Karst Disasters
The Worlds Greatest Karst Disaster Involving one hundred years of well-intended anthropogenic destruction, which is destroying a unique karst groundwater system and habitat The city of Johannesburg in South Africa had its beginnings 1886 when gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand by an Australian prospector named George Harrison. Most gold mines in the Johannesburg (JHB) area ceased operation in the late 1970s. These closed mines were considered as future potential reserves. Interspersed amongst them were a few productive mines, which continued to pump out invading groundwater. The mining houses had long relied upon the South African government to help finance the back pumping of ingressing groundwater to enable access to continuous supplies of gold from deeper gold rich seams. At the time many leading academics and others were unaware that the water they were back pumping came from the abundant, dolomitic rock that surrounds Johannesburg. Furthermore, these groundwater re...