Acid mine drainage

Makhotla Sefuli

Nkane Mpembe

Nketoana local municipality

Thabo Mofutsanyane district Free State Province

 

28th May 2022

 

#aciddrainage

 

The Nketoana local municipality is sinking into crisis each day, the fracking issue that is a hot potato on the side of the farming community and other businesses in the area has now taken a turn for the worst.

 

The river that has always sustained the livelihood of the agricultural community is the latest casualty to be claimed by the fracking operation. In the recent months we have witnessed the water contamination and that is foreign to this part of our district.

So far we’re unable to any conclusions whether it is a result of the drilling that is already taking or something else because no concrete proof exists.

 

Another adversity that is adding insult to injury is the sewer spillage that is flowing into the local river, this is the same river that is providing irrigation to the local farmers and their livestock also drink from the river.

 

We have approached the local councilors about the problem and the officials are always shifting the goal posts, eventually they put the blame on the aging and decaying infrastructure that has become dysfunctional.

 

Rhino oil company that is responsible for the drilling is not anywhere in sight and not even one of their officials has to the community.

 

In the past three weeks we had the privilege of attending a workshop that that was organized by the Free State water caucus, during the workshop we learned about a new concept called Acid Mine Drainage that has never been part of our vocabulary.

 

As a way of identifying the cause of the problem, it was agreed that three of our comrades will attend a crush course and training on water testing and hopefully this will provide us with the right tools to finding a solution to the problem