The Climate Challenge
South Africa faces an increasingly erratic climate, characterised by severe droughts (drier climates on the western part of the country), devastating floods (high intense rainfall on the eastern part of the country), high temperatures and rising sea levels along the coast. These impacts threaten food security, biodiversity, and economic stability at a macro level but at a household or municipal level it will be experienced as increased food costs, increased municipal costs, poorer quality of drinking water, water and sanitation service disruption, longer recovery periods posts floods and droughts, increased smells and a reduction in quality of life brought about by poorer services. Hence, it is important to consider how infrastructure and services should be reimagined and re-designed to build resilience and reduce vulnerability.
The Norm vs Reform
Nationally, about 60 % of the country is serviced by centralised waterborne systems which are water intensive. The 2024 General Household Survey (GHS) highlighted a critical sustainability challenge, indicating that 66.7% of the population relies on flushing toilets, which typically use traditional, high-volume 9-12L flush capacities. This widespread practice of using potable water for sanitation and disposing it directly into the environment after a single use, is becoming increasingly impractical for a water-scarce country already struggling with high non-revenue water losses, illegal connections, and poor management of its water supplies. Compounding this, the wastewater treatment infrastructure downstream is failing, as documented in the 2022 Green Drop Audit (DWS, 2022), which noted that many conventional Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs) are hydraulically over-capacitated and suffering from ageing, poorly maintained infrastructure. Furthermore, the droughts in Cape Town and the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April 2022 put the conventional sanitation systems under immense strain. Non-resilient systems, particularly wastewater treatment plants in low-lying or coastal areas, face multiple threats, droughts and extreme temperatures which can halt treatment, while flooding and sea-level rise inundate facilities leading to the contamination of water and subsequent outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid.
The remaining 30-40% of the country provides sanitation using on-site and non-sewered sanitation system which have been applied within an unsustainable short term planning paradigm leading to unintended consequences such as inequity, increasing public health outbreaks, and increased pollution of the land and water. South Africa is struggling to find the right technology and services mechanisms to deal with almost 30 to 40 % of settlements that are likely to use onsite or non-sewered sanitation due to limited water availability, unavailability of sewer networks, unavailability of underutilised centralised wastewater treatment plants, remoteness of settlements, density, hilly terrains, and urbanisation. Strengthening climate resilience across the entire sanitation service chain is therefore, vital for improving public health, socio-economic well-being, and enabling the efficient utilization of water resources through wastewater reuse.
The Need for a Paradigm Shift
These unsustainable behaviours of high water intensity and unadaptable municipal institutional models, coupled with climate extremes put the conventional centralised sanitation systems which relies on a constant, substantial supply of clean drinking water under strain. Climate change severely compromises sanitation, making it essential to embed resilience by anticipating alternative service provision and reducing recovery time. The Water Research Commission’s, South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme (SASTEP recognises that the conventional, centralised, water-flush sanitation model is fundamentally unsustainable in a water-scarce and climate-vulnerable country like South Africa. By championing and fast-tracking the commercialisation of innovative, water-efficient sanitation systems (WESS), SASTEP is providing the necessary platform to disrupt the status quo and move towards a climate-smart sanitation economy.
The widespread adoption of water-efficient sanitation systems (WESS) is, therefore, not merely an option for improving service delivery—it is a non-negotiable imperative for building service sustainability and national climate resilience around sanitation services in regions that will be inundated with cycles of drought and intense floods. “Water efficient sanitation systems (WESS) means sanitation systems which require low to no water, completely off-grid, non-sewered, on-site or are decentralised and utilize technologies that include water saving devices, water efficient processes and beneficial use of waste products”. This type of technology typology allows the public and private sector to implement technologies and services that embrace sustainability, circularity and efficiency. By requiring little or no water for operation, these systems dramatically reduce the burden on municipal water sources. This frees up water for essential domestic use and increases the national buffer against prolonged drought periods, directly safeguarding human health and economic activity. WESS technologies may also be designed using a climate resilient framework which considers avoiding or withstanding exposure to hazards, limiting consequences of complete failures and providing benefits beyond sanitation technology benefits. Non-sewered, water-efficient systems are often modular, decentralised, and quicker to deploy than large conventional infrastructure. They are not dependent on a fragile network of pipes and pump stations, making them less vulnerable to infrastructure damage during floods or power outages. The technologies go beyond just saving water; they facilitate resource recovery of energy, water, nutrients and produce products for agriculture and communities for reuse turning a climate liability (waste) into a climate asset (resources).
Transforming through Partnership
Achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 is only possible in South Africa by transforming the business of sanitation. This call to action requires significant alignment, coordination, collaboration and partnership and a enabling environment. Thus, SASTEP has played a critical role as an RDI institute working in partnership with relevant national departments and municipalities to demonstrate new technologies, explore new service and institutional models, collaborate on the relevant regulations and standards to manage risk, build awareness and skills, and work with funding agencies to develop new funding mechanisms. As a country we must prioritise low-water and waterless solutions in new developments, informal unplanned zones and areas with high climate vulnerability. Over time we must transition all settlements into WESS. We must invest in the local manufacturing and skills development required to maintain a sustainable, decentralised sanitation value chain, which enhances circular economy and new businesses that build sustainability in supply chains and move away from the outdated mentality that sees the flush toilet as the only dignified form of sanitation. Water-efficient sanitation is not a second-best solution; it is the only truly sustainable and resilient foundation for securing sanitation access and water resources in South Africa’s climate-challenged future.
https://www.wrc.org.za