Joburg Water and the Johannesburg Roads Agency have been named as two of the culprits responsible for the irreparable damage that has been done to wetlands in Gauteng. Property developers and mining companies are also accused of causing severe damage to the environment.
According to the report about 50% of the 160 000 wetlands have already been destroyed and unless this practice is halted, more wetlands will vanish.
The report, compiled by members of the Johannesburg Council’s environmental committee, show that Joburg Water built a sewerage plant in the centre of the Blue Hills wetlands near Kyalami. A family of rare grass owls was driven out of their natural habitat as a result.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency built a temporary road through a bullfrog pan in Glen Austin where hundreds of endangered giant African bullfrogs live. There are plans to build roads around the wetland area. Eskom intended laying cables through the pan but was persuaded not to do so by the Johannesburg’s environment department.
The Pan African Parliament was built in an environmentally sensitive area and the Department of Environmental Affairs halted construction at the complex in 2009. It also laid criminal charges of fraud and contravening the National Environmental Management Act against Stefan Frylinck, the consultant responsible for conducting the environmental impact assessment.
According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute, about 50% of the 160 000 wetland areas around the greater Johannesburg area have already been destroyed.
Other wetlands that have been affected around Johannesburg include two at Cosmo City and two more at the luxury R21-billion Waterfalls Estate. According to Paul Fairall, a wetlands expert, critical damage has also been done to Modderfontein’s wetlands, which is home to the rare and endangered blue crane.
Acid water spilling from mines on the east and west rand are also damaging wetland areas in places ranging from the Blesbokspruit in the east to Tweelopiespruit in the west.
Environment Minister, Edna Molewa says that she will have no hesitation in ordering the demolition of buildings or other structures that have been illegally erected on wetlands or any other environmentally sensitive sites.
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