The State of The Rivers/Oceans/Water/Air

[Richprins]

Another ANC municipality!

[Lisbeth]

Warning: Stay out of South Coast’s lagoons and rivers

Based on tests conducted, the water quality in lagoons and rivers is considered to be unsafe for recreational purposes.

byCorné van Zyl | 23-12-2021


Photo: Corne van Zyl

As a precautionary measure, Ugu District Municipality has issued a warning to bathers to confine all contact water sport activities, including swimming and fishing, to the seawater.

THE USE OF LAGOONS AND RIVERS ARE PROHIBITED

Ugu spokesman France Zama said the use of lagoons and rivers is prohibited during this period. It has been discovered that they currently traverse many properties that flow downstream, resulting in impurities entering the river streams, which contribute to non-compliance with the water for recreational purposes.

“Based on tests conducted, this has resulted in fluctuating E. coli counts, and therefore, all lagoons and rivers are considered to be unsafe as we are unable to guarantee the safety of the water for recreational purposes,” Zama said.

BASED ON TESTS CONDUCTED THIS HAS RESULTED IN FLUCTUATING E.COLI COUNTS

He added that during the festive season, swimming areas of beaches and lagoons are strictly sampled regularly by the Environmental Health Department. This is to monitor the quality of marine waters in accordance with the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Coastal Marine Waters, using microbiological indicators, which is the E.coli count.

This count is used to identify the risk to public health from possible disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in the coastal waters.

SAFETY TIPS FOR SWIMMING IN THE SEA:

The following tips can help to ensure that you stay safe while swimming in the sea:

• Swim where lifeguards are on duty and keep to the areas demarcated for safe swimming.

• Be mindful of warning signs that may indicate dangerous swimming conditions such as strong currents, sharks, or contaminated water.

• Remember that swimming in the sea is very different to swimming in a pool.

• Steer clear of the ocean if you notice a choppy current with murky water.

• Do not dive into water where you cannot see the bottom, as you could easily injure your neck.

• Check the weather report before going to the beach. Be careful of lightning and do not enter the water until at least 30 minutes after the thunder and lightning have stopped.

• If you get pulled out to sea, stay calm and save your energy. Allow the current to carry you and then swim parallel to the shore until you are out of it. If you cannot swim to the shore, float or tread water until you are out of the rip current.

• Do not be ashamed to call for help if you are in trouble. Anyone, even the best swimmers, can run into difficulties. Signal for a lifeguard as soon as possible. In the interim, stay calm and try to tread water, or if possible float on your back, until they reach you.

• Stay sober at the beach, as alcohol will impair your judgement, making you less careful. Alcohol also dehydrates you.

• Do not make use of floatation devices such as an inflatable bed, noodle and other items, unless you can swim properly, and do not rely on them to keep you afloat and safe in the sea.

• If you go boating ensure the boat is seaworthy and that you are wearing a lifejacket. Don’t go out to sea unless you have checked the weather conditions.

[Richprins]

I must say, even as a child it was a bit more gross swimming in the lagoons vs the sea, except when they were open!

[Lisbeth]

These days they are surely much more polluted

[Lisbeth]

Hawkers suffer while pollution suffocates Komani River


The Komani River, which forms part of the Great Kei River system in the Eastern Cape, is polluted with plastic waste and sewage. (Photo: Tembile Sgqolana)

By Tembile Sgqolana | 28 Jan 2022

Years of pollution and illegal dumping in the Komani River in the central business district of the Eastern Cape town of Komani (formerly Queenstown) are having a devastating impact on the environment and the wellbeing of those who live in the area.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The river in Komani is filled with plastic bottles, plastic packets, tyres and refuse from illegal dumping and littering.

This has obstructed the flow of water. To add to the problem, drains are discharging sewage into the water.

Just below the bridge near Spargs SuperSpar there is a strong stench from cattle carcasses, urine and faeces.

Thobela Hlathana, a hawker at the bridge, said: “Now that temperatures have been above 30 degrees in Komani, the stink is unbearable and it affects our business as no one would want to buy my fruit in a smelly place.

“The vagrants relieve themselves under the bridge and those that are selling cattle-head meat are throwing the carcasses under the bridge.”


Logs and plastic bottles clog the Komani River in the Eastern Cape on 27 January 2022. (Photo: Tembile Sgqolana)

Hlathana said they had lived under such conditions for years — nothing had been done to clean the river.

Komani Hawkers Association chairman Ncamile Faku confirmed that the stench and pollution were affecting the livelihoods of hawkers who trade there.

“There are no public toilets in the area and people end up using the river to relieve themselves. The situation has been like this for the past 15 years,” he said.

Faku said that last year Spargs store manager Bryan Kretschmer had organised a clean-up of the river, but that did not help.

Shop owner Nosabatha Ssemakula said they close their doors in summer because of the stink coming from the river.

“We have been complaining to the municipality, but nothing is being done to clean the river. Sewage spills are flowing straight to the river and we deal with cattle and pigs that are roaming around the river.

“There are no refuse bins in the area and people end up littering, and that goes to the river and affects the environment.”


Sewage overflows into the Komani River on 27 January 2022 near the Komani Magistrates’ Court. (Photo: Tembile Sgqolana)

Enoch Mgijima Municipality spokesperson Lonwabo Kowa said a project to clean the river and the streets of Komani had been undertaken in 2019 and ended in March 2020 with a budget of R1-million sourced from Chris Hani District Municipality.

“The endeavour took a period of six months where 30 local people were employed on a temporary basis. This left the area clean, but unfortunately, the same problem of littering is being experienced even though awareness campaigns to educate the public on the importance of maintaining a clean environment were undertaken,” Kowa said.

He said another similar project was in the pipeline.

“At this stage, Enoch Mgijima Municipality does not have sufficient capacity to ensure that it is kept clean… as some use the river as a site to discharge all unwanted rubbish and carcasses.

“Awareness campaigns are continuing, but only a few have heeded the call,” he said. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Evasive eThekwini municipality comes clean on Durban beach pollution – sort of


Partially treated human waste polluting Durban’s Umgeni River. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Carnie | 26 Jan 2022

The eThekwini municipality has finally admitted that its overflowing sewage treatment works were responsible for the tide of black water pollution that led to the closure of Durban beaches during the New Year holiday season. But it’s refusing to publicly release the results of recent beach water quality samples.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For at least 25 days, a steady stream of partially treated human waste has been emptying into Durban’s Umgeni River, just 4km upstream from Durban’s tourist beaches.

And it hasn’t stopped yet.

Earlier this week, Our Burning Planet filmed the continued flow of sewage effluent into the Umgeni River from a municipal outlet pipe in Willowfield Crescent in Springfield Park, close to the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works.

Based on photographic evidence of black water pollution at the Blue Lagoon and continued discharges from the Willowfield outlet, it appears that the flow of dangerous levels of pathogens and bacteria towards Durban’s beaches has continued almost non-stop from at least December 31.

The public health risks of municipal sewage pollution in rivers across South Africa is, sadly, nothing new. But when senior public officials appear on television in an attempt to bamboozle the public that all is well, or to deflect legitimate concerns about public health, that is another issue.

These concerns have been reinforced by reports that several canoeists fell ill this week after a canoe race along the Umgeni between Inanda Dam and Blue Lagoon.

Janet Simpkins, director of the Adopt-a-River community nonprofit watchdog group, said a survey of canoeists showed that at least 48 participants complained about gastro-related sickness after the race.

Formal academic studies by University of KwaZulu-Natal researchers have highlighted the more serious risks of cholera, hepatitis and other diseases being transmitted via exposure to sewage bacteria and pathogens in water from the Umgeni River, which flows on to Durban’s beaches.

We sent questions to the eThekwini municipality on Wednesday requesting laboratory results of all beach water quality samples from January 4 after the recent series of flip-flop decisions to close, open, close, and open beaches over the holiday season.

It was a complete “no go”, as city spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo dodged our very direct questions.

We asked the municipality: “You will recall that we requested original copies (on January 7) of all E. coli laboratory test results by eThekwini’s laboratory which informed the decision to reopen beaches on January 6 (as announced by Malcolm Canham) We now repeat this request and further request full copies of lab sample results for water quality tests from January 4.”

eThekwini response: “The City’s decision to open or close beaches is always based on available information.”

We asked: “If the city declines to release the results requested above, what is the reason for refusing this request?”

eThekwini response: “The City’s decision to open or close beaches is always based on available information.”

We asked: “If the city releases the results and any beaches show E. coli readings in excess of 2,000 cfu/100ml between January 4 and today at any beaches open over this period, on what basis was the decision taken to reopen these beaches?

eThekwini response: “The City’s decision to open or close beaches is always based on available information.”

Perhaps repetition and evasion are deemed to be effective responses by eThekwini, but why not come clean and be transparent?

Be that as it may, the municipality did (indirectly) confirm that it has a big problem and that one/or more of its senior officials may have stepped too far in claiming precipitously that it was safe to reopen city beaches on January 6.

We asked the municipality: “As requested more than two weeks ago, what is the name and position of the city official who took the decision to reopen the beaches on January 6 and again on January 13?”

eThekwini response: “No City Department works in silo. The decision was a joint one, with mainly the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department, Water and Sanitation and Disaster Management leading.”

Q: “What is the city’s response to suggestions that eThekwini has misled the public about the safety and quality of the sea and several beaches over this period?”

eThekwini response: “The wellbeing and safety of our residents has always been a priority. As a caring City that always puts its residents and visitors first, we commend our EWS and PRC officials who ensured that despite the negative impact it would have on our tourism, the beaches were closed immediately upon the first test results that showed high levels of E.coli to protect the public.

Q: “Is the city contemplating any disciplinary measures or other actions due to the apparent attempts to mislead the public about the quality of sea/water beaches by:

“a) denying there was a problem?”

eThekwini response: “The City has always been transparent and always acts on available information. We are not aware of anyone being misled.”

“b) claiming that the discolouration of seawater was due to water hyacinth and rain-influenced ‘groundwater flow’ from rivers?”

eThekwini response: “Discolouration due to water hyacinth is normal, especially after rains. The city acts on available information. As soon as the water test results were made available, we acted swiftly to ensure that the beaches were closed and that this was communicated widely.”

The city did, however, appear to acknowledge that a significant proportion of the recent pollution at Durban’s northern and central beaches was due to problems at the city’s Northern Wastewater Treatment Works.

“The dark water emanating from the ponds at the Northern Waste Water Treatment Works (NWWTW) is due to the excessive inflow of stormwater into the Works that flooded the ponds and put the settled sludge into suspension, discolouring the water. This water has to flow into the river. We are currently dosing the discharging water with sodium hypochlorite and we are using alum to settle the solids in the ponds. We are also advertising an emergency contract to dredge the settled sludge from the ponds. This water will not affect beaches, however, residents are urged to stay clear of it for their safety.”

We sent further follow-up questions to the city on Wednesday afternoon to clarify several issues, but no responses had been received late in the day.

The city’s full response to our questions can be read by clicking on the title.

[Lisbeth]

UPL Cornubia catastrophe: Highly toxic cocktail of chemicals in smoke plume finally identified


The state-of-the-art warehouse that UPL occupied for just three months before looters set fire to the warehouse, sending an allegedly R1-billion investment up in a toxic plume of smoke. The cost to repair the environmental damage UPL caused could be much greater. (Photo: Mlungisi Mbele)

By Susan Comrie for amaBhungane | 13 Feb 2022

Seven months after a chemical warehouse in Durban was set alight, residents finally have some answers about what chemicals they inhaled.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For months, residents of Durban have been pleading to know which toxic chemicals they were exposed to when the UPL chemical warehouse was set alight during the July 2021 unrest.

Now, finally, they have some answers.

The UPL warehouse in Cornubia was storing up to 19,000 tons of pesticides. At about midnight on 13 July 2021, the building was torched as part of the ongoing violence in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the days that followed, a toxic soup of chemicals flowed into the Ohlanga River, turning the Umhlanga Lagoon a luminous turquoise and killing thousands of fish. The fire also blanketed northern Durban in acrid smoke for more than a week, leaving residents struggling to breathe and with few answers about what was in the air.

Last week, the provincial government finally released an atmospheric impact report, commissioned as part of the mammoth clean-up of the chemical disaster.

The report, produced by Airshed Planning Professionals in Midrand, identifies 62 chemicals that were likely present in the smoke, the “most significant” being hydrogen cyanide, hydrochloric acid and bromine, as well as pollutants more commonly associated with coal power plants: SO2, NO2 and PM.

The report concludes that most suburbs in the area were exposed to levels of chemicals that caused temporary symptoms — coughing, running nose, tearing eyes — but a significant number experienced levels capable of causing “irreversible or other serious, long-lasting adverse health effects”.


The UPL warehouse north of Durban, torched during the July unrest, triggered an environmental disaster. (Photo: Mlungisi Mbele)

The three worst affected areas were the surrounding suburbs that make up Blackburn Estate; Blackburn Village, an informal settlement that is home to 7,000 people; and the area surrounding Reddam Umhlanga School.

The UPL chemical disaster should be treated as a “regional” incident, Airshed concludes, and its “impact significance” should be rated as “very high”.

When asked if UPL disputed the results or conclusions of the Airshed report, spokesperson Japhet Ncube said: “No, bearing in mind that it is based on a number of assumptions, including conservative assumptions based on a cautious approach, which assumptions may or may not be 100% accurate. UPL is, however, satisfied that the report is done on a solid and scientific basis, using internationally accepted air monitoring modelling. And, we consider it to be a well-researched and very helpful assessment.”

He added that it was “a conservatively modelled study” of the “worst-case scenario”.

The chemical culprits

There were two distinct phases of the fire, according to the Airshed report: the phase when the 14,000m² warehouse was actively burning, which lasted for roughly 48 hours, and the phase when the fire was extinguished but the smouldering debris continued releasing chemicals into the air, which continued for another week.

“Initially the smoke and toxic products would have been relatively low but, as the fire develops, the generation of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) could have been significant,” the report found.

“When the air supply became more constricted … high concentrations of [carbon monoxide], hydrochloric acid, organic products, smoke and other inorganic acid gases would have occurred.”

In the chaos created by the July unrest, there was a delay in firefighters reaching the site. After they began to extinguish the fire, the debris started smouldering and releasing chemicals, some that were “odourless and highly irritant to the respiratory tract” and others that produced a strong, sulphur-like smell.

“During the smouldering phase, the most significant pollutants identified include [ammonia] and naphthalene,” the report found.

It was only at this point that most residents became aware that something was amiss.

“The fire started in the evening, the following day we started to smell that smoke [and realised] it’s not normal … If you have ever been there when tyres are burning, it smells like that,” Kwanele Msizazwe, a community leader from Blackburn Village told amaBhungane.

A few kilometres away, local ward councillor Nicole Bollman had the same experience: “Initially it smelled like Guy Fawkes, like sulphur,” she said. “That’s what it sort of smelled like at the beginning and then it became sickening, like nausea. It sort of hit the back of your palate and sinuses. As soon as the smoke started hitting, that’s when the question started getting asked … what was in there?”

Exposure

One of the reasons it has taken so long to answer this question is that samples from the chemical plume were only taken on 17 July 2021, four days after the fire began. These samples provided some data, but to get a full picture Airshed had to calculate which gases UPL’s inventory of roughly 700 pesticides would release as they burned.

Meteorological data from nearby weather stations showed that the wind initially blew the smoke from the fire south but it quickly changed direction, putting Blackburn Estate and Blackburn Village in the direct path of the chemical plume.



The Airshed report uses Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs), a system used by the US’s Environmental Protection Agency, to “describe the human health effects from once-in-a-lifetime, or rare, exposure to airborne chemicals”.

There are three levels: at AEGL level 1, one “could experience notable discomfort, irritation or certain asymptomatic non-sensory effects”. However, these effects are likely to be short-lived and should disappear when you are no longer exposed to the chemical in question.

At AEGL 2, however, a once-off exposure could lead to “irreversible or other serious, long-lasting adverse health effects”.

At AEGL 3, chemicals are present at such extreme levels as to cause “life-threatening health effects or death”.

The model Airshed produced estimates that virtually the entire north Durban area could have been exposed to AEGL 1 levels of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrochloric acid and bromine.

Hydrochloric acid produces a “pungent, suffocating odour”. When low levels (1.8ppm for 45 minutes) were tested on human volunteers, their symptoms included “sore throat and nasal discharge”, “cough, chest pain or burning, [shortness of breath], wheezing”, and “fatigue, headache, dizziness, unusual taste or smell”.

The concentrations produced by the UPL fire varied from a maximum of 2.71ppm at the Little Einsteins Preprimary School to 30.60ppm at Blackburn Estate, both over an hour-long period.

Airshed concluded that the levels of hydrochloric acid in Blackburn Estate were likely high enough over a four-hour period to be classified as AEGL 2, i.e. capable of causing irreversible health impacts.

Ncube said UPL accepted that smoke from the fire had caused short-term health effects, but added that, in the company’s view, “such health effects were certainly reversible”.

UPL seems less willing to accept that the incident might have caused long-term damage: “The report’s conclusions are not disputed, but must be fully contextualised. The Airshed report, on its own admitted terms, is based on modelling that uses a number of critical assumptions. As pointed out by the author, whether those assumptions are correct or not will only be verified once the human health risk assessment has been conducted,” Ncube said.



Bromine is a “skin, eye and respiratory tract irritant”. Although studies on humans are rare and decades old, the AEGL guidelines note: “The signs and symptoms associated with human exposure to low concentrations [of bromine] include upper airways irritation, inflammation of the eyelids, [tearing], coughing, nosebleed, and a feeling of oppression, dizziness, and headache.”

At 0.03ppm (AEGL 1) one is likely to experience eye irritation, at 0.5ppm (AEGL 2), the effect on eyes, nose and throat becomes disabling. The concentrations produced by the UPL fire varied from a maximum of 0.03ppm at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital to 2.09ppm at Blackburn Estate (over an hour-long period).

The AEGL guidelines also note: “After several hours these symptoms may be followed by abdominal pain and diarrhoea and a measles-like eruption on the trunk and extremities.”

Airshed believes that a far longer list of areas was exposed to AEGL 2 levels of bromine, from the Netcare Umhlanga Hospital (0.22ppm over an hour) to Blackburn Estate (2.09ppm over an hour).

The full list of areas exposed to AEGL 2 levels of bromine is available in tables 5-24 and 5-25 in the Airshed report, which you can download from our Evidence Docket below.

UPL Warehouse Fire Air RPRT Rev 0 22102021

Sulphur dioxide, the common pollutant from coal-fired power plants, was also likely present at AEGL 2 levels in many areas. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards limits sulphur dioxide to 0.134ppm; just below the AEGL 1 level of 0.2ppm.

Airshed estimates that sulphur dioxide exceeded AEGL 2 levels (0.75ppm over an hour) at 26 sites, including Busamed Gateway Private Hospital (3.12ppm), Umhlanga Medical Institute (3.8ppm) and the Akeso psychiatric hospital in Umhlanga (10.88ppm).

Luckily, Airshed concluded that exposure to hydrogen cyanide had been much more limited, with only three areas exposed to levels AEGL 1 levels (1ppm over an hour).

Hydrogen cyanide was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War and at high concentrations of 100 to 200ppm will kill a person in an hour. The concentrations produced by the UPL fire, however, were between 2.58 at Reddam and 3.73ppm at Blackburn Estate, which is likely to produce nothing more than a mild headache.

Chemical fallout

One of Airshed’s biggest challenges was that no one is quite sure which pesticides burned in the fire and which washed down into the Ohlanga River.

“It is difficult to determine the exact amount of the warehouse contents that washed away in the firewater, but, for the purposes of the air pollution impact assessment, it was assumed that most of the highly flammable materials (eg solvents) would have been consumed in the fire, ranging between 85% to 95%, assuming an average of 90%,” the report notes.

Earlier reports found high levels of arsenic, atrazine and bromoxynil in places that were exposed to the contaminated firefighting water. Read amaBhungane’s report: UPL disaster: Initial tests found high levels of arsenic from Durban’s chemical spill.

The report, however, assumes that some of the pesticides survived and were carried up with the smoke and deposited, unburnt, in other surrounding areas. The extent of this additional source of potential contamination is clear from an interim situation report provided by Apex Environmental, the company leading the clean-up.

This second report reveals that at least 40 swabs have been taken at Reddam Umhlanga, located across the road from the destroyed UPL warehouse. Tests on the swabs were looking for “pesticides” and “hazardous chemical agents” on everything from the playground slide to toys in the early learning centre to the swimming pools.

The report shows that samples were also taken from swimming pools all along Chestnut Crescent and from vegetable gardens in Blackburn Village.

The Apex report discloses that at least 217 people have been under medical surveillance because of their exposure to the fire and chemically contaminated debris. This includes 32 firefighters, 15 security guards and 166 members of the clean-up crews who are still on site.

The report also contains a summary of the symptoms reported in the 117 complaints from residents that UPL had received by November. These include everything from “headaches, blacking out, [and] dizziness” to “difficulty breathing, rapid breathing, [and] burning chest”.

Many of these effects are likely to be temporary. But Apex says it will take time and a multi-disciplinary approach to quantify the human fallout from the UPL disaster.

“Chemical exposure as a result of aerosolised chemicals, fumes and smoke plumes may potentially induce both acute and chronic adverse health effects, many of which have long latency periods,” it warns, meaning that, for some residents, it could take months or years for symptoms to develop. DM

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Putting a cork into South Africa’s overflowing sewage crisis


Sewage runs down a street in Dunoon, a township in Cape Town. Sewage spillages and overflows are rife in the area. (Photo: Peter Luhanga)

By Tony Carnie | 27 Feb 2022

Where is the evidence of determined action to remedy the nationwide sewage pollution crisis?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
‘What happens at the local sewage works is not a very sexy issue. Politicians get far more kudos for building new and shiny things rather than keeping basic water and waste services running properly. Because sewage treatment is kind of out of sight and out of mind, it’s not a big deal. All this contributes to the lack of maintenance.” — Professor Michael Kidd, environmental law specialist, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Barely a week goes by without another report of human excrement pouring into streets and rivers across the country. In some cases, homes have been flooded, fish wiped out and tourist beaches forced to close. Health researchers also warn about the increasing danger of waterborne diseases.

These alarm bells have been ringing for years, yet where is the evidence of determined action to remedy the nationwide sewage pollution crisis?


The Northern Waste Water Treatment Works, source of the high sewage pollution levels which led to the recent closure of several tourist beaches in Durban (Image: Shawn Herbst, Netcare 911)

Ultimately, huge piles of money will be required to refurbish collapsing infrastructure and to employ and train competent managers, engineers and technicians. Yet, there may also be some effective short-term reforms that would start to make a difference — including the rapid reinstatement of the Green Drop monitoring system that was dumped during the tenure of former Water and Sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane.

Our Burning Planet spoke to veteran water managers, engineers and environmental law experts to explore possible solutions.

Neil Macleod, a water and civil engineering consultant to the World Bank and other groups, believes there are some relatively simple solutions that would start to make a difference.

Paraphrased very brutally it boils down to hiring properly qualified management and staff; allowing them to do their jobs without undue political interference, and monitoring problems on the horizon before they become a crisis — much like servicing your car to avoid a potentially deadly brake failure or engine seizure.

Macleod, who retired in 2014 after more than 20 years at the helm of the eThekwini (Durban) Water and Sanitation Department, sees a need for a drastic reduction in the number of water service authorities nationwide — thereby reducing duplication and making better use of specialist engineering staff and management.

“I have been saying for many years that we have too many water service authorities. Why do we need over 140 authorities scattered around the country? If we had only 50, we would need correspondingly fewer professional managers and other key staff (instead of nearly three times that number).”

These streamlined authorities should be located in cities and towns with a larger base of relatively richer people who would be charged a bit more to cross-subsidise neighbouring poorer areas.

Each authority would also require a competent water and sanitation manager — dedicated solely to these functions, rather than overseeing a multiplicity of other municipal functions.

“The requirements for these managers need to go beyond just technical or engineering skills. They also need to have a proper knowledge of finance and management.

“From my personal perspective, I was already qualified as a civil engineer, but I lacked other vital skills. So, I did an MBA and it changed my life and enabled me to run a department of more than 3,000 staff with an annual turnover of over R7-billion.

“I was lucky to have Obed Mlaba as mayor of Durban during much of my tenure. He also had an MBA and did not interfere. He said: ‘Neil, you run this business.’ Now we seem to have 25-year-old politicians who want to run multibillion-rand entities.”

Technical staff also need to be trained properly — rather than adopting quick-fix approaches like the 2015 War on Leaks scheme to train 15,000 youths as plumbers and artisans over a short period.

In reality, says Macleod, it takes at least 18 months to be trained properly as an apprentice with the necessary skills for major infrastructure — not just household plumbing.

“You also need to ring-fence municipal water revenue so that it is not bled off into esoteric, rah-rah projects or bloated teams for the mayoral office.”

Nevertheless, Macleod says he is encouraged that Senzo Mchunu, the new national Water and Sanitation Minister, called experts together to establish a new task team at the recent water and sanitation summit in Midrand.

He suggests that private sector skills can be used to turn around dysfunctional municipal water and sanitation departments via temporary management contracts and skills transfer schemes, similar to the model used by Joburg Water from 2000 to 2005.

“The staff are still employed by the state but there are independent managers for a fixed period who then step away in a phased approach as the skills are transferred.”

Macleod thinks it is vital that a completely transparent Green Drop wastewater monitoring and evaluation scheme is reinstated quickly.


A fishing trawler passes through a plume of sewage discharged into the sea off Cape Town. The city dumps wastewater into sea via three marine pipelines at Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay, along with a fourth pipeline for the fuel refinery at Milnerton. (Photo: Jean Tresfon (https://www.facebook.com/JeanTresfonPhotography)

Until this scheme was quashed in 2014, the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) sent out evaluation questionnaires to municipalities every year, as well as to independent auditors, “to make sure they were not lying”.

“They also looked at plans for the future, the number of staff, the qualifications of staff — all the things that are necessary for the good management of vital infrastructure assets.”

Just before the local government elections in 2016, Macleod asked (former) water minister Nomvula Mokonyane: “Why have you stopped the Green Drop report?”

Macleod says the short answer was that the results were “just too terrible”. So it was stopped.

“This was a system designed to find out what we were doing well, or not doing well. By stopping it, the department lost its ability to either monitor or to support municipalities which were running into problems.”

Professor Michael Kidd, a specialist in environmental law and water law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, echoes the importance of bringing back the Green Drop scheme.

“The 2009 Green Drop report released by the national Department of Water indicated that, of the 449 water treatment plants assessed for the report (53% of the total number in the country), only 65 (14.5%) were in compliance with legal standards applicable to the release of treated effluent.”

Later, when the 2011 Green Drop report was released, details of compliance with applicable legal standards were not provided for each municipality. Nevertheless, overall results showed that only 44% of plants managed to score above 50% in the rating.

More recent reports have not been published, but widespread evidence of continuing problems with sewage contamination suggest little, if any, improvement.

Kidd is also concerned that the national department appears to have misinterpreted — possibly deliberately — some of its legal responsibilities in the context of the separation of powers of the three tiers of government.

Whereas national, provincial and local governments each have their own “functional areas” (with water and sanitation devolved to local municipalities), Kidd emphasises that overall governance of water is an exclusive national competence in terms of the Constitution.

“The Constitution does not prevent the (national) department from supporting municipalities, but it does prevent them from interfering — and that is a very big difference.

“The bottom line is that, when it comes to government offenders (in the vast majority of cases involving untreated sewage in water supply, the offenders are local government bodies), the DWS sees the directive requiring action as the last step they can take.

“If the directive is not complied with (probably the case in most instances), the department regards any further action (such as prosecution) as legally incompetent. Which, in my view, it is not.”

While DWS indicated recently it was preparing criminal actions against some municipalities, Kidd says he is not aware of any successful prosecutions.

“But I’m not even sure if that is realistic in many cases. What would be achieved by threatening them with prosecution? Some could be fined — but the problems would persist if there is no support or finance to remedy the root problems.”

Kidd suggests that, in many cases, it is not a case of wilful non-compliance but rather a lack of sufficient assistance from the national department.

“We also hear reports that a significant percentage of posts in DWS remain unfilled and there is no suggestion that things have improved recently. Some employees have previously described the department as Hollywood — because so many key staff were acting.”


Water hyacinth weeds have choked large sections of the Hartebeespoort Dam due to high sewage pollution levels — adding to the cost of treating drinking water from major dams. (Photo: Peet Venter)

Kidd says there is definitely a case for enforcement in cases of wilful non-compliance, but suggests the first port of call should be: “How can we work this out together?”

It’s almost a passing of the buck by the national department, he suggests, as many municipalities have no realistic prospect of sourcing the finances to fix up the infrastructure.

“They also lack human resources. So this involves much more than DWS alone. Ultimately, it’s a Cabinet issue. The other problem is that what happens at the local sewage works is not a very sexy issue. Politicians get far more kudos for building new and shiny things rather than keeping basic water and waste services running properly. So, because sewage treatment is kind of out of sight and out of mind, it’s not a big deal. All this contributes to the lack of maintenance.”

Dan Naidoo, chairman of the board of the Water Institute of South Africa (WISA), says the bottom line can be summarised in two words: “accountability” and “leadership”.

Commenting on the recent South African Human Rights Commission’s damning report on sewage pollution in the Vaal River, Naidoo said DWS had failed to hold the Emfuleni municipality to account for long-standing raw sewage pollution of this major river system.

According to the SAHRC report, nearly 19 million people depend on the Vaal River for water, for drinking and for domestic and commercial use.

“The Vaal is now polluted beyond acceptable standards… because of inoperative and dilapidated wastewater treatment plants. The population of yellowfish peculiar to a few South African rivers such as the Vaal are under threat of extinction on account of the change to the balance of river flora and other competing species in the river caused by pollution of the Vaal.”

Naidoo, who is also a regional manager for Umgeni Water, says when local government fails and there is no accountability, basic services fail, and constitutional rights are violated.

“Due to the critical importance of water as a basic human right, it is essential that accountable, technically equipped and professional people are placed within key government posts.”

He suggests that the professionalisation of key water posts within government and water-related institutions will end this lack of accountability.

“When we look at public servants — people who are working in SOEs, water boards, municipalities and government departments — we need to reflect on the skills, experience and capacity required to execute the requirements of these key portfolios.

“What training and skills related to these portfolios did the incumbents have? If key water-related posts are professionalised, then at least there is a minimum technical requirement in terms of qualification, proven experience and competency.

“We need public servants who are technically competent and can conduct their work in an ethical way — showing care for the environment and the public. We should never be faced with a court ruling that forces us to do our jobs,” he wrote in a recent editorial in the WISA magazine Water and Sanitation Africa.

“The water sector has the skills — we have brilliant scientists and engineers. But we have allowed the Vaal Dam to be polluted, infrastructure to fail and certain areas to have no water at all. How have we allowed this degradation to happen? As custodians of a precious resource, we should ask ourselves every day: What more can we do (or not do) to make sure that we conduct our duties in a professional manner?”

Naidoo says he is astonished that infrastructure is not at the front of the line when it comes to government priorities.

“It is obvious that most of our infrastructure is failing. I cannot help but ask: are we communicating correctly? It feels as if we are having the same discussion year in and year out, with very little traction. There cannot be any progress if there is no investment in infrastructure,” he said, noting that the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan estimated that R1-trillion will be needed to fund and rehabilitate water and sanitation infrastructure.

“Do we all have to face a ‘Day Zero’ until something is done? Countries that worked with scientists and made decisions based on science were a lot more successful in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This must also happen with water. Let us leave politics out of decisions, work together with scientists, and implement worthwhile solutions that will benefit everyone.” DM/OBP

​​Recent developments at the Department of Water and Sanitation

Despite the criticisms above, there have been several notable developments affecting the Department of Water and Sanitation over the past year.

• In July 2021 the department announced that it would reinstate the Blue Drop (clean tap water) certification scheme and “partially” reinstate the Green Drop certification scheme for municipal wastewater, with the first results scheduled to be released towards the end of next month (March 2022)

Acting Deputy Director-General Leonardo Manus, responsible for Compliance, Monitoring and Evaluation, said the resuscitation of the two schemes aimed to ensure compliance with legislation and improved service delivery.

• In August, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Senzo Mchunu as the new Minister of Water Affairs and Sanitation. Significantly, the new department was separated from the Housing/Human Settlements portfolio to focus solely on water and sanitation.

• Also in August, the department admitted in a statement that one of the main sources of domestic and river pollution stemmed from municipal wastewater treatment works, sewer blockages, poor operations and maintenance as well as pollution from mining operations.

Siboniso Mkhaliphi, the Acting Chief Director in the Department’s Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement unit, said the department had designated the Green Scorpions to help curb water pollution nationwide.

Since 2014, the Green Scorpions had investigated 598 cases related to dysfunctional wastewater treatment works said Mkhaliphi, noting that “the Department embarks on legal processes as a last resort and only takes legal action after numerous attempts to persuade and compel municipalities to rectify their non-compliances.”

It had also opened five criminal cases involving municipalities with the South African Police Service, while 148 pre-directive notices and 74 directives had also been issued over the last eight years.

• In December, Dr Sean Phillips was appointed as the new permanent Director-General of the department. He is a qualified engineer and holds BEng Hons, MSc, MM and PhD degrees from Wits University and Warwick University.

Phillips has held posts at the National Treasury, as an independent consultant and has more than 20 years of senior management experience in the public service.

He has also worked at the Development Bank of SA, Department of Planning and Evaluation in the Presidency, Department of Public Works, Department of Public Enterprises, City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Roads Agency.

• Earlier this month, Mchunu invited a wide variety of stakeholders to a two-day National Water and Sanitation Summit in Midrand “to craft lasting solutions to challenges facing the sector to ensure water security and dignified sanitation”.

Mchunu pledged that the summit was aimed at solutions and action instead of being another talk shop.

“Our people are tired of us talking and making endless promises, they want concrete solutions, they want clean water, they want dignified sanitation from us, and we are constitutionally mandated to provide these basic services to them,” he said. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Cut the crap or face the music — Senzo Mchunu cracks the whip on those polluting SA’s rivers with sewage


Minister Senzo Mchunu. (Photo: Gallo Images / The Times / Tebogo Letsie)

By Tony Carnie | 07 Mar 2022

The recently appointed Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, has pledged to shake up a department that has for years suffered from poor management and neglect.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On a blisteringly hot day in the early 1800s, Zulu monarch Shaka ka Senzangakhona is reputed to have rested briefly alongside a large river south of present-day Durban. After scooping up handfuls of water to slake his thirst, he exclaimed with appreciation “Kanti, amanz’emtoti” (Wow, this water is nice!).

Two centuries later, only a very silly or desperately thirsty person would dare drink untreated water from the Amanzimtoti River — or indeed many of the rivers and streams that pass through densely populated urban and industrial areas across the country.

Quite apart from the toxic muck from industry and mines, or the tide of litter and organic waste from a multitude of human settlements, it is the dysfunctional municipal wastewater treatment works that have emerged as one of the primary sources of raw or untreated human excrement in local rivers.


Discarded nappies clog a stream in the Vulindlela area near Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Doug Burden)

Discarded nappies clog a stream in the Vulindlela area near Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Doug Burden)
“Do you see this as a crisis? And what is being done to stop it?” we asked the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, in an online interview requested by Our Burning Planet.

“(Sewage) pollution is a major issue in the country — one that we want to face in the eye,” Mchunu pledged.

While acknowledging that several municipalities are short of cash or professionally qualified staff capacity, he says the department will no longer tolerate invalid excuses.

“Our approach is that responsibility is responsibility. People will be taken to court if they are seen not playing ball, within the context of encouraging collaboration and working together. But if we are not heeded or taken seriously, we will do that (take them to court).”

Tough talk at last from the national custodian of South Africa’s scarce water resources.

But words come cheap and many observers may be inclined to reserve judgment until the flow of municipal sewage pollution is brought under control.

All the same, since Mchunu took over as minister in August, there seems to be a sense of renewed momentum to remedy the well-documented failures within the water and sanitation sector. Mchunu has also been remarkably candid in acknowledging some of these failures and the need for his department to “up its game”.

One example is the revival of the Green Drop monitoring and evaluation scheme for municipal wastewater treatment, the results of which proved so utterly embarrassing that his predecessor, Nomvula Mokonyane, sought to bury the scheme to avoid public scrutiny.

“At the end of March we expect the first Green Drop report since 2014,” says Mchunu.

“Once we know our status as far as wastewater is concerned, it will tell us where we need to go in terms of compliance and the outstanding work that will need to be undertaken.”

At the same time, the department has announced plans to revive the Blue Drop scheme, which measures and ranks the quality of potable drinking water nationwide.

“We want to be very, very compliant (with Blue Drop tap water quality). No doubt about it. We don’t want to be some backyard country as far as quality of water is concerned. We want to maintain the highest standards… There is really quite a lot of work to do. But we are committed to it.”


Workers clear mountains of plastic trash from the mouth of the Umgeni River in Durban. Apart from visible litter, large volumes of untreated human sewage from the city’s northern wastewater treatment works have been adding to the pollution load over recent months. (Photo: Shawn Herbst)

Can he explain why several senior posts in his department have remained unfilled?

Mchunu notes that a new permanent Director-General of Water and Sanitation — experienced engineer and administrator Dr Sean Phillips — took office in January after his appointment was approved by Cabinet late last year.

Other senior positions, including that of chief financial officer and deputy director-general of human resources, had also been filled and a short-listing process was under way for other senior posts in the water services management and water regulation divisions. A disciplinary process was also being finalised for a senior infrastructure official.

“We have attempted on several occasions to get the right people. It’s our insistence, to an extent, on appropriate qualifications for these positions, which we are finding a little bit difficult. Whereas we thought it would be easy to get people with the qualifications… we said nevertheless we cannot deviate or loosen up.

“Filling these positions with unsuitably qualified people is counter-productive… If it was the olden days, there are many people who would have qualified as DDGs — people who are criminologists, psychologists etc. There are thousands of those people. We would have filled these positions long ago. But we are now saying that this department is better served with people with appropriate qualifications. We are not moving on that.

“Even when we fill up positions on water boards, we insist on a particular range of qualifications,” he says, adding that it serves no purpose to have water service authorities headed by former policemen, for example, or people who “can just handle a spanner”.

Referring to one of the most highly publicised cases of municipal wastewater mismanagement — the high level of sewage pollution in the Vaal River — Mchunu says Rand Water had been asked to intervene and to assist the Emfuleni municipality, while his deputy, David Mahlobo, was also engaging the municipality’s newly elected councillors on this issue.

He says there are plans to revive a special national water anti-pollution unit and to engage further with catchment management agencies and the Water Research Commission.

Mchunu’s department was also in discussion with local community forums and the Gauteng provincial department to relocate informal settlements along the banks of the polluted Jukskei River.

“There are a number of organisations that we have engaged with (following the recent Water and Sanitation Summit) and they are very enthusiastic and keen on working with us to clean the rivers in South Africa for the benefit of all of us and the next generation.

“That will include protecting sources of water so that they don’t rot under pollution and sludge of various kinds (including from companies and mines).” DM/OBP