WATCH: ‘SA drowning in tsunami of sewage’ – Gauteng’s rivers affected by sewerage failures

Whether its leaked from bursts in sewerage pipes, or discharged into rivers by municipalities, thousands of litres of raw sewage enter Gauteng’s river systems and have impacted the province’s drinking water quality.

So said internationally-renowned water expert, Dr Anthony Turton after it emerged two sewerage pipes were leaking into the same river in Johannesburg for nearly a week.

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“There was a terrible stench in the area over the holidays, and we found raw sewage being pumped straight into the Pampoenspruit,” said Verna Meintjes, a resident of Sonneglans, Randburg.

The leaks were first spotted on 6 January.

Joburg Water (JW) spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala explained that the spillages followed a blockage the entity found in October, and that had caused continuous sewage flow into the spruit.

“During November and December 2023, Joburg Water carried out preventative hydro-jetting, to clean the sewer pipeline and removed foreign objects, silt and sand throughout the pipeline.

“JW also carried out inspections upstream and downstream and found proof of illegal mining activities in the area.”

Shabalala said inspections covered manhole rings, benching and channels.

“JW confirms the pipeline to be cleared/cleaned off all the debris which would have contributed to future blockages and again confirms all manholes to be structurally sound.

“JW will continue, on a weekly basis, to hydro-jet and vacuum the entire stretch of the sewer pipeline to further minimise possible future blockages.”

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Ward councillor Ralf Bittkau, however, blamed Joburg Water’s maintenance of the sewer system.

“The problem is that with us being on a watershed and all spills going into the rivers we are causing the E. coli pollution of both the Vaal and the Crocodile system,” he said.

“My personal experience is a deep rooted infection in my leg that is still lingering three and a half years later.”

Meanwhile, Turton said leaks like these were common and actually on a small scale.

Reasons for sewage getting into our rivers

He explained that rivers flow downhill into valleys, and the sewerage system works the same way. “When you lay out your town you follow the contours of the land and your [sewerage pipes] have to flow downhill because they are not pumped, in most cases.

“The natural tendency is to flow downhill to the lowest point and low and behold the lowest point is a river.

“In other words sewers are always in close proximity to the river and in many cases a sewer might actually cross the river in one place, go from one bank onto the other and then carry on next to the bank of the river and then cross over on to the other bank at some point because of geological issues.”

Turton said pumps are installed on flat landscapes to move the sewage through the pipe, but South Africans often see bursts in these instances because of lack of maintenance.

Impact on drinking water

He added that Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni are at a high altitude and require pumping stations to send drinking water uphill into these cities.

“But all the sewage flows downhill and it always flows into the nearest river so the way the systems have been engineered is based on what is known as an ‘indirect re-use model’ so all waste water flows into a sewage works or a waste water treatment plant.

“There it is treated to the highest possible standard and it gets discharged back into the nearest river. The discharge into the nearest river is effectively a discharge into the national drinking water resource, because just a little bit further downstream another municipality will take water out of the same river and start pumping that into the geographic footprint that it services.”

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He said there are more than 1 000 waste water plants and 800 to 900 bulk water treatment plants and none of them were engineered to take sewage-contaminated water from a river and treat it to a potable standard.

“[South Africans] produce 7 billion litres of sewage a day. Around 60% of that is not treated to a safe standard and simply discharged back into the river as untreated or at best partly-treated.

“The combined spills from just one sewage works in Emfuleni are 120 megalitres a day. That’s 120 million litres every day from one of the almost 1 000 plants in SA.

“That is overwhelming the bulk water treatment plants, the Rand Waters or the municipal plants. We are inundated because of our sewage failure. South Africa is drowning under a tsunami of sewage.”