The Voelpan torments the community of Nyakallong as they battle to inhale
Thabang Thembani
Voelpan (stinkdam) is and has always been the worst nightmare for the community of Nyakallong since the existing days of Small informal settlements in the 90s called Standamo. That later became a formal residential area known as the riverside, today. This is a result of the strong stench that used to come from the dam. The same problem is still prevalent even today.
People of Riverside and surrounding streets have had to learn to live with the smell throughout the years, especially in summer days when this terrible smell is at its peak. However, the issues of this dam started to escalate beyond the smell when the water from this dam started to overflow into people’s properties due to the water that was discharged by the Number 1 target mine. What exacerbated the situation with this dam and the community was the heavy rainfalls of the year 2021. As a result, the sewerage plants are still engulfed in water, they cannot work and therefore the sewer spillage is seen all over the township because of the drainage system that has been blocked. Some households can’t use their toilets because the sewerage spills from the toilet pot into the houses or toilets that are outside, also causing sewer spillage in their households and properties.
The mine has stopped discharging its toxic water into the dam as they have realized that they are doing more harm than good, but the debilitating effects of this dam are still hostile to the people of Nyakallong to date. These are some of the comments from the residents whose properties have been engulfed by the water:-
‘Every time I think of what this awful dam has done to me, I weep so silently because I have to be strong for my child who was diagnosed with asthma when he was six months old, now he’s eighteen months. I still take him to the doctor every month because he can’t use the inhaler, he is still young… Wouldn’t you blame this dam for the health complications of this child if you were me!? I hope things change for us, I do’
Ntate Jacob Leshoro, a family man who is resident in Nyakallong, Riverside Street painfully lamented about the misery the stinkdam has brought into his family.
“Due to multilayered issues brought by this dam, the recent former premier of Free State, Mme Sefora Ntombela, local government officials of Matjhabeng Municipality, and the Minister of Environmental Affairs visited Nyakallong in June 2022. Their mission was to intervene in the R30 situation where the water from this dam had also overflown into the road and marred it, the promise was kept to fix the road. They also engaged with affected families that the water entered the properties and promised them temporary living structures and permanent houses would be built by the government later.
The local subsistence farmers that keep their livestock near the dam, are always worried and extra careful that their livestock doesn’t go to the dam to quench their thirst from the dam as this might cause serious illness for their livestock.
Temporary solutions may have been found but the nightmare is still ongoing and worsening daily. The grade 12 learner, Thamisanqa Ndlovu(18), from Mosala Secondary School, the school is closer to this stinking dam painfully reflects that ‘it is not only about the smell. It’s about the flies and mosquito infestation in our classes disturbing us when we are trying to learn. The smell is terrible and annoying. I am worried about the long-term effects of this in our lives Because we have been exposed to this since grade 8. I hope I don’t suffer from respiratory Diseases in the future with all the promises made by the government and the mine. The only thing people want is to see their basic human rights being respected and met.
