Water Wheel July/Sept 2025: Green Infrastructure

Abstract

Municipalities have large fleets of cars and trucks, along with all manner of pumps and machinery that grind to a halt unless they are oiled and serviced to keep them running smoothly. Other vital infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, power lines and stormwater drains, also need to be inspected and maintained to prevent potholes, cracks, rust or blockages. And, strange as it seems, rivers, wetlands and other ‘green infrastructure’ also require some regular TLC to make sure that they keep delivering free services to the communities that surround them. One tangible example of free services from nature comes from the rivers and wetlands that feed the Roodeplaat Dam, a major source of clean drinking water for thousands of residents in the City of Tshwane. When river water is polluted with sewage or choked up with alien weeds and muddy sediments, it costs municipalities – and ratepayers – more money to purify the fouled waters that were previously filtered and purified at no cost by ‘nature’ .

Categories