Environmental rights groups have expressed concern about the state of the country’s rivers following a report made to Parliament last week.

Those who use rivers for recreation, consume the water, or water crops [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 Aug 2011

Environmental rights groups have expressed concern about the state of the country’s rivers following a report made to Parliament last week.

Those who use rivers for recreation, consume the water, or water crops all face health risks

Briefing parliament’s Water and Environmental Affairs portfolio committee, water affairs acting chief director for water resources information management, Moloko Matlala, listed the main problems affecting the quality of the country’s river water.

Microbiological tests in June found that KwaZulu-Natal’s river systems were badly affected by pollution, he said.

Those who used rivers for recreation, consume the water, or used it to water crops all faced health risks.

“Water from these rivers, if drunk untreated, poses a high risk to those consuming the water due to the presence of Escherichia coli (more commonly known as E.Coli),” he said.

The Waterval, Blesbokspruit, Natalspruit and Klip rivers were also affected by effluent from waste water treatment plants and industries, he said.

Matlala said the Umgeni River had high phosphate levels due to poultry farms, effluent from cattle feed lots and informal settlements without sanitation facilities along its banks and feeder streams.

The Umlazi River was also heavily affected by sewage discharged into it.

Head of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo said saving the rivers required more involvement on the part of the community.

“If people put more pressure on the local government and help in the clean up of rivers and they work together, the rivers can be saved,” he said.

Implementation of policy, he said, sometimes required a push from the people.

A research assistant and Masters Student in Environmental Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Kamleshan Pillay, agreed with Naidoo, saying it was possible for the rivers to be rehabilitated.

“In time these systems are able to heal themselves – our duty at this stage is just to make sure they are not polluted further,” he said.

Bobby Peek, of the environmental group Groundwork, said the problem was bigger than managing the pollution.

“The government needs to make sure it provides functional sanitation facilities to people in informal settlements so that untreated waste does not make its way into rivers,” he said.

Industry discharging effluent into rivers also needed to be policed more strictly, he said.

Duzi Umgeni Conservation Trust chairman Dave Still said his organisation was aware of the pressure rivers were facing.

“More investment in the refurbishment and building of infrastructure is needed to contain and manage the problem,” he said.

The department’s acting deputy director-general for water resources management, Mbangiseni Nepfumbada, was unable to say whether the health of the country’s rivers was improving or getting worse.

“The water quality of some areas are not monitored regularly, or not at all, due to human and financial constraints.”

He said it “needed to be looked at”, adding that little data was immediately available.

Source: IOL

Less than half of South Africa’s 821 sewage works are treating the billions of litres of effluent they receive each day to safe and acceptable standards, according to the latest Green Drop Report.

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 July 2011

Less than half of South Africa’s 821 sewage works are treating the billions of litres of effluent they receive each day to safe and acceptable standards, according to the latest Green Drop Report.

56% of treatment plants are performing poorly or in a critical state

The report – a measure of the state of wastewater treatment plants in all nine provinces – was released by Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa on Thursday.

While it awards Green Drop status to 40 plants – up from 33 in 2009 – it warns that another 460 plants (56 percent) are either in a “critical state” or delivering a “very poor performance”.

The latest report examines wastewater treatment at 821 plants in 156 municipalities — the previous (2009) report examined 444 plants in 98 municipalities — and says this is “100 percent coverage of all systems”.

It is understood the report does not cover treatment works owned by public works, such as those at prisons, and other private operators.

Many of the poorly performing plants are located in the country’s poorer provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo.

“The Western Cape, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, are producing the high-performing waste water systems; Eastern Cape, followed by Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo, are producing the bulk of the systems that are in critical and poor-performing positions.”

The report’s findings imply that millions of litres of untreated or inadequately treated sewage are being illegally discharged into rivers and streams each day, mainly by small town municipalities.

In a national overview, the document describes the overall “risk trend” of the 821 treatment plants as “neutral to negative”.

It says that compared to 2008, the number of “critical risk” waste water treatment plants has increased from 129 to 137; and the number of “high risk” plants from 264 to 284.

At the other end of the scale, the number of plants previously deemed low risk” has dropped — from 196 in 2008, to 138 now.

The report says municipal waste water treatment service performance around the country varies from “excellent” to “unacceptable”.

“Analysis of the Green Drop results indicates a fairly good national score of 71 percent. However, this value might be skewed, as a few excellent provincial scores would balance out the lower provincial performers.”

The number of plants achieving a Green Drop score of more than 50 percent has decreased proportionally, from 49 percent in 2009, to 44 percent.

“This trend can possibly be explained by considering that 377 ‘first time’ systems were assessed and many of these achieved low Green Drop scores.”

The 821 sewage plants around the country treat a total flow of about 5,258 billion litres of waste water a day, almost half of it in Gauteng.

“Analysis of the operational flows indicates that Gauteng manages the bulk of the national load (49 percent), followed by the Western Cape (17 percent) and KwaZulu-Natal (14 percent).

“The balance of the provinces receive and treat the remaining 20 percent of waste water generated in South Africa.”

The report says that of the 821 plants, a total of 40 — those awarded Green Drop status — were in an “excellent situation”, 78 were “good”, and 243 delivered an “average performance”.

However, a total of 143 delivered a “very poor performance”; and 317 were in a “critical state”.

The report’s release comes at the end of a three-day municipal water quality conference in Cape Town.

The names of the municipalities awarded Green Drop status will be announced at an awards dinner in Cape Town later on Thursday.

- Sapa

Issued on behalf of: Liesel James: Founder of Little Green Fingers

On 26 March 2011 a Water Awareness Event focusing on a local issue took place at Blue Water Café, Imhoff’s Gift. The community [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 30 March 2011

Issued on behalf of: Liesel James: Founder of Little Green Fingers

On 26 March 2011 a Water Awareness Event focusing on a local issue took place at Blue Water Café, Imhoff’s Gift. The community of South Peninsula, City of Cape Town and Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) were invited to discuss the ongoing eutrophication causing toxicity in Wildevoel Vlei and insisting on finding a successful solution.

The blue-green bloom in December 2010. Locals were warned to keep their pets and visitors away from the water.

50 people including local residents, environmental organizations and volunteer groups attended.

The Wildevoelvlei wetlands form an integral part of the wetland systems in the Noordhoek Valley. Originally the vlei was seasonal and dried out over the summer months. Rainfall, groundwater seepage, stormwater run-off and spring tides regulated the water level.

In 1977, the Wildevoelvlei WWTW was commissioned and the vlei became a permanent water body due to the treated effluent being discharged into it.

Wally Peterson founder of Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group (KEAG) who was previously involved in trying to resolve this problem gave a comprehensive history of Wildevoelvlei at the event.

He said, “WWTW was upgraded in 1996, but the development in the valley has way exceeded the expected population growth as predicted in the EIA. This placed WWTW under huge pressure through an increase of treated effluent entering the vlei, and through an increase in quantity and decrease in quality of the nonpoint stormwater run-off discharged into the vlei.”

He went on to say that in response to this crisis, a number of emergency measures were implemented including lowering the water levels by opening the mouth, and dropping salt into the vlei from helicopters as Blue-greens struggle in saline water bodies. “This was effective in the short term but toxic algae blooms have continued to occur. The most recent bloom being in December 2010 when media reports warned locals, their pets and visitors to away from the water” he says.

Prior to 1998 the vlei was relatively stable due to the presence of a population of Sago pondweed. It provided nesting material, shelter and food for a variety of birds and aquatic life. Many species of waterfowl and even large flocks of flamingoes and pelicans were regular sightings. The last resident flamingoes were here in 2002.

In 1998 some form of pollutant entered the water bodies and this led to a mass die off of all of the pondweed. This is still an unsolved mystery.

This enabled a species of blue-green algae to grow extensively. Cyanobacteria such as Microcystis proliferate in summer when conditions are favourable. These blue-greens thrive on high levels of phosphorus and soon produced toxins. The vlei turned a bright green in colour and the water became toxic. The toxins produced in Wildevoelvlei entered the marine food chain and became concentrated in the mussel beds at the outlet to the sea. A ban was imposed on all mussel collecting and warning signage was erected.

“This is a great threat to members of Ocean View and Masiphumulele; two local townships that rely on this shellfish to supplement their food security and income. The children from these areas often play in the mouth, as this is the nearest beach” said Peterson.

Management options have been explored by the City of Cape Town and these include the reduction of sewage effluent, improving the quality of effluent and storm water, reducing the internal nutrient load and dilution and flushing. These options all have cost implications and nothing has been done over the last decade except for an unsuccessful attempt to re-grow pondweed.

On 13 January 1999 a year after the significant algae bloom, Bryan Davies and Anja Gassner wrote a comprehensive report to the Catchment Management section of the Cape Metropolitan Council mentioning some facts including:

“Commercial washing powders contain by weight between 15% and 30% phosphate, the substance that is at the bottom of the pollution problems recounted in this report for all the vleis of the Noordhoek Valley, and for Wildevoëlvlei in particular. This means that every kilogram box of washing powder may yield up to 300g of phosphate. Waste Water from homes contains large quantities of the material.”

“We are convinced that it is an imperative that residents of the Noordhoek Valley – indeed, the entire area under the control of the CMC – be forced, using appropriate Bye-Laws and incentives, to use grey water (water from baths, showers, hand basins and washing machines) for irrigation purposes,” said Anja Gassner.

“The tools for this purpose are already available and have a proven track record. The strategy will have a dual benefit: 1. The reduction of the phosphate loads reaching the sewerage treatment works by as much as 50%; and 2. Reduction of water demand throughout the area under the control of the CMC, thereby avoiding the need for further costly water augmentation schemes.”

This excerpt from the report starts on page 50, Paragraph 7.5.6, (quoted verbatim)
Follow link http://www.savingwater.co.za/2010/03/06/10/commercial-washing-powders-destroy-wetland/

The toxins are a health risk that can cause liver damage and can kill animals and humans if ingested in large enough quantities. They can also cause hay fever and ear and eye infections. It was interesting to note that many of the residents living close to the water suffer from allergies and arthritis and other joint pains. Algae are airborne.

Blue-greens also affect the functioning of the vlei as Oxygen in the water is depleted causing other organisms such as fish to die. The most recent mass die-off of fish occurred in April 2010.

“Until action takes place it would be very shortsighted for any further development to take place in the valley,” concluded Peterson.

“Sadly no one was present from WWTW and City of Cape Town. We want to find a solution and work with City of Cape Town to achieve this”, said Liesel James founder of Little Green Fingers, organisers of this event.

James said that following the event a new entity has been born, Creating Change: A coalition of new, existing and old members who are investigating, finding solutions and reporting on the rehabilitating of Wildevoel vlei. Scientific evidence to understand exactly the source of this local problem is currently under investigation by Resource Ballast Technology who is testing water samples currently been cultured.

Once the scientific evidence is confirmed, appropriate solutions will be sought and presented to City of Cape Town and WWTW.

“The power of community is the future for positive change. It is amazing how many local environmental experts have come on board to assist in this process” concluded James.

Liesel James may be contacted at 0711987875 or
littlegreenfingers@gmail.com

More than one third of 231 ­local municipalities do not have the capacity to perform their ­sanitation functions, a new study by the Council for ­Scientific and Industrial ­Research (CSIR) has found.

Overflows [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 28 March 2011

More than one third of 231 ­local municipalities do not have the capacity to perform their ­sanitation functions, a new study by the Council for ­Scientific and Industrial ­Research (CSIR) has found.

Overflows of raw sewage are severely detrimental to the environment.

The report, discussed at a United Nations water ­conference in Cape Town, includes a comprehensive survey of South Africa’s levels of water pollution.

It also tracks access to clean, safe water and sanitation. And it warns that South Africa is heading for ­disaster unless it tackles the problem of water pollution, ­including its failing sewage treatment ­systems.

It found that the situation was so bad, it called for waste-water facilities that did not comply with their licences to be prosecuted.

Water quality, the report ­stated, was excellent in metropolitan areas, but in many rural areas and towns, drinking water quality and waste-water effluent quality were frequently below the standards set.

Short-sighted planning

In some areas, short-sighted planning resulted in bucket eradication schemes causing deterioration instead of ­improvement in the provision of sanitation.

In some Free State settlements the replacement of buckets with waterborne systems left residents with no sanitation at all. The water supply was insufficient to flush toilets.

In other places, large ­increases in sewage inflow ­volume led to overloading of waste-water treatment works and pollution of downstream river systems.

The estimated current ­replacement cost of municipal water services stock, according to the report, is R169bn (R103bn for water and R66bn for sanitation).

Much of this infrastructure “is not in a fit state to continue delivering high-quality and ­reliable water services”.

The widely held belief in South Africa was that water service “backlogs” concerned those who did not have access to services in the past.

Yet other needs “far surpass” these, the report said. This ­included the rehabilitation, ­replacement or provision of ­neglected sanitation infrastructure.

Poor leadership

The capital required to ­address infrastructure backlogs made up 17% of total infrastructure requirements, the ­report stated. By comparison, the rehabilitation or replacement of neglected infrastructure ran to “a staggering 49%”.

The failure of many ­municipalities to deliver reliable sanitation services was mainly due to poor leadership and ­inadequate budgets, skills and experience.

Many health problems were the direct result of the collapse of existing sanitation systems. Untreated, polluted drinking water was a major contributor to diarrhoea-related deaths and diseases, the report said.

Johan Erasmus, operational manager of Mahlatsi Enterprises, a firm contracted by the ­department of water affairs to monitor water purification plants in Mpumalanga, warned that many of them were in a ­“disastrous” state.

These municipalities, he said, never took seriously their duty to deliver clean water and proper ­sanitation to people.

“They never budgeted money for this; not for maintenance and also not for new plants. In many cases we discovered that the town manager had not even purchased the chemicals ­needed for their water ­purification plants.”

Irrigation

He added that very few of the water and/or water purification plant officials he had to deal with had the qualifications or the experience to do their jobs properly.

“None of the water ­purification plants was up to standard because the personnel were not up to standard.”

The result, he said, was ­“horrifying” – raw sewage ­running down the streets of small towns like Evander.

Bethal’s water, he said, was so bad that farmers could not use it for irrigation.

- City Press

Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa says the water affairs department has less than a third of the officials it needs to enforce compliance with water quality and pollution laws.

Edna Molewa intends to [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 25 November 2010

Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa says the water affairs department has less than a third of the officials it needs to enforce compliance with water quality and pollution laws.

Edna Molewa intends to create a fully-fledged branch for regulation.

In a written reply to a parliamentary question, she said the department had only 31 full-time staff for enforcement, monitoring and compliance across the whole country.

“There are 16 officials at national level… and 15 officials at provincial level.”

There were nine vacant posts at national level and 56 at regional level, she said.

On the posts not filled, the reply lists, among others, technicians, pollution control officers, resource protection staff and drinking water quality officials.

On plans to create a so-called regulation branch within the department, the minister said this had not yet happened.

“My department intends to create a fully-fledged branch for regulation. The process of organisational design for this new structure has not been finalised as yet, but there are plans in place to increase the number of officials dedicated to compliance, monitoring and enforcement,” she said.

The Green Drop Report – a national assessment of wastewater treatment plants, released by the department in April this year – found only about seven percent of municipal sewage works were operating to acceptable standards.

With many of the 852 treatment works around the country discharging raw or only partially treated sewage into rivers and streams, experts have warned of a looming pollution crisis and growing threat to South Africa’s water security.

- Sapa

The separate collection of urine provides innovative opportunities for the improvement of sanitation and the recycling of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Urine separation is an excellent sanitation solution, particularly in places where classic sewer-based [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 27 October 2010

The separate collection of urine provides innovative opportunities for the improvement of sanitation and the recycling of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Urine separation is an excellent sanitation solution, particularly in places where classic sewer-based sanitation is not sustainable. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing a grant of 3.0 million US dollars to support a joint project by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and the eThekwini Water and Sanitation utility (EWS) in South Africa to continue developing practical, community-scale nutrient recovery systems.

Urine-diverting dry toilet

The project, covering a period of four years, focuses on the further development of technical solutions for urine processing for nutrient recovery. In addition, project participants, together with experts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, will study the logistics of collection and transport of urine from toilets to processing facilities. The Swiss aquatic research scientists and their partners in South Africa will also examine ways in which sanitation can be paid for by the production and sale of urine-based fertiliser, thus enabling a cheap, efficient and widely-accepted sanitation system to be set up.

Alternatives are urgently needed

There is a growing awareness that in many parts of the world an alternative is needed for the conventional sewer-based sanitation and central wastewater treatment system – if only for the reason that not enough water is available for drinking let alone to be used for flushing. There is a pressing need to reduce the number of people with no access to basic sanitary facilities and safe drinking water, as required by the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As well as endangering people’s health, inadequate disposal of faecal material poses a risk to the drinking water supply and contaminates the natural environment. Last but not least, the global demand for fertiliser is so great that interest in local sources of nutrients is growing.

Successful preparatory work in Nepal

Eawag has many years of experience in the research of urine separation, also known as NoMix technology, and in 2007 completed the transdisciplinary Novaquatis project: www.novaquatis.ch. Since then, Eawag’s project in Siddhipur near Kathmandu, Nepal, has demonstrated that urine processed to make the phosphorus-based fertiliser struvite can help to close regional nutrient cycles and promote awareness of the value of the nutrients contained in urine. Farmers participating in the scheme also benefit since they do not need to buy as much imported chemical fertiliser (www.eawag.ch/stun). This experience plus the collaboration with an extremely progressive administrative department in Durban were important reasons for developing our project in South Africa for the next four years, says process engineer Kai Udert, who is the Eawag researcher in charge of the South Africa project.

Collaboration with an innovative water authority

Eawag can count on a forward-looking partner in the South African eThekwini region around Durban, since they have already carried out important pioneering work in the field of sanitation. EWS has been promoting urine-diverting dry toilets since 2002 and there are already around 90,000 such toilets in use. However, urine is simply soaked into the ground, which could create new problems in the longer term. A simple, combined system for nutrient recycling from urine will be developed. This will reduce the costs of sanitation, prevent pollution of water resources and produce fertiliser for the local market. That’s a completely new way of thinking and not just a small step on an already well-trodden path, says Kai Udert.

Source: WRC

A juvenile hippo, nicknamed Zorro, was caught at Cape Town’s largest waste-water treatment plant near Strandfontein on Monday and shipped off to a private reserve in Worcester.

Zorro the hippo

Zorro had made the [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 July 2010

A juvenile hippo, nicknamed Zorro, was caught at Cape Town’s largest waste-water treatment plant near Strandfontein on Monday and shipped off to a private reserve in Worcester.

Zorro the hippo

Zorro had made the sewerage works his home since February 2009 after fleeing the adjacent nature reserve of Rondevlei where he was chased away by his father.

Thieves had stolen part of the reserves fence, creating an opening for the 1200 kg four-year old to escape.

The elusive hippo has proven difficult to trap, as he could not easily be enticed by lucerne bails. The lush grass of the sewerage works seemingly held more appeal than a baited boma.

Perseverance by nature conservationists has finally paid off though and he was caught in the early hours of Monday morning.

“We found him there at 3:00 morning in that capture boma, brought a transfer crate to site, loaded him into the crate and he was in his new home in Worcester by 5:00 in the afternoon”, said Dalton Gibbs of the city’s Environmental Resource Management department.

A number of hippos have been translocated from Rondevlei since the re-introduction of these animals in 1981. Hippos were originally found in Cape Town but were exterminated by the 1700’s.

Source: Cape Town Green Map

WATER DEPARTMENT MOVES TO CURB POLLUTION OF WATER SOURCES

The Department of Water Affairs has noted with concern recent media reports of an environmental lobby group -the Environment and Conservation Association, which is said [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 29 June 2010

WATER DEPARTMENT MOVES TO CURB POLLUTION OF WATER SOURCES

The Department of Water Affairs has noted with concern recent media reports of an environmental lobby group -the Environment and Conservation Association, which is said to be preparing to bring criminal charges against Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica for apparently not attending to the pollution contaminating the Hartbeespoort Dam.

A view across the dam at Hartbeespoort. Photo by 'crafty1tutu'.

The department views this as an unfortunate course of action in the light of the work that the department is doing to remedy the situation not only in the Hartbeespoort Dam but in tackling pollution generally in the entire country. “The issue of pollution in our water sources is a complex challenge that requires the collective effort of everyone in the sector” said Nobu Ngele, the Acting Director General in the department. She said historical challenges such as the state of water infrastructure, inadequate funding and the skills shortage compounded the problem but efforts to collaborate with local government in dealing with the problem are being undertaken vigorously.

Read the full response here
Read: Minister to face charges for failure to protect water resources (17 June 2010)

Trade union the United Association of South Africa (UASA) says that, while government seems to realise the enormity and the seriousness of the country’s water security crisis, the biggest stumbling block remains its apparent resistance [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 June 2010

Trade union the United Association of South Africa (UASA) says that, while government seems to realise the enormity and the seriousness of the country’s water security crisis, the biggest stumbling block remains its apparent resistance to any suggestions from outsiders.

The union is concerned that, similar to State-owned power utility Eskom’s debacle, government will persist in stonewalling any suggestions by outsiders until South Africa’s water resources have been damaged beyond repair.

“UASA demands that role-players, like government and the Chamber of Mines, work together to fund and implement a sustainable solution to the country’s water crisis and stop playing around with the lives and health of people and the environment. We demand accountability from them,” UASA spokesperson André Venter told the UASA Water Security seminar, held in Johannesburg, last month.

The trade union intends approaching the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, with some preliminary proposals in an effort to bring South Africa’s water crisis to an end.

The aim of the seminar was to gain an under- standing of the water crisis and to identify opportunities to provide assistance to government to rectify the situation.

“It is equally important that we communicate this knowledge and understanding of our water security situation in the hope that South Africans will change their ways and adopt zero tolerance towards those wasting or contaminating our water resources,” said Venter.

He added that the union wanted to use the opportunity to be practical, to act and not just talk, since South Africa’s much-publicised water crisis was twofold.

On the one hand, the country’s wastewater treatment plants were in a shocking state. On the other, there was the ongoing acid mine drainage crisis, which was causing irreparable damage to the environment, and immediate and decisive action was needed to rectify both situations.

“The crisis is not to be taken lightly, as water is a scarce and finite resource that must be protected [at all costs]. This is not a time to point fingers. Instead, UASA is taking a firm public stand on the water crisis and, as a first step, took the initiative of hosting the seminar,” concluded Venter.

- Dennis Ndaba
Source: Engineering News

South Africa faces a far more disruptive threat than Eskom power failures, one that is potentially calamitous and may even be seen by religiously-minded citizens as the coming of the biblically predicted apocalypse.

It will [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 May 2010

South Africa faces a far more disruptive threat than Eskom power failures, one that is potentially calamitous and may even be seen by religiously-minded citizens as the coming of the biblically predicted apocalypse.

It will be characterised by the failure of wastewater purification systems, the pollution of rivers and dams and even the poisoning of waters in reservoirs or dams serving as reservoirs if the purification process is inadequate at that level.

The first signs of the disaster are already visible in remote rural areas where the municipalities – which are responsible for wastewater purification – are too poor to attract appropriately qualified personnel to operate purification systems and ensure that they are properly maintained.

Though water and environment affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica denies that there is a water crisis at present, she implicitly admits that one is inevitable unless strenuous action is taken to prevent it when she warns that South Africa will have to spend R23-billion to prevent the collapse of the wastewater treatment system.

An excellent synopsis of the main dimensions of the impending crisis if appropriate and urgent measures are not taken is contained in a publication by the Centre for Development and Enterprise and Business Leadership SA.

The publication summarised the contents of a round table discussion by representatives of government, business and academia on the genesis of the problem and the threatened crisis.

The scene-setting introduction makes two broad points:

Firstly, South Africa is an extremely dry country and its main industrial centres are far from the chief sources of water. The problem was initially successfully countered by high competency in the storage and transfer of water.

Secondly, the incoming ANC government after the watershed election in 1994 started well by extending modern sanitation to historically disadvantaged black people. In recent years, however, problems have developed, including deterioration in the infrastructure related to the storage and purification of wastewater.

“We are facing increases in well known water pollutants as wells as some new ones, both of which have major consequences for human health,” Jenny Day, director of the fresh water unit at the University of Cape Town, notes in her contribution to the round table discussion.

“More than 90 % of municipalities are unable to meet the water quality standard for discharges from their waste water plants, causing pollution hot spots and wide spread health risks.”

Day identifies the “ultimate reason” as the erosion of water quality management, though there are contributing causes, including an over-concentration on increasing the water supply at the expense of the maintenance needs waste water treatment plants, as well as, of course, the severe shortage of skill labour.

It might be noted in the context of Day’s reference to mew or emerging pollutants of which one is mineral acid, the drainage of which into rivers and dams she rates as the “biggest water quality issue in South Africa.”

Cognisance should be taken too, of an investigation by the department of water affairs in response to concern by the Federation for a Sustainable Environment about the leakage of acid contaminated water from disused mines into Johannesburg’s water supplies.

It warns that as the acid pollutant contains metal it is a potential threat to the health of Johannesburg residents.

According to The Times, Mariette Lieffierink the chief executive of the federation, warns that prolonged drinking of acid and metal contaminated water leads to “increased rates of cancer, decreased brain function and skin lesions.”

The “Green Drop” report of sewage treatment in South Africa – which was released to the late last month – more than four months after it was presented to the minister of water affairs – might be described as a tale of neglect or the sounding of alarm bells.

Of the 852 waste water plants across the length and breadth of South Africa, nearly half have been judged to be too dysfunctional to merit proper assessed, the equivalent – to put it differently – of a government department whose records are too inadequate to be audited by members of the auditor-general’s office.

As the Mail & Guardian notes, of the remaining nearly 450 waste water plants hardly more than 200 have been  judged to scored more than 50 %, while a mere 32 (or less than 4 %) have been reported to have merited green drop status (or to have met the international standards of waste water plants.

Sonjica, however, refused to concede that South Africa faces a crisis because of the growing problem of faecal pollution of its waterways, compounded, of course, by the new and old pollutants referred by Day in her contribution to the round table discussion quoted earlier.

“I would rather say we have reason to be concerned,” Sonjica states. “I would only think (that there is a crisis) if we faced an outbreak of many water-borne diseases,” she adds before concluding: “We and we are not there.”

Her comments are reminiscent of those of former president Thabo Mbeki, who refused to concede that the level of crime in South Africa constituted crisis proportions, preferring, instead, to label it a “manageable problem.”

They are reminiscent, too, of Alec Erwin, who while serving in Mbeki’s cabinet described the power outages as a sign of the government’s success to extending electricity to millions of black citizens rather than a failure to plan ahead.

In fairness to Sonjica it should be noted that she has only been the minister of water affairs and the environment for a year.

In conclusion it is appropriate to recall the words of Anthony Turton, a former senior member of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, who was suspended for talking to the media about a discussion paper he had prepared for presentation to his colleagues but which was withdrawn from the agenda by the council’s management.

Presented for discussion at the end of 2008, the paper dealt with the approaching water crisis.

After his suspension from the council, Turton prophesised that problem of power outages would be miniscule compared with the pending crisis of water shortages and intensifying pollution of the rivers and dams.

Reading the Green Drop Report in the context of Turton’s paper – which was available on the internet at the end of 2008 – is to experience a sense of déjà vu.

- Patrick Laurence
Source: Politicsweb
Related article: Water: A Looming Crisis