Trade union Uasa says it is pleased with government’s intention to collect levies from miners as it intensifies efforts to tackle the environmental conse-quences of acid mine drainage (AMD), announced when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presented this year’s Budget last month.

Gordhan highlighted in his Budget speech that implementing a carbon tax in the mining sector had been delayed to 2016, but that new levies might be imposed on mining companies to help fund the treatment of acid water seeping from disused gold mines.

AMD is most critical in the Central basin and, to keep AMD below the environmental critical level, government has had AMD pumps installed at the Central basin pumpstation, on the Witwatersrand goldfields.

“The insertion of the pumps shows the willingness of government to address such issues and, as a union, this shows us that there is progress in ensuring safe water for our country,” says Uasa spokesperson Andre Venter.

In 2010, Uasa arranged a series of three Water Security seminars to sensitise the public about the severity of the water situation in general and to identify pockets of excellence that could assist in compiling a plan that could remedy the poor state of water security in the country.

“Uasa consequently lodged an application to embark on protest action in terms of Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act with the National Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on the state of water security in South Africa, using its findings from the water security seminars. The research highlighted the devastating effects of AMD and also the apparent delays by government to address the AMD crisis,” Venter says.

“With 120 years of mining activity having taken place already, some mining operations on the Witwatersrand goldfields have either ceased or are nearing the end of their economic lives. As a consequence, the pumping of water was stopped, which causes the large underground voids to naturally fill with water,” states Venter.

He mentions that an unintended consequence is that sulphide-bearing minerals (pyrite) are being exposed to oxygen in the water, causing a chemical reaction and resulting in the formation of AMD. As a consequence of the water not being pumped, the AMD rises constantly until it eventually decants into streams, rivers and dams, causing massive environmental damage.

He also says that Uasa will continue its campaign at Nedlac by pushing for the consolidation of the work done in the respective working groups, with a view to maintaining the focus on examining and researching ways in which water security can be accomplished in the country.

“We believe that our water security challenges are huge and diverse and all of us should play our part to prevent a large-scale catastrophe from occurring. “We need to take hands in a coordinated fashion and work towards progressive outcomes that will ensure our water security,” concludes Venter.