Nearly half of SA’s water is unsafe to drink

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Download the free LiSTN audio app on Google Play, Apple or here.

JEREMY MAGGS: Now, be careful before taking a sip of water from that glass in front of you, it could make you sick. The new Blue Drop report, which assesses the state of all drinking water systems in South Africa, says 46% of water tested is either poor or bad for microbiological water quality compliance.

Joining us now is Sean Phillips, who’s the Director-General of Water and Sanitation. Mr Phillips, you can’t be happy with that report.

SEAN PHILLIPS: No, I’m not.

JEREMY MAGGS: So why the deteriorating situation?

SEAN PHILLIPS: There are various reasons for it. So, as you know, in terms of the Constitution, water services are a municipal function, and we have three separate spheres of government. Municipalities have their own elected representatives, so the Constitution has checks and balances in place.

So while it provides for these three spheres of government, it also provides for national government to set minimum norms and standards for functions carried out at provincial and local level, and to intervene when those minimum norms and standards are not met.

So what’s been happening at municipal level is the reason why there’s been a deterioration there, there are two main factors.

Firstly, the municipalities are not budgeting sufficiently for maintenance of the infrastructure. Secondly, and this comes out very clearly in our Blue Drop results, in the worst performing municipalities they’re not hiring staff with the correct qualifications to operate the drinking water infrastructure such as the treatment plants.

Then there are underlying causes of those two problems. The reasons why they’re not budgeting sufficiently for maintenance include that their billing and revenue collections systems are often weak. But also, there’s no legal requirement for municipalities to use revenue from the sale of water to fund the maintenance and operation of water services.

Under budgeting for maintenance

Municipal councils can vote for those revenues to be used for any function. As a result of that, many municipalities, particularly the poorer performing ones, have been severely under budgeting for the maintenance of infrastructure, and these reports show that that applies particularly to wastewater treatment infrastructure.

There seems to be a political reluctance by councils to vote funding for maintenance of wastewater treatment infrastructure. The reports show that while most of the drinking water infrastructure is in an average or better condition, less than half of the wastewater infrastructure is in an average or better condition.

Those are the underlying problems at municipal level. So in terms of the Constitution, as a result of those underlying problems, the services are deteriorating. Now, in terms of the Constitution, the national government is supposed to step in in that situation to ensure that minimum norms and standards are set.

We are now stepping in more than we’ve ever done before in two ways…

Firstly, we provide a huge amount of support to municipalities in terms of infrastructure grants and in terms of capacity building, training and so on. But secondly, we also have a role to play as the regulator and we are in the process of strengthening our role as the regulator in a couple of ways. We are about to issue more comprehensive norms and standards for municipalities for water services.

But more fundamentally and more importantly, we’ve recently gazetted the Water Services Amendment Bill, which provides for a compulsory operating licence system for the parts of the municipality which deliver the water services.

In terms of the Water Services Act as it currently is, the act differentiates between water services authorities, which are the municipalities which are appointed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance (Thembi Nkadimeng) to be responsible for water, there are 144 of them in the country, and water service providers, which is the body which provides the services, as opposed to the authority, which is like a local regulator.

Read:
Why Joburg’s new plan to manage water crisis isn’t the answer
Scientists sound alarm on failing water systems
Declining drinking water quality in SA due to infrastructure issues and neglect: Report

What has happened since the Water Services Act was passed in the 1990s is that almost every single water service authority has appointed itself as the sole water service provider in the municipality, and they haven’t managed the regulatory function of water services authority and water service provider, as was intended in the act.

So we’re going to clarify that and we’re going to introduce a requirement that the water service provider part of the municipality must have an operating licence, and to get that licence, they will have to show minimum levels of competency and capability to provide the service. The amendments also provide for the minister to legally force a municipality if it fails to improve and get its water service provider to get an operating licence, for the minister to legally force a municipality to appoint a water service provider which is licenced.

JEREMY MAGGS: It sounds to me as if the department has no, or very little confidence in the metros to actually do their job properly.

SEAN PHILLIPS: In the municipalities, well, the evidence speaks for itself, Jeremy. These blue- and green drop and no drop results are showing that there’s been a severe decline in the quality of water and sanitation services.

So we have a duty as the national government, we have a duty as the department, as the regulator, to take action to make sure that that is reversed and that we go back to meeting minimum norms and standards.

If we don’t take such action, we can be accused of failing in our role as the regulator and the entire national government could also be accused of failing in its constitutional responsibility to ensure that minimum norms and standards are met at lower spheres of government.

Read: V&A Waterfront to commission R184m desalination plant early 2024

JEREMY MAGGS: What is concerning if you read this report, and you can correct me if I’ve misinterpreted it, is that during the audit period, 14 water service authorities simply didn’t report water quality data at all to your department, which effectively means that they’re not taking you seriously.

SEAN PHILLIPS: Yes. So we did follow up with those municipalities. As we put in the report, we followed up with those municipalities. We wrote to all of them, and we gave them an instruction that they must inform their citizens immediately if they’re not doing the required tests that they were supposed to submit to us on their drinking water quality.

Most of them responded to us to say that they’re busy in the process of hiring laboratories to do the test for them. Some of them responded to us to say that while they hadn’t provided us with the test information, they were actually doing the tests and they then provided us with the information and where necessary, they did respond to us to say that they have indicated to their citizens, they have issued notices to their residents to say that they’re not testing and that the residents, therefore, need to exercise caution in consuming that water.

JEREMY MAGGS: Sean Phillips, I’m out of time. Thank you very much indeed for that very blunt assessment. I appreciate it.