Upper, Middle and Lower Vaal.

The chairperson of the forum will be an independent candidate to be appointed by the Water and Sanitation Minister.

The forum will coordinate, improve and integrate efforts for the management of the Vaal river quality in line with determined resource quality objectives.

The new forum will also provide high-level guidance aimed at ensuring the protection of the Vaal river, as well as identifying remedial actions to mitigate the impact of pollution as a result of water use by sectors such as mines, agriculture and wastewater works, besides others, said Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister Sello Seitlholo.

The Vaal river, one of the largest rivers in South Africa and a popular tourist destination, is increasingly becoming contaminated with pollution from mining, industries, wastewater works, agriculture and other sources.

Duties to be mandated for the members of the Anti-Pollution Forum include the coordination and support of awareness-building initiatives regarding water quality management in the Vaal river catchment; ensuring adequate stakeholder participation in the forum processes; and investigating and recommending innovative and best applicable technologies to deal with water pollution.

The members will also be responsible for enhancing collaboration with various institutions to improve the quality of the Vaal river; providing support to the existing catchment forums in the Vaal river; and publishing reports on a yearly basis to track the performance and implementation of recommendations and activities of the forum.

Seitlholo, who will be leading the anti-pollution drive across South Africa, said that, through the forum, polluters will be taken to task and held accountable for their actions.

“We are a water-scarce country, as such, we cannot continue treating people who do not respect this precious resource with kid gloves. Through the forum, we want to ensure that transgressors are brought to book so that they account for their crimes. Any person or entity that continues to pollute water sources will face the full might of the law,” he said.

The DWS will create a database to keep a record of all polluters in the country, as well as their transgressions and actions taken against them.

“The National Polluters Register will assist us to bring attention and pressure to polluters, with the hope that it brings change in their behaviour. The register will then be placed on the departmental website where members of the public will be able to access it,” Seitlholo concluded.