A worker pauses beside mountains of coal at a coal washing plant, near MNS informal settlement, which is just outside eMalahleni (Witbank).
Coal has to be washed after being mined before it can be used. The leftover water is often toxic.
Water pollution from coal is a serious problem in South Africa, and the country faces a deepening water scarcity crisis. It is estimated that a million households still live without access to the minimum 25 litres of water per person per day. At the same time, Eskom
(the national power utility) uses 10 000 litres of water per second to keep the country’s coal power stations running.