South Africa would need about R23-billion to prevent the country's wastewater treatment works from collapsing, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Thursday, at the launch of the long awaited Green Drop report.

The report assessed 449 treatment plants out of the country's 852 systems and revealed that 55% of these scored below 50%, while 38% scored between 50% and 89%, and only 7% were classified as "excellently managed".

However, Sonjica refuted claims that sanitation was in a crisis.

"A total of 45% of the systems performed within acceptable standards. This implies that in spite of all the shortcomings, the sector is not in complete disrepair," Sonjica said at a briefing.

The Green Drop programme is an incentive-based regulatory approach, but is linked to other regulatory initiatives within the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and will include drastic measures when continued failures are recorded.

The Minister hailed the Green Drop Report as a globally unique approach to incentivise local government in order to improve waste services.

Sonjica stressed that her department been engaged in various wastewater turnaround strategies to improve the current situation, which included partnering with the Siyenza Manje Project administered by the Development Bank of Southern Africa to get retired engineers to municipalities where no technical skills were employed.

The department is providing all 162 Water Services Authorities (municipalities) with wastewater risk profiles for structured planning informing the Integrated Development Planning processes, as well as initiating litigation where the regulatory process was found to be unsuccessful.

The fact that some treatment works were not designed to serve previously disadvantaged communities, a lack of adequate funding for operations and maintenance, skills shortages and insufficient attention given to maintenance by municipalities, were cited as some of the challenges.

"We should all be encouraged by the excellent Green Drop performances of municipalities such as the Mbombela Local Municipality, eThekwini Metro, City of Tshwane, City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg and George Local Municipality. These municipalities have shown that excellent waste water services management is a possibility which should serve as the motivation for other municipalities," stated Sonjica.

She attributed the success of the municipalities to a strong revenue base and the fact that they employ and retain the right skills base.