Technical task team established to clear water lettuce in th
The Ministers of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, and Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, have established a Technical Task Team led by the Directors General and the Chief Executive Officer of Rand Water.
This follows public concern relating to the use of Glyphosate to fight water lettuce in the Vaal River.
However, the spraying of Glyphosate in the Vaal River has been suspended.
Water lettuce is a poisonous and highly invasive free-floating freshwater weed that is normally found in lakes, dams, ponds, irrigation channels and slow-moving waterways in tropical, sub-tropical, and warmer regions.
Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, Wisane Mavasa, says the Technical Task Team has identified immediate short- and long-term interventions with clear outcomes to manage the situation.
"The immediate short-term interventions include the revision of the integrated control approach, which, inter alia, will assess the use of an herbicide that is registered with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.
"In the medium term, compliance and enforcement interventions will be intensified against the sources of pollution which are driving this situation. In the long-term the Vaal River Catchment Strategy relating to
invasive alien aquatic species will be reviewed in order to implement a strategy that will holistically address the situation."
Mavasa adds that the refurbishment of the Rietspruit, Sebokeng and Leeukuil Wastewater Treatment Works will be fast tracked to reduce pollution that is also contributing to the high eutrophication of the Vaal River System.
"Multiple control strategies deployed simultaneously (biological, chemical, and manual removal of alien invasives) are currently under investigation by the Technical Task Team since a sustainable solution is required to manage the situation."
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