The Drakensberg escarpment around Wakkerstroom and its adjoining areas up to Ermelo act like a giant sponge, absorbing rain as well as moisture from the heavy fog that regularly drifts in.
The water is released steadily through a myriad springs, streams and wetlands into rivers that flow in different directions, feeding farmlands, industries, towns and cities on the way.
The high mountains and deep valleys that taper off to the west into the grasslands of the eastern Mpumalanga Highveld, and to the east into the rolling hills of northern KwaZulu-Natal make for one of the most scenic regions of South Africa, with huge potential for nature-based tourism.
But the area has a third attribute. Some would call it a curse. Beneath its surface soil run reefs of coal and torbanite - a form of coal that is particularly rich in oil.
It is these conflicting qualities that have turned the territory into a battlefield. Conservationists and local farmers want its natural beauty and assets preserved while mining companies want to get to its coal.
Though the war is being waged locally, the issue has wider implications. Forming the headwaters of four major river systems, the region contributes substantially to the lifeblood of agriculture and industry and millions of people downstream. The fear is that mining will foul up the rivers with sulphuric acid in the same way that acid water seeping from defunct coal mines in the Witbank area has wiped out aquatic life in the Wilge River that flows through the Ezemvelo Reserve near Bronkhorstspruit and has caused mass die-offs of fish and crocodiles at the Olifants River inlet to the Loskop Dam.
The prospective mining areas fall right inside what amounts to a mighty natural reservoir that contains some of the cleanest water still to be found in South Africa. In the escarpment areas of Wakkerstroom and Luneburg it is so clean that the locals draw their drinking water from mountain springs and streams.
Herman van Wyk, a farmer near Luneburg, a hamlet nestling among the high mountains spanning the Mpumalanga border with KwaZulu-Natal, says the ground water table is so high that there is hardly any need for boreholes. Another farmer in the area, Horst Filter, says the aardvark have to hurry when they dig for termites, so quickly do their holes fill with water seeping in.
Angus Burns, the co-ordinator of the Enkangala Grassland Project, which aims to preserve as much as possible of the region's natural habitat, says it is amazing when you fly over it in autumn when the green grass in the watered areas is easily distinguishable from the rest which has by then turned brown. "What unfolds below you is a massive network of interconnected wetlands as far as the eye can see."
He says it must be one of the most important parts of the country from a wetland and, therefore, a water production, perspective.
You can look at all the other attributes of wetlands, such as being mechanisms for flood and erosion control, and habitats for a multitude of species, among them many unique types of plants and animals. But, he says, it is when considering their function as purification works for providing us with clean, fresh water that we need to ask ourselves what we are doing even thinking of mining the area.
"We'll be killing not only nature but also ourselves," he exclaims. The region is said to have a rainfall of more than 1 000mm a year, which is more than double the national average. A map showing its mesh of springs, streams, wetlands and rivers has been drawn up by the Enkangala Project, which is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) South Africa and the nature conservation departments of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Free State. The project forms part of the national grassland conservation programme of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). The programme is being sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to the tune of $8,3-million (about R62-million).
The area forms the headwaters of the Vaal River, which flows west and also serves the Witwatersrand; the Tugela River which passes through KwaZulu-Natal; the Pongola River which feeds the sugarcane fields of northern KwaZulu-Natal and Jozini Dam before continuing through Mozambique, and the Usuthu River which passes through Swaziland before entering Mozambique on its way to the Indian Ocean.
Burns says that, if there is any doubting the potential impact of mining, then a foretaste of what could happen has already been given by several small mines that operated in the area before they shut down some years ago.
The white residue on the ground and patches of dead vegetation are the signs that acid water is seeping from them. Acid mine drainage results from the exposure to air of coal and broken rock. Mines now treat the water with lime to reduce acidity. The partially cleaned water is kept in reservoirs and released in a controlled way into rivers only when they have enough water to dilute the remaining acidity.
But Professor Terence McCarthy of the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand has repeatedly warned that, even if acid drainage is controlled now, rock-filled cavities left by defunct mines would in time fill with rainwater and decant acid water into rivers.
As defunct mines in the vicinity of Witbank have already proved, this could affect the water supplies of future generations seriously. Unlike the Mpumalanga Highveld, the Drakensberg escarpment has been left reasonably unscathed by mining. There is a growing lobby of thought that it should, indeed, be given special protection status.
The main consideration should be its vital role as a water reservoir. But its biodiversity is another important consideration. It is such that, even before any talk of mining, farmers in the Luneberg-Wakkerstroom region have been working towards having their properties declared a private nature reserve. The mining threat has lent new impetus to their plans.
Becoming such a reserve would require them to adhere to prescribed conservation standards, which they say they are already meeting. While it would also strengthen their argument against mining, it is notable that the mining company involved has even obtained prospecting rights in two nature reserves near Luneburg: one, the Uithoek Private Reserve on a farm named Paardeplaats on the Mpumalanga side, and the other KwaZulu-Natal's Pongola Bush Reserve.
Pieter Wiese, the managing director of DMC Coal Mining, the prospective operator in the area, says the company has asked Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of minerals and energy, to remove Pongola Bush from the approved prospecting area.
As one of the farmers who are pushing hard for combining the farms into a private nature reserve, Filter says the region has an estimated 120 tree and shrub species, 104 orchids, 300 bird species and a variety of reptile, insect and game types, including good populations of the tiny and highly threatened oribi. He, Van Wyk and other members of the Uithoek Farmers' Union are battling heavy infestations of black wattle and lantana on their farms with help from the Working-for-Water scheme.
"The government should not be allowing the mines in here. Rather, it should pay us for keeping the country's fresh water flowing," says Filter. The battle against mining has proceeded from angry exchanges at meetings and through correspondence with the high court. The farmers and environmentalists have set up an organisation called the Luneberg/Wakkerstroom Environmental Protection Association through which they have applied to the court to have mining prospecting rights given to DMC Coal Mining set aside.
Featuring prominently among the organisations supporting them is BirdLife South Africa, whose former chief executive, Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, chaired the meeting of farmers, inn owners and members of other non-governmental organisations, such as the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) at which the anti-mining action was initiated.
The wetlands harbour a rich variety of water birds. But the wider area is also home to rare and endangered endemics such as Rudd's and Botha's lark, and it has a long-resident breeding pair of wattled crane, of which there are only about 250 left in South Africa.
Wiese has responded by claiming he has been told by a BirdLife South Africa member that no bird count has been done in the area. The farmers and conservationists claim that the department of minerals and energy had granted the prospecting rights despite the mining company's failure to meet the environmental impact assessments required by law.
Wiese says in-depth environmental assessments will be done when the time comes to apply for mining rights. Financial guarantees will then need to be provided for the rehabilitation of the environment.
The company has not backed off in the face of the challenges. It has, instead, obtained prospecting rights on a further eight farms, in addition to the 12 it originally acquired from the department of minerals and energy, which is cited as one of the respondents in the court case brought by the farmers and conservationists. Wiese says the company has hired a consulting firm, Marsh Environmental Services, to do an independent assessment of the prospecting areas, not to canvass support for mining in the area as alleged.
The issue has been causing divisions within local communities, with some among the largely poor black communities believing that the opponents of mining are keeping jobs away from them.
Hansco Banda, the regional co-ordinator of the community-based conservation division of BirdLife South Africa, says the majority of people in the local townships are unemployed and desperate for jobs. Even so, there is a fair amount of scepticism, not only about the number of jobs mining would end up providing, but also about the social, economic and ecological impact it would have on the region.
"People are questioning how many members of the number of local communities could hope to get jobs in high-tech operations that would, in any case, require skills they do not have. Wakkerstroom is one of the safest places in the country, and they worry that mining will draw crime and prostitution and create slums in the area.
"They are as concerned as we conservationists are about the damage mining would do to the environment," says Banda, adding that a youth movement has been formed in Wakkerstroom's Esizameleni township that is helping to protect the environment.
Wiese says there has been no misrepresentation on job opportunities. The company has a petition of 2 400 signatories supporting mining in the area. It also has the support of the ANC Youth League and a local ANC ward councillor.
Burns says the mining company and the department need to respond to the environmentalists' applications before a court date is set.