As part of WISA 2020, focus was shifted to water pollution and how remedying this requires a collaborative community effort.
Gladys Belle, student at the Central University of Technology, discussed her research on water pollution by presenting her PhD study investigating the contamination of surface water by gold mining. This industrial process produces gold mine tailings; a mixture of waste rock extracted together with gold ore which can contain potentially harmful elements (PHEs) such as lead, mercury and arsenic.
If these minerals get into water sources through rainfall, runoff and wind, they can cause damage to native aquatic life and humans that are exposed to it.
Taking the Matjhabeng mining area as a case study, Belle took surface water samples from 15 different sites around the area before testing them for 12 PHEs.
Her data revealed that the surface water had consistently low levels of oxygen, higher levels of turbidity and a high concentration of arsenic, cobalt, iron and copper, all of which can be potencially dangerous to local wildlife and human health.
This led Belle to conclude that mining activities in the Matjhabeng area are a major source of PHEs and call for the immediate remediation to mitigate levels of pollution in the area. It also searves as a stark warning of the damaging effects that induatrial activities can have on local water sources.
SRK Contributor:
Ndomupei Masawi
