In SA it’s easy to swing from hope to despair. As we continue to make important, albeit slow, progress in restructuring our economy to overcome structural shortcomings and improve efficiencies, new problems keep surfacing, or old ones re-emerge because the issues weren’t addressed adequately the first time round. Of course, there’s always a policy or action plan somewhere gathering dust.
The country’s water and wastewater treatment works are in a critical state, and while there are plans in place to address most of the problems, the situation just seems to be getting worse.
The devastating effects of the floods in KwaZulu-Natal were worsened by the fact that the biggest wastewater treatment plants in the province were not functional, meaning effluent was washing into rivers and out to sea. This hindered efforts to provide clean water in tankers to communities that had been cut off from water supplies.
The Green Drop report, which rates the treatment of polluted water after passing through municipal and private treatment facilities and then being released into rivers, wetlands or the sea, officially classifies more than 60% of SA’s sewage and wastewater treatment works as being in a “poor to critical” state.
In total, 334 systems out of 850 are classified as critical. Only 22 facilities — 12 in the Western Cape, seven in Gauteng and three in KwaZulu-Natal — were awarded Green Drop status, which signifies excellence in wastewater treatment and purification. It is estimated that it will cost about R8bn to fix.
That report was followed by startling revelations in the media of dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants, fraud, corruption and the collapse of local governance. Taps in many towns and villages have either run dry or have undrinkable water.
We await with apprehension the findings of the Blue Drop report, which rates the quality of drinking water flowing from municipal taps. Even without it we have heard reports of the presence of E. coli in drinking water in various parts of the country, which stems from human or animal faeces.
The Green Drop and Blue Drop programmes were initiated in 2009 but halted in 2014 by then water & sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane because, even back then, the results were considered too shocking. So while the problem was fully recognised as a catastrophe that was too terrible to disclose to the voters who have to drink the water, it seems it still was not deemed serious enough to actually do anything about it for the next four years.
The Green and Blue Drop programmes were revived in 2018 as part of a set of comprehensive measures to address the crisis. At the heart of the measures is the water and sanitation master plan, which calls for a nearly R900bn investment in the water sector over 10 years. The plan identifies 12 key areas in which reform is required to adequately tackle the challenges that threaten SA’s water security. These areas are clustered around two key themes: water and sanitation management, and an enabling environment.
Another element of the multipronged plan is to establish a national water resources infrastructure agency and a water regulatory authority. These will be responsible for administering funding for financing and developing, rehabilitating, refurbishing, operating and managing SA’s water resources.
This is an important endeavour and Business Leadership SA (BLSA) is working with the National Business Institute to capacitate municipalities and on drought mitigation projects, in which USAid is also involved.
The problems causing the water crisis also need to be addressed at national level. The Daily Maverick reported that 65 water & sanitation department officials have been implicated in widespread corruption after an investigation launched by then-minister Lindiwe Sisulu in 2019 found R31bn in irregular and wasteful expenditure by the department.
That investigation found that officials were complicit in corruption and violations at virtually all water boards and municipalities in water and sanitation projects. There were numerous reports of tens of millions being “spent” in various districts to address critical water issues but with no work actually being undertaken.
Only a small fraction of that R31bn is deemed to be “wasteful expenditure” that can be attributed to negligence, gross negligence or oversight. Most is irregular expenditure, which implies that a crime has been committed. The department stated that the 65 officials implicated were either undergoing internal disciplinary processes or being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit and the police.
We need to see prosecutions following swiftly. Putting the health of our citizens at risk and jeopardising the security of the country’s clean water supply is a serious crime. In the context of widespread unemployment and an economy struggling to shake off the ravages of Covid-19, it must be treated as such.
• Mavuso is CEO of Business Leadership SA.
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