Green Drop Report Released

Of the 852 waste water treatment plants, 403 weren’t even good enough to be assessed! Of the remainder, only 203 scored better than 50%. Of the 403 that weren’t assessed, the report highlighted municipal managers not feeling competent enough, and municipalities not adhering to the call to be assessed.

Those that managed to get more than 50% on the standards set by the Green Drop report were mostly based around Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. Only 3.8% of the total plants actually got the Green Drop status, which is broadly equivalent to international standards.

The report implies that millions of litres of untreated or inadequately treated sewage are being pumped into South Africa’s rivers and streams, mainly by small towns. The report states: “It was found that most facilities in the rural areas and smaller towns are not adequately equipped with staff of appropriate skills and this constrained the performance of these systems… “.

There was also a poor understanding of funding needs. “As a result, maintenance of infrastructure may have become a luxury rather than a necessity. The state of the bulk of the plants can be described as poor to non-functional. “In many cases, extensive refurbishment and expansion of the current plants are required… [and] the processes employed at plants are no longer sufficient to deliver the required final water quality,” the report states.

At a parliamentary media briefing earlier this month, Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said her department would ideally need “more than R100 billion” over the next three years to tackle challenges such as upgrading and refurbishing sanitation infrastructure, and hiring skilled staff.

The chief comminications officer of the Department of Water affairs, Mr Mava Scott said that though the situation is dire, the blue drop report shows that South Africa’s drinking water is safe unless there are discharges. He went on to say that there are definite areas where capacity doesn’t match the population, and water affairs needs to respond urgently as their needs aren’t being met adequately.

The Department of Water affairs is currently speaking to the minister of finance in order to try and get R23bn to turn the situation around. Martella du Preez, who recently revealed how the Olifants River had been contaminated, most likely by improperly treated sewage water had this to say, “Its not surprising, because I have seen a number of those places. They need some people to train those people, along with upgrading the equipment. “The Green Drop report is an important step in identifying the problems. It is not solving the problem, it is seeing what is going on so further plans can be made.”

A spokesperson for SATSA (The South African Tourism services association) reacted to the news by saying “As the tourism industry, we are quite horrified by this as it confirms recent headlines, showing that there is something going badly wrong. We hope that tourists aren’t being affected, and that wherever they stay their hosts are making sure that they get clean water – as this is the responsible thing to do.”

Click here for the full report in pdf format

Original article from: Times Live
Written by: Moleboheng Tladi