Water: ethical frameworks are required

LAST month, a contractor on the Lesotho Highlands project's operations was suspended when it was reported that they had been dumping acidic and oily water into nearby rivers and the Katse Reservoir. The Katse Reservoir provides drinking water to South Africa.

- LEANNE SEELIGER

This incident on the Orange-Senqu River Basin is not isolated.

In March, social media platforms were reporting a copper mine in northern Zambia spilling millions of litres of acidic and highly toxic waste into the Kafue River ecosystem, a major Zambian artery of the Zambezi River Basin.

In April, the Zimbabwean media reported a long-standing pollution problem on the Deka River, another tributary of the Zambezi River Basin, where villagers downstream had allegedly died from contaminated water produced by power stations and coal mines.