Municipalities across the country are increasingly failing to manage their wastewater treatment plants, leading to the pollution of water sources and the environment.
This problem, according to the water and sanitation department, has worsened since 2023 – with a total of 79 criminal cases of breach of water legislation being opened to date.
This represents an increase of 66 new cases that are in courts for criminal prosecution, compared to 13 cases recorded between 2018 and 2023.
Most of the cases of pollution of water sources were recorded in Mpumalanga and the Free State. The department’s spokesperson Wisane Mavasa said the spike in the number of cases before court highlights a collapse in basic compliance and exposes the municipalities to severe penalties.
Last month, the Emalahleni local municipality in Mpumalanga was fined R650-million for causing severe environmental pollution by allowing raw sewage to overflow from municipal sewer manholes into the environment for six years without intervention.
Raw sewage was negligibly discharged into Ferroglobe Silicon Smelters, Witbank Dam, the Naawpoort River, Steenkoolspruit, the Klein Olifants River, and ultimately the Olifants River.
The Mpumalanga high court found the municipality guilty of unauthorised disposal of waste, failure to comply with water use licence conditions, and causing significant environmental pollution.
Despite the fine, Emalahleni ward councillor Maureen Scheepers said the situation remained unresolved.
Mavasa said the results from the Blue Green and No Drop reports, which assess municipal performance in quality of drinking water and waste water management, indicated a general decline in the water and sanitation function.
She said criminal cases against municipal accounting officers involved were primarily related to pollution emanating from pipes, manholes or pump stations or treating wastewater.
“Prior to opening these cases, the department first exhausts its administrative powers to attain compliance. This also means extensive intergovernmental engagements and support prior to moving to criminal enforcement,” Mavasa said.
Prior to opening these cases, the department first exhausts its administrative powers to attain compliance.
— Wisane Mavasa, Department’s spokesperson
She said municipalities that had been criminally charged were not responsible for administrative action or were not adhering to or executing corrective action plans agreed to during administrative action engagement.
She said the increase in the number of criminal charges being pursued reflected a growing concern about municipal dysfunction and increased efforts by the department to hold municipalities accountable.
“Despite the support [financial and technical] being provided by national and provincial governments to municipalities, the Green Drop reports indicate that municipal wastewater and sanitation services continue to decline rapidly,” she said.
“The main cause of the decline is poor maintenance and operation of wastewater treatment systems by municipalities – which must be funded by revenue from the sale of water by municipalities to customers and from municipal sanitation charges.”
Brunhilde Rossouw, councillor at ward 4 in Masilonyana local municipality in the Free State, told the Sowetan sewage has been running directly into a dam meant to provide water to Windburg and Makelaketla communities.
“At this stage, the sewer is running directly into the dam that is supposed to provide the town with water. We have been warning them [the municipality] for ages. The sewage plant is also in a mess. It is working, but not adequately,” he said.
Zongezile Ntjwabule, spokesperson for Masilonyana municipality, said their criminal cases had to do with the town’s wastewater treatment system – the oxidation ponds and the pump station.
He said the oxidation ponds challenge was resolved and they were now attending to the pump station. “The municipality is committed to fully resolving this challenge with the support of the same department of water and sanitation and further continuing to engage with the department to consider withdrawing the charges against the municipality,” he said.
Sowetan
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