South Africa is a water scarce country, but we are heading towards a serious water crisis according to Doctor Rembu Magoba, Manager at CSIR Water Research Centre. According to the recent Green Drop report about 23 per cent of municipalities have poor quality drinking water. Doctor Magoba says percentages alone may be misleading. He says the reasons behind those stats are more important in painting a clear picture. Despite our problems, South Africa is among the best countries in terms of provision of acceptable quality for drinking water. "I need to make it clear that action will be taken against those municipalities that flagrantly put the lives of our people and environment at risk. As Minister of Water and Sanitation, I am engaging theMinister of Cooperative Governance to ensure that as National Government we take drastic intervention measures towards the improvement of water services,'says Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu.
FAILED PROJECTS
Magoba warns that if municipalities don't change their ways, several municipalities will not be able to meet the drinking water standards in the next ten years. "The Department of Water and Sanitation recognise their problems and knows exactly what to do about the existing poor water infrastructure, but they just don't do it. Lack of financial resources being the major excuse despite billions lost in failed departmental projects including the famous Giyani project,' he says. Magoba points out that the current water infrastructure problems are associated with dysfunctional treatment works as a result of naturally ageing infrastructure and also the common poor operation and maintenance at municipal level among others. For a very long time the Department of Water and Sanitation invested on water services expansion to the areas that were previously excluded from the water grid during apartheid era and neglected investment on existing infrastructure maintenance. Such neglect is now catching with the department, and it is coming faster than we thought.
THE HIGH PRICE OF WATER DESALINATION
Magoba says there are alternatives to help soften the blow of water scarcity. "Groundwater can be an alternative water resource if there is proper surface water management.Otherwise, over exploitation of groundwater resources will indirectly drive most of the rivers dry in the area. Therefore, groundwater management is very critical to ensure sustainability of available water resources. Some areas have plenty of groundwater to supplement the existing water supply schemes such as Atlantis in Cape Town. Nevertheless, in some areas, dedicated groundwater treatment facilities may be required as conventional water treatment plants maybe unable to treat potential heavy metals in groundwater. Therefore, government will have to prioritise budget to accommodate new infrastructure while the existing infrastructure is in dire need of rehabilitation,' he says. He is weary of water desalination due to its high costs. He says it' unjustifiable to have desalination plants. "It is still very difficult to justify the costs incurred during the implementation of such desalination plants. High costs of running a desalination plant coupled withl imited government capabilities to run successful desalination plants are the main challenges along the coastal regions,' he says.
WATER CONTAMINATION
He says that the KwaZulu Natal floods have an impact on the water infrastructure and it's not going to be a quick fix unless the city has good knowledge and accurate locations of their water distribution network. "Any pipe burst provides a risk for water contamination and the KZN floods damage was no exception. However, proper water quality monitoring is in place and managed by Umgeni Water, who have on several occasions dispelled the rumours of water contamination in the region. However, desperate communities are collecting water at any pipe burst location which may pose risk for potential contamination at point of collection even if the water was treated effectively. Water outages, coupled with electricity loadshedding, are becoming normal for residents across the eThekwini Municipality and other affected KZN areas. It must be noted that most of these affected municipalities were already in deficit in terms of their ageing water infrastructure and therefore this situation provides a wonderful opportunity to not only repair damaged infrastructure but also to renew those ailing water infrastructures,'he concludes.
Senzo Mchunu says it remains unacceptable that sewage spillages and failing wastewater treatment works are detrimentally impacting our environment as well as the livelihood and health of many of our communities on a daily basis in the year 2022. "It is of great concern that there are so many systems with scores below 31%, indicating a dismal state of wastewater management, posing a risk to both environment and public health. We are therefore making the call to political, public and private leadership to declare their commitment to use this report as the turning point towards sustainable improvement, because everyone can make a difference within their sphere of influence,' he says.
