Sponsor: Unilever
Leaders: Mr AK Gordon, Dr WJ Muller
Duration: Renewed on an annual basis


Aims and Objectives


Boksburg Lake was once a popular and attractive public amenity. However, severe pollution of the lake, urban decay of the surrounding area and issues of poor personal safety have turned it into an unattractive place to visit.


The Boksburg Lake and Wetland Project is a community driven project aimed at creating partnerships between local residents, local industry and local government (Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM)). The goal is
to make Boksburg Lake a safe and pleasant recreational resource for residents, a landscape feature of which the Municipality can be proud, and an ecological resource contributing to the long-term ecological sustainability of Boksburg Lake's catchment and downstream water course.


For the past two years Unilever has provided seed funding to the project through the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality. An integrated water quality management plan (IWQMP) was developed to provide guidance and structure to the project. This plan has identified problems affecting the lake and wetland and provided solutions to these problems.

For the last two years the goal of the project has been to encourage the EMM to adopt the IWQMP in order to address the factors causing poor water quality, and to address issues of personal safety of lake users. This
objective has largely been achieved as the project has been listed as one of the Mayoral Projects for 2007. However, the challenge now is to support EMM in implementing the IWQMP and managing this resource. In addition, the project aims to build up a database of information regarding the lake and wetland's ecological integrity. This information will support the decisions made in implementing the IWQMP and provide a benchmark against which to measure the success of remedial tasks undertaken.

Last Modified: Fri, 14 Aug 2015 11:39:41 SAST