Broken treatment plants allow flood of sewage into rivers — minister
A THIRD of all waste-water treatment plants in South Africa are still in a “critical” condition and need urgent attention to prevent millions of litres of sewage flowing into the country’s rivers and dams.
This frank admission by Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane in Ficksburg this week comes amid fears from water resource experts that the shoddy infrastructure would aggravate already dangerously high levels of carcinogenic bacteria. The cancer-causing cyanobacteria — a blue-green algae — has been found in high levels in more than half of the country’s 50 biggest dams.
The annual Green Drop report, which analyses the state of water treatment plants across the country, has not yet been released. Opposition parties and special interest groups are claiming Mokonyane is withholding the report because the findings would paint the ANC and the government in a poor light ahead of next year’s local government elections. The DA and AfriForum have lodged Promotion of Access to Information Act applications to force the minister’s hand.
But Mokonyane has denied “sitting on” the report. She said the results had been sent to municipalities for them to formulate action plans on how they would improve their infrastructure and systems.
While not willing to divulge specific findings, Mokonyane admitted that the situation was “about the same” as the findings in 2011 and 2013, when the last reports were released. She also admitted that the quality of treatment plants was “going down” in the 27 “priority” districts in the country.
The 2011 version of the Green Drop report found that 39% of treatment plants were in a “critical state”, and 17% were in “very poor” condition. Only 5% of plants were in an “excellent” condition. The situation improved slightly in 2013, with 30.1% of all systems regarded as critical and 19.5% as very poor.
Leon Basson, the DA’s spokesman on water and sanitation, accused Mokonyane of withholding the report “because of the ANC’s attempts to hide their poor record of municipal governance”.
“The minister is busy with elections. Because of that, they don’t want to release the report,” said Basson.
But Mokonyane denied these accusations.
“If you want to have [the report] . . . you can write to every municipality. Every municipality can disclose [their results],” said Mokonyane.
Her comments come after parliament’s water and sanitation portfolio committee last month red-flagged failing water treatment infrastructure.
“There is a continued deterioration of waste-water treatment works, particularly in small municipalities, resulting in untreated effluent being discharged into water courses,” a recent committee report said.
Water researcher Dr Anthony Turton said water was meant to be treated to a safe standard before being released back into rivers. Instead, “[we are] feeding four billion litres of sewage a day into our rivers”.
Of particular concern was the rise of cyanobacteria. Dr Mark Matthews, who conducted research into cyanobacteria using satellite images, found that more than half the country’s biggest dams were affected.
“Cyanobacteria surface scum posing a high health risk occurred in 26 (or 54%) of the 50 water bodies,” Matthews wrote in the South African Journal of Science in June. Hartbeespoort Dam was the worst affected.
The risk was severe for recreational users and livestock.
“The side effects include headaches, nausea and vomiting . . . it’s highly likely there are [trace levels of cyanobacteria in drinking water] at certain times . . . this can lead to a higher incidence of cancer,” he said.
Professor Mike Muller of the University of the Witwatersrand said cyanobacteria was a problem — but the poor standard of water-treatment plants was a bigger concern.
“We know part of the problem is very much related to municipalities and a lack of wastewater treatment,” said Muller.
The quality of treatment plants is ‘going down’ in the 27 biggest districts in the country