Water crisis deepens: 13% of SA’s water now unsafe to drink

The quality of South Africa’s drinking water is dropping drastically, with AfriForum’s independent blue and green drop 2024 report finding the country’s water systems, particularly wastewater treatment works, has deteriorated.

The report, which was launched earlier this week, revealed that 13% of water nationally is not safe for human consumption.

“The percentage of tests that pointed to drinking water that is unsafe for human consumption over these five years were 3% in 2020 (five out of 178 tests), 2% in 2021 (four out of 188 tests), 4% in 2022 (six out of 170 tests), 4% (eight out of 193 tests) in 2023 and currently 13% (28 out of 210 tests),” said Lambert de Klerk, manager for environmental affairs at AfriForum.

13% of water nationally is not safe

Only 13% of these (20 out of 150 tests) met the minimum standards for discharge into a water resource in 2024.

The outflow from the vast majority of wastewater treatment works (87% or 130 out of 150 tests) does not meet the prescribed standards.

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Compared to 2023, when 81% of tests at wastewater treatment plants indicated pollution, this is an increase of six percentage points, said De Klerk.

Even though the report indicated that 87% of all municipal drinking water was safe for consumption, the results for sewage were shocking, he said.

The group tested the outflow from 150 wastewater treatment plants this year and only 20 out of 150 tests met the minimum standards for discharge into a water resource in 2024.

20 of 150 tests met minimum standards

“Although 87% of the blue drop tests (182 out of 210 tests) in 2024 indicate that municipal drinking water is safe for human consumption and overall indicate that South Africa’s drinking water still meets the minimum requirements to a large extent, this, however, represents a decrease of nine percentage points from the 96% of blue drop tests (185 out of 193 tests) that indicated safe drinking water in 2023.

“Where only eight cases in 2023 indicated unsafe drinking water and these results were limited to Mpumalanga, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, in 2024 unsafe municipal drinking water occurs in 28 towns, spread over each of the nine provinces.”

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He said water supply and sewage treatment systems do not function properly because the vast majority of municipalities, which are mainly responsible for water and sanitation services, continuously underperform.

AfriForum’s advisor for environmental affairs, Marais de Vaal, said the 2024 outcomes painted a dark picture of the management of SA’s water supply and sewage treatment systems, with little to no improvement in the past five years.

The analysis of water quality was carried out in August through the lobby group’s network of 160 branches nationwide, in samples from municipal drinking water, as well as the outflow of processed sewage water from waste water treatment plants.

Analysis of water quality

De Klerk said the results of 2023’s green drop tests indicated that no processed sewage in the Free State or the Eastern Cape met the prescribed standards.

“In 2024, three more provinces (Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal) were added to this group and there are now five provinces where none of the green drop test results met the standards,” he said.

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The tests examine the presence or absence of chemical and bacteriological components.

They also found the presence of E.coli bacteria, which can cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and kidney failure, and faecal coliform bacteria, which can cause typhoid fever, liver inflammation and dysentery.

Hennops River Revival founder Tarry Johnston said water quality tests on rivers around Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg were alarming.

Alarming quality tests

“All rivers tested positive for coliform bacteria, including E. coli, indicating severe faecal contamination with high nitrate levels in all the rivers and others had very high phosphate levels and dissolved oxygen levels below the healthy threshold.”

Water expert Dr Ferrial Adam said “inequality of access to water has worsened as well”.

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