IMPACT
ON LAND POLLUTION

MINING

The environmental impacts of mining are particularly severe in Gauteng Province. The effects on water resources and soil quality are possibly the most important. Although many of the mines are no longer operational, the environmental legacy of mining impacts still needs to be addressed. Currently there are smaller mining operations, such as quarries, which can have high negative impact on the environment and which need to be controlled and managed by the Environmental Planning line function in the southern parts of the city in co-ordination with other government bodies (the Government Mining Engineer and the Provincial Environmental Directorate).

The city of Johannesburg has its roots in gold mining. The resultant legacy is a proliferation of mine tailings in a broad belt spanning the south of the CBD and abutting the residential areas in the south. Whilst less mining is taking place now than in the past, older mine dumps are being reworked and shifted as the gold price and technology make this process viable. However, natural decomposition of the iron pyrites contents of these tailings leads to acidic leachate contamination of the area’s surface water.

Dust from the mine dumps, another environmental pressure, faces local communities, specifically in situations where no or inadequate mitigation measures have been applied to tailing services. With the improvement in extraction technology, many of the mine tailings have been and are being reprocessed for its residual gold content. Consequently, exposed land may become available for development where there are no shallow mines or where radioactive contaminated soil is no longer a factor.

CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

Land pollution from the residential areas of Greater Johannesburg generally relates to litter and the product of overflowing sewers during rainfall events, and most importantly from ignorance (lack of litter awareness). Soil pollution from city center areas - Hillbrow, Newtown and Jeppestown - result from the contamination by raw sewage which occurs on a continuous basis, irregular maintenance to sewers and overcrowding which puts immense strain on urban services.

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS - SEWERAGE

• In Alexandra some people still use the "bucket system" which can increase the risk of environmental contamination from sewage.

• Through direct contact with bacterial agents found in excreta people may become exposed to a wide range of illnesses e.g. diarrhoeal diseases, cholera, typhoid fever and helminthic infections.

SOLID WASTE

• Inappropriate disposal of waste may lead to fatal illnesses amongst young children as well as poisoning and incidents of suffocation.
• Organic waste attracts rodents and insects and may cause gastrointestinal and parasitic diseases.
• The most frequent complaints from the Alexandra area are related to mice, rats and "bedbug" infestations.

The Geographic Information files are WinZiped and  best viewed with ArcExplorer - (Click to download)