Johannesburg – An "ecological disaster” is brewing at the popular Gillooly’s Farm in Bedfordview, Ekurhuleni, following the deaths of numerous fish allegedly caused by sewer water pollution of the farm’s lake.
In one e-mail sent to officials in the Departments of Water and Sanitation and Water Quality and Environmental Health, dated April 4, Humphreys wrote: “As you are aware, I have been reporting for not weeks, but months about this issue.
As a result of this ongoing pollution, the fish at Gillooly’s are dying.
The biodiversity of our metro is being severely compromised.
The protection of our waterways, lakes and dams is essential.
We are failing horribly.
Please assist urgently!” Share this story Two days later, Botha responded saying: “We instructed (a) contractor to do a CCTV inspection of the sewer pipe on the c/o Van der Linde and Smith.
We suspect that the pipe might be damaged and that (sewage) is leaking into the stormwater pipe underground.
I should have the results tomorrow.” Humphreys told The Star that the Department of Solid Waste Management had “reacted very well” after she first alerted it to the “problem”, saying there were teams of officials removing “thousands” of dead fish from the water.
“My anger, though, is at the other departments – Environmental Health and Sanitation Departments – that have not properly responded for months to my desperate attempts to get the issues, first, sourced and, second, dealt with,” Humphreys said.