Take me to the river: baptisms in Joburg’s polluted water

A member of the Zionist Christian church is baptised at Klip river on 19 April 2014. Picture: Gallo Images/ Leon Sadiki Every Sunday, scores of people from various spiritual traditions assemble along the Klip River, which runs through Soweto and Lenasia, to participate in spiritual rituals, including baptisms. “The water cleanses us.

It is holy,” says Lee Ndlovu, a Lenasia resident who comes to the river nearly every week. “You have people from everywhere using the river. Churches, sangomas, all of them use it.” Worshippers believe the water allows sins to flow away.

But as people were being baptised behind him, one could see the water foaming in places. Ndlovu said people “have gotten sick” from the water, but “it is worth it … because the water is sacred.” Ndlovu says many people come to the river out of desperation, with the hope that this spiritual act will provide them with a job. Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Wisane Mavasa said the section of the Klip River that runs through Gauteng has unsafe levels of E.coli, which is a direct indicator of faecal contamination, and of the pesticide endosulfan, which, due to its toxicity, has been restricted or banned in over 60 countries.

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Untreated sewage flows from the City of Johannesburg’s Goudkoppies wastewater treatment works into the river. Downstream of the treatment works, where communities live along the river banks, the water gives off a repugnant odour.

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