Sewerage is in a mess, but can be cleaned up
Durban's World Cup stadium is an aesthetic marvel, but whenever I pass it I wonder to what extent the billions of rands spent constructing it might have been better used to fix crumbling infrastructure.
A worthy alternative recipient of the funds might have been South Africa's dysfunctional sewerage systems.
If reports that only 3 percent of the nation's sewerage works are compliant with requirements for safe discharge are correct, then we really are in quite a mess. The DA claims this figure is outlined in a Green Drop report that the Water Affairs Department has yet to release as part of a national assessment of waste-water treatment plants.
In the meantime, we have an overflow of individual reports of sewerage chaos throughout the country.
These are a few examples: in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape, a million litres of raw sewerage flowed into the Kowie River from a broken pump in December; the year before, more than 100 babies died in Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape from drinking contaminated water; farmers in the Matjhabeng municipality in the Free State have long complained about groundwater pollution from sewerage spill, creating a health hazard for residents and livestock; and, a few years back, Franschhoek in Western Cape recorded daily sewerage spills into the Berg River, as new developments and housing placed its sewerage works under pressure.
Sewage spills are not just bad news for those of us who drink the affected water or use it recreationally. They are extremely bad news for business. Take the Eastern Cape dairy farmer who recently incurred losses owing to bacterial contamination from polluted river water; livestock farmers whose animals are reportedly being turned away from abattoirs owing to high faecal counts; and irrigation farmers whose export markets are under threat because of poor water standards.
If the agricultural sector is among the first to feel the effects of high water pollution, then the industrial and commercial sectors won't be far behind. In a water-stressed country such as South Africa, higher levels of sewage in rivers have an exponentially damaging effect on water security because they erode the dilution potential that we have come to rely on to reduce high pollution count.
In fact, researchers under the ambit of the International Finance Corporation last year projected South Africa would experience a water deficit of between 17 percent and 30 percent in 2030, and estimated we would need to invest R2.8 billion a year between now and then to prevent shortages.
Clearly we have little time to waste fixing the mess.
But apart from knowing that the problem is severe and widespread, we don't yet have a handle on how much investment is required to contain and prevent sewerage spills. What we do know is that the existing municipal funding model hasn't provided adequate funds to do so up to now.
Perhaps Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's Budget tomorrow will give us an idea of how the government plans to tap into alternative funding sources to allow municipalities to upgrade their sewerage infrastructure.
Of course, accessing funds will be just the start of the investment journey. The other critical requirement will be developing and retaining a skills base for water infrastructure, particularly in remote and rural areas. But perhaps the key ingredient will be a sense of urgency to ward off what is, after all, an entirely preventable national crisis.
Business Report
Posted at 09:49AM Feb 16, 2010 by Editor in Residential |