The CEO of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment responds to an article published by the Business Day, Call to defuse toxic mining water time bomb
The Business Day article was published on 1 July 2010, and Mike Muller is quoted. An extract of Mariette Liefferink's response to the quotation is provided here, will the full document available as a download here. - 80kb)
I refer to the viewpoint expressed by Prof. Mike Muller in the Business Day, dated the 1st of July, 2010 whereby it was stated:
"Mike Muller, a registered engineer and professor of public and development management, warns that the focus on AMD risks distracting the country from dealing with water pollution from inadequately maintained sewage works, which he says pose an immediate risk to downstream users.
He says media coverage of the issue is heavily influenced by interests in the mining and water treatment industries, which, he says, stand to profit by exaggerating the problem.
Pumping and treating polluted water represents a substantial cost to the mining industry, and these companies are naturally interested in either reducing these costs or lobbying for government subsidies, he says.
Other companies are interested in selling equipment and technology to treat this water, he says.”
Permit me, to respectfully expostulate with Prof. Muller on this matter, which, in the present circumstances I apprehend to be not only justice to the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE), but, on the whole justice to downstream water users, the public and a mute environment. I shall state, as concisely as possible, the reasons which have led me to the conclusion at which I have arrived.
