Before the discovery of gold in 1886, the Witwatersrand rang with the sound of sparkling springs, streams and waterfalls. These springs and streams are now hard to find as they have been put in pipes or canals under the city. Even if you can find the outfalls of these original springs and spruits (small streams), they are badly polluted. Sewage spills and uncollected rubbish, along with acid mine drainage and other chemical contamination, have put water quality into crisis in the heavily populated and industrialised Witwatersrand landscape.
It was of interest to me to find one of these hidden streams in the City and Suburban area of Johannesburg next to the N2 motorway. The current manifestation of this stream is a concrete and dressed stone canal and its toxic outflow. The quality of the emergent water is so bad that is must surely be emblematic of Johannesburg’s severe water pollution, decaying infrastructure and waste disposal challenges. Over a distance of about 2 km between a possible pristine ground water source to the north and the outflow, terrible contamination of the water occurs as it flows underground. This deadly-looking water flows south, untreated, into more natural river systems to become part of the Vaal system.
Between its hidden source and the outflow, there is an underground pipe and then an open air canal with four road bridges before the stream flows out into the open. One does have to wonder why there is a pipe in one section and a canal...
Saldanha Bay, with its perfect setting for a harbour, was always constrained by the lack of fresh water. With the Khoekhoe's transhumant existence, the Vredenburg Peninsula formed part of seasonal grazing, which was dictated by the seasons, with summer providing little rainfall and winter being the opportunity to graze cattle and sheep. The early seafarers and explorers who entered the safe haven found that the lack of a permanent fresh water source restricted any concept of settlement.
When a ship, the Pearl, captained by an Englishman Samuel Castleton entered Saldanha Bay in 1612, he was able to trade a calf and sheep for an iron hoop and hatchet with the Khoekhoe based there. They advised him that besides a small ‘puddle’ there was no other water in the vicinity. He declared it a ‘very barren place’.
Subsequent explorations by the Dutch, French and British all reached the same conclusion: a fine, placid natural harbour, but devoid of an adequate water source. The British author, John Barrow, saw the bay as a ’spacious, secure, and commodious sheet of inland sea water, for the reception of shipping, hardly equalled in any other part of the world’. He reported two brackish springs near Hoedjes Bay and went on to suggest laying a course to a farm, Witteklip, 10km north to create a supply; not a new idea as it had been proposed previously in 1738. This would have been prohibitively expensive.
He then had the idea to tap into the Berg River, which became a concept...
