How gross neglect poisoned SA’s water supply

A report released by the government paints a grim picture of the country’s water resources and infrastructure as well as the overall quality of its drinking water.

The Blue Drop Watch Report – an interim report because it only assessed a sample of the facilities – focused on the condition of the drinking water infrastructure and treatment processes from a technical standpoint. It also reported on quality.

Failure in compliance

The issues of biggest concerns identified included a collapse of the country’s wastewater treatment works and a sharp rise in the number of local authorities that are failing to meet minimum compliance standards.

The report records continued overall decline in the status of the country’s water supply services. The findings point to a culture of neglect, non-compliance, and systemic collapse.

ALSO READ: Water shortage is the next disasterttps

The current cholera outbreak in the country should, therefore, come as no surprise. The interim report shows dysfunctional local municipalities and non-compliant wastewater treatment works.

The systemic collapse has been attributed to poor operation, defective infrastructure, the absence of disinfection chemicals, lack of monitoring and an overall lack of operating and chemistry knowledge.

Lack of accountability

The report shows that the department of water and sanitation issued non-compliance letters to 244 wastewater treatment works in 2022. But only 50% had responded almost a year later. The report shows a clear and rapid decline in the performance of local government.

But only 43 out of 205 local municipalities have asked for assistance from the department. They are able to ask for financial support and assistance to help with capacity building and skills development.

Only a test sample of some of the country’s facilities was conducted. Assessments were made of 151 supply systems – out of the total 1 186 – managed by 140 local municipalities. In addition, 26 water boards and bulk water service providers were assessed.

ALSO READ: Water crisis more critical than SA is led to believe

The assessments were done between November 2022 to February 2023 and most of the treatment plants in the sample were found to be failing to produce acceptable drinking water according to the SANS 241:2015 drinking water standards.

Over 60 systems (41%) of the sample had bad water quality. Another 13 systems (9%) had poor water quality. This meant that it didn’t meet clean water standards because of high levels of contaminants.

Health risks

Contaminated water poses acute health risks. It is responsible for water-related illnesses such as cholera. Only 50% of the assessed treatment plants produced drinking water of a suitable quality not contaminated by sewage or other pathogens or chemicals.

A number of water supply systems were flagged as being in a critical condition, needing urgent intervention. The report also noted that 11 of the 140 municipalities that were assessed had no water quality monitoring systems or no evidence of any water testing.

ALSO READ: SA’s water woes: Experts warn day zero not as far away as initially believed

Wastewater treatment works are assessed in accordance with the set Green Drop audit standards. Of the total 850 wastewater treatment works assessed, 334 (39%) received scores below 31% and were placed under regulatory surveillance.

South Africa’s Wastewater Treatment Works Preliminary Report Card:

208 are at critical risk (24%) – indicating dysfunctional and unsatisfactory performance, with major corrections required.

250 are at high risk (29%) – indicating partial functionality and unsatisfactory performance, with major corrections required.

Half are in poor to bad condition. This is up from 10% in the 2014/2015 auditing period. North West recorded the highest proportion of waste treatment works at critical risk (60%), followed by the Northern Cape (59%) and the Free State (44%). Limpopo has 38% of its plants at critical risk and 48% as high-risk plants.

Other major issues were:

Only 25 systems (17%) achieved excellent water quality and 20 systems (13%) good quality, while 106 systems (70%) failed to achieve chemical compliance. A worrying 83 systems (55%) have bad quality compliance and 23 systems (15%) have poor quality compliance.

Under 40% of systems were compliant on microbiological parameters (pathogens and bacteria). Just over 10% were partially compliant.

Only 5% of plants were highly compliant. The rest were in a poor or critical condition (64%) or had some compliance (31%).

The department of water and sanitation has recently proposed a Water Partnership Office, a new procurement office, to address the issues. It is still in developmental phase, but the government hopes it will facilitate private investment in the industry.

ALSO READ: Government must replace old water systems