Skilled teams, political will key to ending water crisis
WATER, or rather the mismanagement thereof, has escalated to such levels that it has made news headlines daily over the past weeks.
Burst pipes gushing potable water into the streets across the City of Johannesburg and raw sewage running down the streets of Munsieville, Krugersdorp and many others across the country, have become the norm.
One of the symptoms of failure to manage and govern in an informed manner is the current sewage crisis. One of many dysfunctional wastewater treatment works is the Percy Stewart wastewater treatment works in Mogale City, which has been polluting the Blougat Spruit and Blougat River, flowing through the Unesco Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
The sewage-contaminated river disappears under the surface and into the water table, threatening the dolomitic karst system with sinkholes already becoming a significant problem.
The polluted river eventually flows into the Crocodile River, reaching its destination, the Hartbeespoort Dam. This iconic South African dam has been grappling with water hyacinth and algal bloom problems for decades, with little or no improvement despite millions of rand spent to improve it.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the problem will not disappear or be quickly resolved despite various governmental and non-governmental interventions, from spraying herbicides to introducing the hyacinth planthopper, Megamelus scutellaris, as a biological control measure.
The natural and social sciences are playing a role in addressing the problem and should be more significant in this and other water issues.
Another consequence of inaction is the choking of the Vaal River by water lettuce, stretching over 20km between the Vaal Dam and the Vaal Barrage, despite this invasive plant being recorded in the Vaal system in 2021.
In the case of the eThekwini Municipality, the frequent floods (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) caused severe damage to wastewater infrastructure to such an extent that E coli counts at Durban’s once blue flag beaches reached over 1 400 MPN/100ml, resulting in multiple beach closures, large-scale fish deaths, human health risks and economic losses due to the decrease in tourism activities.
This occurred despite the municipality reporting that the damaged water infrastructure has been repaired or is being repaired. To say, as some activists do, that eThekwini is the first municipality to fail is debatable.
The municipality’s Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department (EPCPD) has won international awards for its efforts to develop and implement green and ecological infrastructure in and around Durban.
This department and municipal engineers have established co-operative links with cities like Bremen, Lusaka, and Fort Lauderdale. It represents Durban in the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association.
The recent refuse collectors strike in the city blotted out all these achievements in the public eye, as many will have seen videos of piles of refuse littering sidewalks.
Looking at these images, some may conclude that eThekwini is South Africa’s first failed and collapsed local municipality. Local government failure is a complex process, and pointing out household waste on the sidewalks as a complete failure does not consider success like that of the EPCPD.
In the City of Johannesburg, an unforeseen lightning strike at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pumping station cut the water supply, leaving many residents with dry taps during a heat wave for over 12 days. Households are either experiencing low flow or no water supply at all as reservoirs reach critically low to empty levels and cannot recover overnight.
This is despite Johannesburg Water throttling the system overnight and Rand Water agreeing to pump more water to restore the system.
To address water challenges and issues nationwide, we require administrative, business, and technical skills, proper scientific knowledge, active civil society, political will, and informed leadership.