Wastewater report too controversial for release ?

The government's delay in issuing its so-called "Green Drop" report on the state of South Africa's wastewater treatment plants might be due to its "shocking content", the DA said on Tuesday.

"It appears, from information currently available to us, that only 32 of South Africa's approximately 970 wastewater treatment works comply with requirements for safe discharge," Democratic Alliance water affairs spokeswoman Annette Lovemore said in a statement.

This was a compliance level of just 3 percent.

"The consequences of the extremely high levels of pollution in our water bodies are many, varied and serious, but the department keeps delaying the publication of the report," she said.

"The DA is most concerned that this is primarily due to its shocking content."

The Department of Water Affairs announced in 2008 that it would carry out a national assessment of wastewater treatment plants to determine which were in line to be awarded Green Drop status, signifying that they complied with relevant regulations, norms and standards.

In reply to a parliamentary question in October last year, Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said the release of the report had been delayed "a few months" due to "the sheer magnitude and complexity of the project", but that it would be made public before the end of November.

Sonjica's deputy, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said on October 30 last year that the minister had "just approved the first report and it will be publicly released soon". To date, it has not been released.

Contacted for comment on Tuesday, the water affairs department could not immediately say when the report would be released, nor whether the delay was due to its "shocking" content.

Lovemore said the public had "a right to know the extent of how dysfunctional municipal sewage treatment works are", and a right to demand the department make public its plans to address the problem.

"The Democratic Alliance calls on the department to make the Green Drop report public as a matter of urgency, and to outline a sound strategy to address what is clearly a crisis," she said.

Dangerous and rising levels of bacteria and other contaminants have been reported in many rivers around the country in recent years, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

The reports have also pointed to badly-managed wastewater treatment plants - which discharge into either rivers or the sea - as one of the main culprits.

Sapa

Posted at 09:03AM Jan 27, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |  Comments[1]