South Africa's CSIR Suspends Top Water Resources Expert Over Water Quality Crisis Claim

I just learned from colleague Aaron Wolf that Dr. Anthony "Tony" Turton, one of the world's top experts on hydropolitics and transboundary water resources and one of the movers in the Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters, has been suspended by the Council on Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) after he sounded the alarm on an impending water crisis in South Africa. 

CSIR has no real equivalent agency in the USA, but this situation is analogous to EPA or USGS suspending a top researcher for whistleblowing about a looming water crisis.

[Disclosure notice: Tony is a good friend and colleague with whom I have worked on a few occasions. I have the greatest resepct for his abilities and integrity.]

Turton is a Director of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and co-editor of its journal, Water International.

From Megan Power's article in The Times, published on 23 November 2008:

The move followed just days after the CSIR barred the top scientist from delivering the keynote address at its biennial conference in Pretoria on Tuesday. The council said certain images and unsubstantiated claims in his presentation had caused concern.

The hard-hitting presentation by Dr Anthony Turton warned of an impending water quality disaster that had the potential to spark public violence.

He included graphic images of service delivery protests and xenophobic violence and asked if such anger could be unleashed in response to deteriorating public health as a result of declining water quality.

“If I’m guilty of anything,” Turton said yesterday, “I’m guilty of being a scientist with a moral conscience. Scientists must be free and independent to raise concerns.”

The story continues:

Five of SA’s major dams, Turton claims, are contaminated with toxin levels that are among the highest in the world. And there is no current engineering solution to the problem.

In his paper, Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-makers Need to Know about and how the CSIR Should Respond, Turton said no studies had been done on people exposed to chronic doses of microcystins, a water toxin, and this bordered on the “criminally negligent”.

“We need to know if microcystins are causing human health problems, specifically in communities that are immune-compromised,” he wrote.

Turton’s paper also highlighted a growing antiretroviral load that is passing through people into rivers, entering the population either through the drinking-water stream or through produce irrigated with contaminated water.

Here is Tony's keynote address, Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-Makers Need to Know About and How the CSIR Should Respond:

Download KeynoteAddressCSIR2008

Could Tony's suspension be politically motivated?

What's your take?

I'll keep you informed as I learn more.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

Comments

[Jean Rheeder]

Hello

I live in Port Elizabeth South Africa and need information on how to test water for salicylates. Any help in this regard will be appreciated. There is a growing rate of ADHD in our city - up to 25% in my child's class. This along with increased allergies to Ibuprofen, Asprin and Benzoates, salicylates in Germalene etc. I just wanted to test the easiest most common denominator in the city - WATER. The allergic reactions are severe - kidney failure, anaphylatic shock etc.

All the people concerned have recovered with on going treatment and discontinued use of products. The ADHD rise is also a great concern.

[uday]

Nice post really informative

[Anon]

The last response is so blatantly inflammatory it does not merit further intelligent discussion. It is regrettable that this matter is being presented by some people as if it were about academic censorship. A distinguishing feature of a scientific paper is that it offers proof for any assertions it makes and that it makes such assertions using systematic deductive reasoning, as opposed to sensationalist and inflammatory allegations and speculative suppositions about unrelated subjec matter. If someone at the Atlanta based Center for Disease Control were to make a presentation on a water borne disease and include pictures of Americans rioting against school shootings without offering proof that the school shootings are the result of a chemical action on the brain caused by the disease in question, that "scientist" would surely be taken to task. It does not take the brains of a rocket scientist to figure out why. It only requires that you actually use your brains and recognise what is appropriate given the context and what is not.

[The world should take serious notice!!!]

This is just the tip of the iceberg in the "new" COMMUNIST South Africa!!!!! The rest of the world has absolutely no idea what the hell is happening in South Africa under ANC rule! I work in the water industry. I’ve seen what’s going on here. South Africa is facing a major water disaster. Wastewater treatment plants and drinking water plants are in a terrible condition. Maintenance of these plants is non-exsiting thanks to an incompetent government, state departments and affirmative action (awarding key job and management oppertunities to people just because they’re black, no matter their qualifications). I urgently appeal to who ever read this to take serious note of the situation (and this is only an environmental crisis, I’m not even going to mention the crime, violence and corruption in this once beautiful and first world country!). This country is in flames! And we’re about to host a soccer World Cup event in less than 2 years?!?!?! What are foreign visitors to this country going to drink? The bottled water industry simply does not have the capacity to provide bottled water to tens of thoudands of visitors. And basically every water source, whether a river, dam, lake or spring is contaminated by chemicals and raw sewage. STAY THE HELL AWAY if you don’t want to catch some disease! Stay out of rivers, dams and lakes. Do not drink tap water, especially when visiting a small town. I won’t drink the tap water! I know what’s going on here. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. “Affirmative action” idiots with absolutely no competency nor qualifications or skill are left to manage and maintain WWTP and drinking water purification plants!!! The results are shocking! We are currently experiencing several disease outbreaks (cholera and Shigella) that you probably don’t even hear off. And when scientists like Dr. Turton (who are actually some of the last qualified and competent people left in the SA water industry) speak up about the realities and truths behind this crisis (i.e. the incompetency of our ANC government) they get silenced and fired!!!! Dr. Tony's suspension is DEFINITELY POLITICALLY MOTIVATED!! Wake up! Communism is well and alive in South Africa! Please help us left here in this mess! Speak up when you have the chance. Affirmative action (AA) and so-called “black ecomonic empowerment” (BEE) is destroying this country! Please take a stand against unfair AA and BEE when you have the oppertunity. To those in the power to do so, put pressure on the ANC to stop AA and BEE. Help us please, we’re dying in this country.