Waste water not looking so good
Although the Merafong City Local Municipality managed to score excellently in the Blue Drop report for the quality of its drinking water, the Green Drop Report, which deals with the management of wastewater services, presented a different picture.
The municipality only scored an average of 68.3 per cent because of the fact the its waste water treatment works (WWTWs) where sewage is purified before being released back into the area’s rivers are not up to standard.
“The Merafong City Local Municipality is facing challenges with regards to theft and vandalism which has negatively affected operations of two WWTWs namely Kokosi and Wedela.
Both these works are not currently operational with no flow data or effluent quality monitoring and are in the critical-risk category,” said the Department of Water and Sanitation.
It noted though that the refurbishment of the Kokosi plant was set to be completed by this year and funds were being sought for fixing up the Wedela plant.
The Khutsong and Welverdiend plant have respectively moved from a medium to a low risk and from a high to a low-risk category, while the Oberholzer plant remains in the medium risk category.
“Khutsong, Oberholzer and Welverdiend and Welverdiend WWTWs have poor effluent quality which presents a risk to downstream communities and the receiving environment,” the department noted.
They also indicated that the Khutsong, Kokosi, Wedela and Welverdiend WWTWs were placed under regulatory supervision after the 2023 Green Drop Report audit as they were all in a high or critical risk category.
