Industry Pollution

Wadeville, Germinston

Since the discovery of Gold in the 1880s, Industrial activity has had an enormous impact on its environmental surroundings and Wadeville, Alberton and Rooikop are no exception. The activity of these three industrial parks have been actively polluting the Natalspruit river and its surrounding wetlands and carry that pollution down to the Klip river. This contamination starts however, at the mining activities above, and continues with sewage plants that are on the water edge next to the townships, which also participate in its pollution and are at the same time heavily endangered by it. The industrial areas are located at higher topographical points than the townships whose organic growth has pushed them into the boundaries of the river and has left them vulnerable to flooding. Moreover, the southern area is located on Dolomite ground, and following the heavy mining activity and the extraction of aquifers, has made this area, on which the townships are located, heavily propense to sinkholes.