Water treatment plants, along with hospitals, harbours, railways and other critical infrastructure are supposed to be exempted from load-shedding in terms of national state of disaster regulations promulgated last month. (Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Just 23 wastewater systems out of 995 assessed have qualified for the prestigious Green Drop certification.
This means that hundreds of wastewater treatment works are in a “dismal state”, with experts warning of significant risks to receiving water environments, the ecosystem and human health.
The decline is at both the treatment and sewer collection levels.
In 2013, 60 systems were awarded Green Drop status, according to the department of water and sanitation’s Green Drop 2022 report, which provides an overview of the current state of wastewater treatment and compliance.
The report reveals that 39% of municipal systems and 89% of public works department systems are in a critical state.
This is the first time the report has been published since 2013. President Cyril Ramaphosa revived the Green Drop certification programme after it was shelved by former water affairs minister Nomvula Mokonyane because it exposed the dismal state of wastewater systems in the country.
The audit covered 144 water services authorities, 12 department of public works and five private and state-owned organisations, encompassing 995 wastewater networks and treatment works.
A wastewater system that achieved a score equal to or above 90% is regarded as excellent and allocated Green Drop status. A system that achieved less than 31% is defined as dysfunctional.
Among those Green Drop-certified are the City of Ekurhuleni, Lesedi local municipality, iLembe district municipality, Witzenberg local municipality, Bitou local municipality, the City of Cape Town and the Saldanha Bay local municipality and Sasol Sasolburg.
The audit identified a further 30 Green Drop contender systems with audit scores of between 88% and 89%, but microbiological and chemical effluent quality did not meet the Green Drop certification standard.
That only 23 systems made the cut is alarming, said Ferrial Adam, manager of WaterCAN, an initiative of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse or Outa. “This is massive amounts of sewage being spewed into our fresh water, it’s worrying.”
The public release of the report is a “positive and welcome development to lay transparent the status quo”, said the Water Research Commission. “The picture looks grim and bleak and presents a reality of the significant number of municipal wastewater systems in a critical state in 2021 (39%) from the 995 systems assessed.
“This suggests the deterioration in sustainable management of wastewater and the significant risks it poses to the receiving water environments, the ecosystem, human health … and the associated treatment costs related to the provision of potable water.”
The commission spoke of the “loss of momentum and enthusiasm” since the inception of the certification programme and the problems associated with ageing infrastructure, poor operation and maintenance practices, growing urbanisation and population growth.
“However, it must be recognised that this new impetus and associated turnaround strategy offers an economic stimulus with potential job creation, as the water sector comes up with the required interventions that will close the current operational gaps and challenges.”
Limpopo has 78% of its systems in critical state, followed by Northern Cape (76%), North West (69%), Free State (67%), Mpumalanga (43%), Eastern Cape (39%), Gauteng (15%), KwaZulu-Natal (14%), and Western Cape (11%).
The audit established that water service institutions with low levels of investment in infrastructure and low capacity regarding skilled personnel were more likely to have wastewater systems in a critical state.
Adam pointed out that these figures have to be considered in relation to the affected body of water. “If you look at the Northern Cape, they have very minimal water so if they have a high number on this, the pollution may not be affecting as many people. But if you take Gauteng at 15%, Emfuleni [local municipality] is spewing sewage into the Vaal River, a key water source for millions of South Africans.”
Failing regulatory standards
Among the report’s findings are that although several institutions have invested in infrastructure upgrades, extensions and refurbishments through capital funding, “these systems were still found to fail the regulatory standards (mostly not meeting effluent quality limits), and/or fail accepted engineering and workmanship standards, and/or in certain cases, have not be commissioned in part or in full”.
Infrastructure is often upgraded with the full system being taken out of commission, “allowing untreated wastewater to bypass the plant directly to the water body”. The non-payment of contractors, laboratories and other professional service providers is “widely found”, leading to services not being rendered, delayed or discontinued.
“Vandalism and theft of electrical cables, equipment and civil structures results in systems being inoperable for extended periods, with few water service institutions having effective anti-vandalism strategies or contingency plans in place,” the report read.
“The most vulnerable and concerning area is the overall sub-standard quality of final effluent and biosolids that are being discharged to their receiving environments.”
Although some wastewater systems were excellent, others “failed in all respects”, with many plants being abandoned because of vandalism and other problems.
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu said: “It is of great concern that there are so many systems with scores below 31%, indicating a dismal state of wastewater management, posing a risk to both environment and public health. I need to make it clear that action will be taken against those municipalities that flagrantly put the lives of our people and environment at risk.”
He said he was working with the minister of cooperative governance to ensure that the national government takes “drastic intervention measures towards the improvement of water services”.
Rural municipalities failing
The majority of rural municipalities struggled to score more than 50%. “Only 5% of systems in the Free State and Limpopo reached this threshold in comparison to 75% of systems in Gauteng,” according to the report.
Just two department of public works systems received Green Drop scores of >50%, while 102 systems scored below 31%.
The most prominent risks were observed at treatment level, and pointed to works that exceeded their design capacity, dysfunctional processes and equipment (especially disinfection), lack of flow monitoring, as well as effluent and sludge non-compliance.
“A lot of our wastewater treatment plants are in the state they are in because of poor management, mismanagement and corruption,” said Adam. “They’re in the shit because the money is missing, it’s gone.”
A total of 119 notices have been issued to municipalities, mainly Mpumalanga (24), Eastern Cape (22) and Limpopo (19), according to the report.
Neil Macleod, of the Water Institute of Southern Africa, said Mchunu and the department’s new director general, Sean Phillips, were to be commended for releasing these results, “despite the concerning message that they bring about the state of sewage systems and treatment works in South Africa”.
The corrective action required is beyond the mandate of the department to address on its own. “Revenue collection is poor across the sector, customer management is weak, insufficient attention is given to managing existing assets compared to building new infrastructure and many positions are vacant or filled with people without the required competencies,” he said.
Programmes need to be developed and made mandatory to ensure the sector is professional and municipal councillors responsible for policy and oversight need to have the skills to perform these functions.
“Merely taking legal action and levying fines on non-compliant institutions will not result in improved performance unless it is accompanied by the creation of viable entities with the required skills and support systems in place,” MacLeod said.
Heads must roll
Water expert Professor Anthony Turton said Mchunu “seems to be a genuine leader …The release of the Green Drop report confirms this sentiment, because the water quality is in such a dismal state, which is the very reason the Green and Blue Drop reporting system was stopped. I believe that minister Mchunu is serious about turning the department around, and the fact that we now also have a permanent director general [DG] that is technically competent is also encouraging.”
That so many wastewater treatment works are non-compliant speaks to the need for an independent water regulator, “because it is patently obvious that the department cannot be both player and referee in the same game”, said Turton.
Adam said: “The reality is the new leadership, the minister, the DG and some senior officials, they understand the challenges we are facing … There’s not enough of a threat to say to municipalities that, ‘listen, you pollute, we’re arresting you’.”
Witzenberg municipality biggest green drop winner
Expertise, hard work and commitment to excellence. That’s what Joseph Barnard, the technical director at the Witzenberg local municipality in the Western Cape credits for it emerging as the biggest winner at the Green Drop awards and certification programme.
The municipality scooped the top three best performing wastewater system award and the top three best performing municipality award. It also received a Green Drop certification as three of four of its wastewater treatment plants are fully functional.
The Green Drop started out as a burden to the municipality, but “once we embraced it and used it as a tool to motivate for budget and resources, it started to work for the team and improved service delivery”, he said.
Among the municipality’s techniques are “to adapt and grow” and involve senior management. “Witzenberg embraces risk management as a continuous and incremental process and accepts that risks will always be present. The municipality has adopted the wastewater risk abatement plan process to drive continuous improvement through an interactive management method.”
The objective of any treatment plant is to meet compliance limits, as set by legislation, he said. “Inadequate monitoring is therefore a major risk. Without monitoring, there is no information on compliance, no alert level triggered and no corrective action taken. To address this risk, the municipality introduced a monitoring plan, based on the legal specifications and requirements set by the department of water and sanitation.”
Witzenberg, he said, uses the Green Drop criteria as a template and “follows these meticulously”.
“Green Drop has become a sought after brand. It elevates the wastewater business and the people who excel in this field. It has advanced training and professionalism in wastewater services more than any other initiative to date,” Barnard said, adding that the municipality’s process controllers have “taken ownership and pride” of their plants.
[/membership]