How safe is our drinking water? Don’t ask water department
● The Department of Water and Sanitation is in the dark about the quality of South Africa’s drinking water.
For nearly five years, the department that describes itself as “custodians of our water and sanitation resources” has failed to produce the crucial Blue and Green Drop reports that monitor the quality of drinking water and the health of the country’s vital wastewater treatment plants.
Last month, the Sunday Times requested an interview with the department about the latest reports, in the context of Water Week, which ended last week. The department had to admit the reports did not exist as it “didn’t have capacity to do the work”.
Leon Basson, the DA’s spokesman on water and sanitation, said the reports were last done in 2013 and 2014. They were only released after he lodged a Promotion of Access to Information Act application.
“The department not being able to produce either of the reports puts our water resources under risk.”
The findings at the time were shocking. The Blue Drop report forced the department to acknowledge that the overall quality of the country’s drinking water — based on various criteria — had dropped from 87.6% to 79.6%. While this was still considered good, the drop was a “worry”, the Sunday Times was told at the time.
The Green Drop report was most alarming and painted a picture of failing infrastructure that has been poorly managed. The most recent version, published in 2013, found that just 60 of the country’s 824 waste-water treatment plants were in an “excellent” condition, 248 were “critical” and a further 161 were in “poor” condition.
This means that 409 — or 49.6% — of treatment plants were failing. It would cost, officials said at the time, between R924-million and R2.3-billion just to get the high-risk and critical plants up to standard.
The situation has likely worsened.
This latest department failure comes as parliament’s standing committee on public accounts and the portfolio committee on water and sanitation have jointly demanded a full-scale investigation into the department’s affairs.
In February, Scopa chairman Themba Godi called for the investigation, and for criminal charges to be laid against the department. This week, parliament heard that the department spent billions in excessive project management and professional fees, was in financial distress, was ridden with leadership instability and had a skills crisis.
Water and sanitation portfolio committee chairman Lulu Johnson criticised the department for blaming a lack of capacity. “There are nine deputy directors-general. Below that there are 74 chief directors. What it is that they do is a big question mark.”
Water expert Dr Anthony Turton said “it gets worse” when one looked at the lack of capacity beyond the inability to produce reports. Data for a report he recently published showed that “critical measuring systems”, including stream flow and rainfall gauging stations, were failing.