It is not microbiologically safe to drink the water in about half of South Africa’s water systems, according to the 2023 full Blue Drop Report released on Tuesday, but this hasn’t dissuaded Water and Sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu from saying the country’s ongoing water struggles should not be exaggerated.
The water poses an increased risk of life-threatening waterborne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhoea, noted the report, which assesses drinking water quality.
But Mchunu was at pains this week to stress that South Africa is not experiencing a water crisis and that the water situation should be “seen in context”.
“To generalise a situation faced by a family or a village … as a national crisis, that’s where we say we want to encourage people to avoid exaggerating outside the context we’re talking about,” said Mchunu.
But WaterCAN, an initiative of civil action organisation Outa, said the results of the reports show the calamitous state of the water sector.
“How is this not a crisis? It’s a complete crisis: 46% of drinking systems don’t comply with microbiological standards, 67.6% of wastewater treatment works are failing and 47.4% of our water is lost or unaccounted for,” said Ferrial Adam, its executive manager.
People should not drink water from 46% of the country’s drinking water systems without boiling it. “Are they not letting people know that the water is contaminated? Surely that is a crime?” she added.
The Blue Drop Report said 57% of municipalities don’t notify people in the event of water quality being compromised or not monitored.
Only 26 water supply systems achieved a Blue Drop score of 95%, qualifying for the prestigious Blue Drop certification. In 2014, the figure was 44. A total of 277 of 958 (29%) water supply systems were identified to be in a critical state compared with 174 systems in 2014.
Drinking water systems in the metros are generally performing well. Gauteng has the highest percentage of drinking water systems with excellent or good performance (62%), followed by the Western Cape (50%). Gauteng, too, has the lowest shortfall of qualified staff.
The Northern Cape has the highest percentage of drinking water systems with poor or critical performance (87%), up from 48% in 2014 and the highest shortfall of qualified staff. The percentage of drinking water systems with poor or critical performance in the Free State has “deteriorated markedly” from 2014 (31%) to 2023 (59%).
Of the 958 water supply systems assessed, 467 (49%) achieved excellent microbiological quality and 49 (5%) systems had good microbiological quality. But 442 (46%) systems have an unacceptable microbiological water quality status.
The report noted: “Failure to produce water that meets microbiological compliance standards can be linked back to poor operations, defective infrastructure, inadequate dosing rates, absence of disinfection chemicals, lack of monitoring, lack of operating and chemistry knowledge and several other root causes.”
The decline in quality is deeply concerning, said Craig Sheridan, the Claude Leon Foundation chair in water research and director of the Centre in Water Research and Development at Wits University. “Water supply systems getting an excellent score decreased by 40% and the number of water supply systems scoring critical increased by about 60%. This is not good news.”
While the Eastern Cape performed better, this is probably because most of the decline happened before 2014, and “there is now some small improvement”. North West also performed better “but the number of water supply systems is very different so I think this is the cause of the report getting better”.
Only the Western Cape had an improvement in all categories where the number of poorly performing systems declined and the number of better-performing ones increased.
Sheridan said it was critical that 76% of the water supply systems had chemistry/chemical compliance. “Unfortunately 46% had poor or bad microbiological compliance … an enormous increase from 5% in 2014.”
The three clusters of excellence with water provision are the Cape Town metro, Gauteng, and the area just inland of Durban, Sheridan said.
The Green Drop progress assessment report, which provides an update on the performance of wastewater management systems at municipal level, found 9% of wastewater treatment works are in the low-risk category; 25% in the medium-risk category; 34% in the high-risk category and 32% in the critical-risk category.
The number in the high- and critical-risk categories have risen since 2013 resulting in high levels of pollution through discharging partially treated or untreated water into rivers and the environment, said Sean Phillips, the director general of the department of water and sanitation.
“This has negative environmental implications and poses risks to human health, for example cholera outbreaks are associated with wastewater pollution of water resources. Polluted water resources also raise the cost of water treatment.”
Only 15% of wastewater treatment works comply with microbiological limits (requiring at least 90% compliance), the report found.
“The report indicates how poorly our municipalities value the treatment of sewage,” Sheridan said. “This has an enormous impact on the quality of water in the environment, which is what the water treatment plants are trying to get back to potable.”
There is a decline in all provinces, “even the Western Cape. This means the quality of our surface water resources continues to decline.”
The result is that “we see a decrease in our ability to ensure microbiological compliance at the same time that we see the massive increase in failing wastewater treatment plants. These two factors together are why we see cholera outbreaks occurring.”
Both must be remedied urgently. “The micro is probably more critical because if the water supply system detects microbiological contamination of potable water, they can issue boil advisories. This is done globally when there are problems.”
Sheridan applauded Mchunu and Phillips for restarting the drop process. “It cannot be easy to start doing something which you know will only put you in a difficult spot. That’s why the reports were previously canned — they were not good news,” he said, noting it is “heartening” that the department has recommended that reform of the sector is needed.
The findings of the reports are saddening, “yet entirely predictable”, said consultant ecologist Bill Harding. “While there are nodes of compliance where the larger, well-funded and -staffed utilities are able to cope, there remains a large proportion of the country that has no choice but to confront the health challenges posed by inadequate attention to treatment of sewage wastewaters.”
This problem has been growing since the 1960s when the country’s population was 17 million, and it is now 62 million. “There is almost four times the pollution being generated, while the ‘business as usual’ approach to wastewater treatment remains trapped in the 1960s.”
Harding said the scale of the problem is enormous because most wastewater treatment plants require an upgrade. “Concomitant with this will be the need [for] civil and wastewater engineering skills necessary to operate these facilities.”
Only four of the 114 water service authorities scored more than 90% for the No Drop certification, according to the No Drop report, which looks at water losses and non-revenue water. National non-revenue water escalated from 37% in 2014 to 47% in 2023. The international average is 30%.
Phillips said high levels of non-revenue water, including physical losses, in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, are one reason for water supply disruptions.
A huge amount of money has to be spent to develop dams to capture and store water. “This money is wasted if that water is thrown away through leaks. Municipalities buy treated water from water boards. If municipalities do not get revenue from that water, then they cannot pay the water boards. If water boards don’t get paid, they can’t treat water.”
If municipalities don’t collect the revenue, then they cannot afford to maintain and operate the infrastructure, Phillips explained.
Mchunu said his department is working with the departments of cooperative governance and traditional affairs and human settlements, as well as the treasury and the Municipal Infrastructure Agency to address the reports’ findings.
Action plans have been developed to address the key findings in the worst-performing municipalities. These include providing grants of more than R20 billion a year to municipalities, technical and engineering support, training and financial management advice and support.
There are “limits to which national government support and intervention can address the decline in services”. Fundamental reform is required, Mchunu said, and the department recently gazetted the Water Services Amendment Bill for public comment.
“The Bill will result in more professionally managed, capable, efficient, and financially viable water services institutions.”
Check your water quality at ws.dws.gov.za/IRIS/mobi_home.aspx