There is so much sewage spilling out of broken pipes and manholes due to pipe blockages in Sannieshof in the North West that part of the cemetery is flooded and some graves are inaccessible.
There are households unable to use their toilets due to the backflow from the blocked sewerage system, and sewage flows down the township’s streets. Even the drinking water, which only flows at night, smells like sewage, according to a resident.
The raw sewage flooding the cemetery can be seen on Google Earth, from imagery dated September 2021.
This was the same month the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) conducted a site inspection to probe complaints about sewage spills and a lack of drinking water in Sannieshof, Ottosdal, and Delareyville, all within the Tswaing Local Municipality.
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On Google Earth, sewage can be seen forming a vlei of human waste between the cemetery and the informal settlement. The pollution flows towards the Harts River, reflecting an acid green colour indicative of an algal bloom caused by high concentrations of the nitrates and phosphates found in untreated sewage.
Raw sewage in the garden
The SAHRC Final Investigative Report, signed off on 20 April 2023, notes at least two homes in Agisanang, Sannieshof, had raw sewage pooling in their yards. Blockages further down the sewerage line meant the families in the two homes couldn’t flush their toilets for fear of them simply overflowing.
The SAHRC investigation found the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality and Tswaing Local Municipality were also violating provisions of the Constitution, the Water Services Act, and the National Environmental Management Act in Ottosdal and Delareyville.
In the Ottosdal township of Letsopa the floors of one home were completely flooded with sewage due to the backflow from the toilet because of blockages down the sewerage line.
“The yard around this home was also flooded with raw sewage,” stated the SAHRC.
The commissioners reported raw sewage flowing out of manholes into private yards and streets in other parts of Letsopa. This had been happening for “prolonged periods”, residents told the SAHRC officials.
In Delareyville, the officials said “the residents live in an environment that is contaminated by raw sewage”.
In Sannieshof, Agisanang residents also went for days without water because there was no diesel for the pumps operating the boreholes supplying water to the township.
Residents of the Jachtkraal Farm settlement to the north east of Delareyville also went days without water for the same reason, and some lived more than 200 metres from a borehole where they had to collect water for the household.
Blatant denial and empty promises
Both the district and local municipality ignored letters from the SAHRC and it was only when the commission’s investigators went to their offices on 28 September 2021 that they managed to engage with municipal officials, who “denied that any challenges relating to water and sanitation existed”.
District municipality officials accompanied SAHRC representatives on site inspections in Sannieshof, Ottosdal, Delareyville, and Jachtkraal Farm on 29 September 2021. The municipal officials promised to provide more water service points at Jachtkraal Farm and to attend to the diesel shortages within two days, as well as to appoint a service provider to unblock the sewerage pipes in Sannieshof, Delareyville, and Ottosdal.
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But a follow-up inspection on 14 October 2021 found the promised water service points and diesel supply had not been provided, and although a sewer jet had been used to clear blocked pipes, it had been ineffective.
According to the report, the SAHRC did not receive a response to a letter it sent to the district municipality setting out “all allegations of human rights violations made against it” in December 2021.
When a copy of the preliminary report was shared with the municipalities on 22 August last year, inviting them to submit comments within 21 days, no comments were received either.
The Final Investigative Report found the municipalities in violation of the Constitution, the Water Services Act, the National Water Standards Regulations, and the National Environmental Management Act.
As a result, the municipalities have been directed to install enough water connections to supply a minimum of 25 litres of potable water per person per day to residents of the three towns and Jachtkraal Farm, and to ensure that no resident is further than 200m from a source of potable water.
Residents must be provided with proper toilets, and the municipalities must within one month consult with the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Department of Water and Sanitation, and engage with residents to fully assess the towns’ water and sanitation infrastructure. The municipalities must determine the cost of the repairs.
The municipalities were also directed to submit a report to the SAHRC under oath, within two months after completing the assessment, describing steps to be taken in the short, medium, and long term to address the water and sanitation failures within the towns and Jachtkraal Farm.
Failure revealed in national data
Data on the national Department of Water and Sanitation Integrated Regulatory Information Services (IRIS) website shows that the sewage treatment works in Ottosdal and Delareyville fail to treat sewage to minimum standards before releasing it into local river systems.
The IRIS website reflects the results of monthly tests on the quality of effluent released from sewage treatment works, as well as the quality of drinking water in municipalities across the country.
The three million litres of effluent from the Delareyville sewage works had an average 0% compliance for microbiological indicators (E. coli and enterococcus bacteria) over the last 12 months.
The four million litres per day flowing from the Ottosdal sewage works into the Klein-Harts River complied with microbiological indicators in only a third of tests over the past 12 months. These results reveal significant sewage treatment failure and resultant pollution of the environment into which the effluent is released.
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The IRIS site shows six different drinking water distribution systems in Tswaing Local Municipality.
Five of these have 0% compliance across all three microbiological and chemical indicators, which is a possible indication that no testing for the quality of drinking water is taking place, despite it being a legal requirement. At one distribution system – a borehole in Delareyville – compliance with minimum standards for the presence of microbiological indicators was 55% and compliance with acute chemical indicators was 85%.
For drinking water, a minimum 97% compliance is required.
A businessman in the Sannieshof township of Asiganang, speaking to GroundUp on Thursday, said nothing had changed since the SAHRC site visit in 2021.
The businessman, who asked not to be named as local politicians “will do anything to stop people from talking” said he wakes up to the smell of sewage daily. He said sewage was recently pooling in his yard and flowing into the street, while drinking water only flows through taps from 6pm to 6am, and sometimes it smells like sewage.
He said this was the case about a week ago, and he has suffered from diarrhoea since then. His complaints to the municipality fell on deaf ears.
GroundUp had not received a response to questions sent to both the district and local municipal managers at the time of publication.
© 2023 GroundUp. This article was first published here.
