Pretoria – The health and well-being of residents remain at risk due to raw sewage from a burst pipe flowing into the Moreleta River, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has warned.
The City of Tshwane attempted to repair the pipe; however, the repair failed, and raw sewage is still leaking from it.
The DA raised the alarm today, Monday 6 July 2926, after a site visit.
“The health and well-being of residents remain at risk due to raw sewage that continues to flow unabated into the Moreleta River,” warned MPL Leanne De Jager, the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Environment.
De Jager said during a recent oversight inspection of the river, the DA observed that the status quo remains.
“This confirms that the City of Tshwane’s response has been inadequate and underscores the urgent need for a permanent, properly engineered repair rather than stop-gap measures that fail within weeks,” De Jager stated.
The Moreleta River joins the Hartebees Spruit system, which drains into the Pienaars River catchment and ultimately into the Roodeplaat Dam – a critical water resource for the region.
Beyond the dam, the sewage contamination flows further into the Pienaars River, then the Crocodile River, and ultimately toward the Limpopo River system.
“For each day the pipe remains unrepaired, pollution travels further downstream, compounding the damage across an entire river network,” De Jager stated.
“The residents of Pretoria deserve clean waterways, a healthy environment, and a government that responds when problems are reported, not one that ignores them until the damage becomes irreversible.”
The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) and the National Water Act impose clear obligations on the government to prevent and remediate exactly this kind of pollution.
De Jager said the DA Gauteng will continue to engage with the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation regarding the pollution of waterways in the province.
The national government has clear laws in place that need to be enforced.
“The waterways of Gauteng must be protected, because clean water and a healthy environment are not privileges; they are rights that every Gauteng resident deserves to have defended,” said De Jager.
