“We will not wait as we did, we will continue to gather information and proof” said the livestock owners to the department of water and sanitation

Community Alerts/Mathapelo/Ditwebeleng-Limpopo/05 July 2017

 

Today 05/07/2017 we had a meeting with Department of Water and Sanitation, Municipality, Water quality team from the district (Sekhukhune), SEJN and the livestock owner from 5 different villages of Maotsi communities.

Purpose of the meeting was to meet department and present them all the issues that the community has about water and especially water pollution that is happening to our rivers by mining activities. All stakeholders presented their issues and all presentation was about the livestock that are dying in the mine stream after drinking the water from the mine stream.

The department promised to work hand in hand with the community and they also said they were not aware of this issues and they apologize for not responding to some of our letters and they also promise to organised another meeting as soon as possible with the other department that were not present.

I like the fact that the livestock owners came in numbers and presented the issue and they spoke for themselves. In our conclusion we ended giving the task where the community and the department will deal with the issues to make sure the mine comply as this is burning issue in our community. And the livestock owners made it clear that they are not going to wait for the department but they will continue to gather information/proof and work with BMF in the Independent Grievance Mechanism because they can’t wait forever like they waited to meet them. By Mathapelo-Limpopo