Municipal sewerage system in state of collapse

SA’s municipal sewerage system has largely collapsed, according to a Mail & Guardian report which notes that of the 824 treatment plants, only about 60 release clean water. The report says raw or partially treated sewage flows into rivers throughout the country, turning dams green and killing people who drink the polluted water. From big metros such as Johannesburg to towns like Villiers in the Free State, what is flushed down the toilet either leaks from broken pipes or from the plants meant to treat it back to safe quality. Of the 36 wastewater plants, the M&G visited over the past six years, few worked properly. Global best practice is for a municipality to spend 15% of the value of a plant on its maintenance each year, but maintenance budgets are often where corruption hits hardest, the report notes.

After a sewage spill, Margate Beach was on Wednesday reopened to the public after test results revealed the seawater was again at an acceptable standard for recreational purposes. A report in The Citizen says this is according to the South Coast Herald, which was informed by Ugu District Municipality spokesperson France Zama and comes after he confirmed that there had been a sewage spill that had affected the beach and lagoon. ‘The lagoon will remain closed. There has been a slight improvement in the levels of contamination in the river and we have closed the river mouth as a precautionary measure,’ he said. Zama said the spill was thought to have occurred as a result of an electro/mechanical failure caused by an excessive silt build-up in the wet well of the pump station. The report notes that in March, Margate experienced another sewage contamination in the Nkongweni River.