ED: The South African taxpayer will probably have to foot the bill for the Billions of Rands needed to address the Acid Mine Drainage problem.

So what's new? The SA Taxpayer always has to pay for the monumental cock ups of the South African government. This is one case where the South African taxpayer needs to say NO and to finally stand together and demand that the mining companies who have been swindling Trillions of Dollars for decades and removing the money offshore pay for it.

The government and mining industry of South Africa have been WELL AWARE of this problem for decades but have done nothing and simply kept it covered up. People who tried to expose the problem were publicly ridiculed or coerced and threatened and all these years the government and mining industry just acted like nothing was wrong, all the while they were knowingly mass poisoning South African citizens.

Not only do we need money to pay to fix up what can be fixed but we need people to sit behind bars for these blatant crimes against humans. It is time that South African citizens stand up and be counted and say NO, we will not pay for this monumentally royal disaster.

Wait until ALL the truth is revealed, we've barely scratched the surface. Problems like radioactivity from Uranium flowing down our river courses have no easy quick fix and that's a fact.

Acid water clean-up to cost blns (from iol.co.za)

February 25 2011 at 12:09pm

The government yesterday put a short-term price tag for dealing with acid mine drainage (AMD) on the Witwatersrand at R442 million in capital costs, rising to R1.08 billion over the long term.

It also identified R121m a year in operating costs to deal with the problem. However, the figures, outlined in a specialist report on AMD completed in December and released yesterday, exclude medium- to long-term desalination options.

Desalination costs, which will be dependent on technology choices, are likely to run into billions of rands and will almost certainly involve some form of private sector liability.

In his Budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan allocated R225m over three years to deal with AMD, more than half of which (R117m) has been earmarked for managing AMD at the Grootvlei gold mine on the eastern Wits basin.

Water scientist Anthony Turton, suspended from the CSIR in 2008 after warning of a local water crisis, yesterday welcomed the government’s recognition that the problem required financial intervention. He believed the costs announced yesterday were “an indication of intent, rather than a final number”.

The report, released after 43 environmental groups submitted an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, listed two options for public-private partnerships to secure finances for treating AMD on the Witwatersrand.

Full article here