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Is treated Acid Mine Drainage really a viable option for drinking water?

The quality of South Africa’s water has been up for debate for many years, but things seem to be declining day by day.

In 2013 the Afriforum Blue and Green Branch Project Study showed 42 municipalities in South Africa were not complying with the national standards of potable and treated water across the country. Julius Kleynhans, Head of Environmental Affairs at Afriforum, said that the way water is regulated in South Africa poses a threat to all its citizens.

Julius Kleynhans went on to say that drinking and sewerage water that is not treated effectively “poses significant heath, environmental and food security risks to communities across South Africa”.

Now Government and industry are exploring a partnership to build a desalination plant to remove salts from the partially treated mine water that is being pumped into the Vaal River system.

In the past in South Africa treatment of waste water from mines generally concentrated on neutralizing low pH values and removing metals. However this still leaves the salts in the water. A few flagship projects are already in operation that produce drinking water quality from active coal mines, through desalination systems, and this water is then fed into the municipal networks.

But where does this leave us as consumers of this water? Are we happy to consume water which has been heavily polluted with toxic heavy metals, including arcenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium and uranium?

The only way to ensure your water is completely safe to drink is to purify it with a filtration system. H2O is the exclusive distributor in South Africa of KDF ® Water Filters, which guarantee the finest quality water. KDF filters remove chlorine, iron, hydrogen sulphide and heavy metals from water and controls scale, bacteria and algae.

So to get the best quality and taste out of your water, look at H₂O’s range of filtration systems and portable personal water bottles. They’ll keep you hydrated with a constant supply of 100% purified water 24/7 and complete peace of mind.

Remember, it’s what’s inside that counts.