Does the Jo'burg council do anything?

I am happy. I like journalism a lot and I can't express how wonderful it is not to be teaching English anymore (except for excruciating Saturday classes). But journalism is also depressing - I am still happy though.
it's depressing because everyday I learn more about the government not doing their jobs.

Spot the sewerage- Thanks Stevi for the pic!

I am not looking for bad news even though that's what sells- but the more I ask questions about Bruma Lake- the more I hear bad news. And the toilet smell of that lake is proof of how bad things have become.

Head of the Bruma Lake Owners Association Raymond Shapiro remembers the cold winter's night 15 years ago when residents of Kensington and De Wets Hof met in a school hall to discuss the bad water quality of the lake and what to do about it. At that time there were 26000 Ecoli to 1 litre of water. That's the sewerage count in case you wondering. Somewhere around 200 Ecoli to 1 litre is acceptable, according to water scientist Dr Deanne Drake .

At Bruma Lake the Ecoli count is now close to 2,4 million. Nothing the Bruma Lake Owners Association has done to fix the lake over the last 15 years has worked because of lack of cooperation from the Jo'burg Council.
15 years ago they started petitioning the city council to do something about it.


Bruma Lake

They put bacteria into the lake to fix it in 2003 which was a disaster. Jo'burg city council official Rodney Nay promised to come back and drink the water after the good bacteria had eaten all the bad bacteria. Well now Bruma lake is practically sewerage and Rodney has emigrated to Oz.

At one stage nets were put up under the Queen street bridge to catch litter before it entered the lake. But the council didn't empty them often enough so they got full. Then the river would get higher and would wash the nets away. Basically they were not maintained properly by City council and so they couldn't withstand the river after the rains, according to Shapiro.

Currently the lake smells terrible and the sewerage is visible.

Both hotels on the lake stand to lose their world cup soccer teams that they have been allocated. That's a huge loss of business but FIFA won't tolerate putting teams in hotel that stinks from the inside.There is even a sign inside the one hotel that apologises for the smell.

There is disagreement over how to solve the problem of the lake. The Jo'burg city council wants to do an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This will take 18 months, meanwhile the World Cup is less than year away.  Paul, river guardian, says the Jo'burg council doesn't need to do an EIA because it is a man made construction and they can apply for permission from the Water Department not to do an EIA. Instead, Paul argues, they should dredge the lake and get rid of all the old raw sewerage filling it up. 
But then there is another problem - where does the sewerage go? It will cost millions to transport it to the only Toxic waste disposal plant in Springs.

The problems are multiple. The causes are too: hijacked buildings in the city centre, sewerage pipes that haven't been maintained, old ones that need to be replaced and a lack of political will to address the problem.
One wonders what the Jo'burg council actually does. They don't answer their phones and when people go there they are all on lunch when it is isn't lunch time.

This grass is growing in Sewerage in an open park

The MD of Jo'burg Water was surprised at the state of the lake when Paul took him there on Monday. How can he not know what is going on? Jo'burg Water is in charge of sewerage and water.He should know and he should also know that Jo'burg water is are doing such a bad job our water is becoming sewerage.