Water pollution in Mpumalanga mines may cause food crisis

"This province is the bread basket of the country. [...] the government needs to give this problem urgent attention. Agri SA is in the process of getting legal advice on the issue," Steytler said.

Nigel Adams, head of the Water Affairs department's Blue Scorpions, said his department could not solve the issue alone. Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said in a written reply to a DA parliamentary question recently that 53 mines were operating in the country without a water licence, of which 18 were in Mpumalanga. The Mielie Trust had undertaken a comprehensive research project on behalf of Grain SA, to examine the consequences of the pollution.

Meanwhile, research done by the University of the Witwatersrand's Professor Terence McCarthy showed that even if mining companies attempted to rehabilitate previously mined land, harvest yields remained weak. Earlier this year, Mining Weekly reported that McCarthy called for a moratorium on new coal mining operations in the Vaal river catchment area to be declared until the impact on the water resources was fully understood. South Africa's dilemma, he said, lies in the fact that it is largely dependent on coal for its ever increasing energy needs, while it is also considered a water-constrained country.

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