The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA), a state owned entity under South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), was, in 2011 mandated by government through the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) to provide a short-term solution to the AMD challenge experienced by Gauteng province. The IMC comprises of the following ministers: Water and Sanitation, Mineral Resources, Finance, Science and Technology, as well as the Minister in the Presidency responsible for National Planning. It has made the following announcement.

This project was aimed at implementing the short-term action plan in the Western, Central and Eastern Basins of the Witwatersrand Goldfields as recommended to the IMC by the Team of Experts (ToE). The short-term action plan was to prevent decant in the Western Basin and breaching of the Environmental Critical Level (ECL) in the Central and Eastern Basins.

With the short-term solution close to a successful completion, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, has launched the long-term solution to AMD. “The purpose of the long-term solution is to further treat the water by removing the sulphates and creating water for commercial use as either industrial or potable water. The long-term solution will therefore turn the AMD problem into a long-term sustainable solution by producing safe water.”

The project has been estimated to cost as much as ZAR12 billion and is to be implemented by February 2020. It is planned that users would pay for a third of the cost, with the rest coming from the government, which in turn will collect money from mining companies through an environmental levy.