Abstract
The drastic growth in global population, energy resource use, industrial and infrastructure
development have led to enormous problems in global conditions and contending environmental challenges. In
recent years, South Africa has intensified research on industrialisation and associated environmental problems
regarding waste generation, ecosystem matters, human and environmental health risk assessment, and waste
management systems. The study has made it clear that geo-environments in and around landfills, and mines
are severely contaminated by toxic substances not limited to heavy metals and organic compounds. The allencompassing
introductory presentation in this paper based on a bird-eye view- review approach, pinpoints the
present state from site reconnaissance, and impact of landfilling and mining operations in areas with such
activities. This study however, has paved way for subsequent technically intense investigations on assessing
the buffering efficacy of natural soils from affected sites. This include examining the interaction of pollutants
with the soil minerals in succeeding papers towards curtailing soil, surface, subsurface and ground water
contamination which invariably affect human and environmental health.