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The results of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) interim blue, green drop and no water watch reports that were announced today highlight the problems in municipalities that AfriForum has been expressing concern over for the past few years. However, AfriForum does welcome the fact that the DWS has decided to publish the interim reports.

Since 2013, AfriForum has compiled an annual blue and green drop report after the DWS stopped compiling this report itself. Every year since 2013, AfriForum has requested that the DWS compile these reports again. This report is the second of its kind to be launched by the DWS in the last two years - this time due to pressure placed on the government due to the increase in cholera cases in South Africa as well as the overall collapse of municipal services.

The blue drop watch report’s results indicate the following:

152 of the water systems (WSS) were assessed and the findings reflect an overview of systems owned and managed by 140 municipalities and 26 water boards and bulk water suppliers. An average technical site assessment (TSA) of 69% was achieved for 151 systems that were assessed. This indicates that the infrastructure and process are on average “partially functional with an average performance” according to the report.

Out of the 151 WSS, 128 (85%) are in an average, good and excellent condition, while 23 (15%) are in a poor and critical condition. The water systems that have generally performed the best are in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. The water systems that are in a critical condition are in the Free State, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West.

The VROOM cost estimate of how much capital is needed to repair or refurbish these dysfunctional systems amounts to R1.5 billion, the largest part of which must be used by the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

Drinking water quality analyses indicate that 38% and 11% of the systems respectively have an excellent or good microbiological quality, while 51% of the systems have a poor or bad microbiological water quality status. Chemical compliance analyses indicate that 16% and 14% of the systems maintain excellent and good water quality, respectively, while the vast majority (71%) failed to achieve chemical compliance. 13 water systems reported no water quality data, or no data was uploaded or available at the time of the audit to enable compliance analyses.

“This paints an extremely worrying picture, especially because the micro and chemical compliance analyses point to major problems, especially since there is no water quality monitoring at 13 water systems,” says Lambert de Klerk, Manager for Environmental Affairs at AfriForum.

“We are also concerned that the provinces which, according to the reports, are doing the worst are also those which are suffering from fraud and corruption at the moment,” adds De Klerk. “It is clear that the country is not on the right track and the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs must start working together now to address these problems.”

The green drop watch report indicates the following:

All nine provinces and 334 municipal wastewater treatment works (WWTW) have been declared in critical condition in 2022 and have received green drop scores below 31%. These municipalities have been placed under regulatory observation in terms of the Water Services Act 108 of 1997.

Accordingly, 334 non-compliance letters were sent to the water services institutions. 168 CAPs were received and the DWS has a 50% (168 of 334) response to the regulatory request. 43 water service authorities requested support from the DWS and 34 of the 168 CAPs received had been implemented at the time of the launch of the latest report. The others are either in the planning phase or have reported no progress.

Some of the challenges that the DWS has identified that have a negative influence on the improvement of these WWTW include funding restrictions; vandalism and theft; lack of cooperation from municipalities; and continuous deterioration of infrastructure. 

“The fact that Senzo Mchunu, Minister of Water and Sanitation, said that the state of WWTW is a source of concern but that he was nevertheless ‘encouraged’ by the 2021/22 report, should make every person in the country livid. It is not enough to say that he just hopes it looks better when the final report is launched. Municipalities have already been warned in 2022 to get their proverbial houses in order and start immediately with maintenance and renovation work, and the number of municipalities that did heed the request is not nearly enough to produce a real improvement,” says De Klerk.

“The Koster case clearly showed us that real change can only happen when government departments swallow their pride and accept help from the private sector to prevent total collapse. The biggest question, however, is whether municipalities that knowingly and knowingly pollute the country's water resources for years will face any liability. It is time for the DWS to show its teeth and criminally prosecute those who pollute our precious water resources.”

The 2022/23 no water report, which was also released today, provides an overview of the state of municipalities’ water loss during the 2021/22 municipal financial year. Only 29% of municipalities nationwide were able to disclose data to the DWS. Almost half of the data that was provided, however, shows a low confidence coefficient. This means that in the preceding three years the municipality has provided the DWS with none or only a single data set, the accuracy of which is also questionable. The conclusions therefore had to rely heavily on estimates.

At a national level, 46.4% of the available water is lost to municipalities, as a result of leaks in the distribution network. This shows a weakening compared to previous years and indicates an alarming trend that water losses have been continuously increasing over the past ten years. Metropolitan municipalities performed the best, while smaller, rural municipalities performed the worst. The Western Cape is the province that performed the best, while Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal experience the greatest water losses.

“AfriForum is still willing to work with the DWS to help some of these municipalities solve the problems they have at local level. We will get our experts and specialists involved to help where municipalities are seriously struggling with their water and sewage systems so that they can get back up to standard,” concludes De Klerk.

Submitted by AfriForum