Of the 848 wastewater treatment plants assessed nationwide, 396 are in a critical state, while only about a quarter are performing at a standard that meets regulatory requirements. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
South Africa’s wastewater treatment system is in a deep crisis, with nearly half of all plants assessed classified as critically non-compliant — a failure that is contaminating rivers, dams and drinking water sources across the country.
This is the stark warning from the latest Green Drop findings, described by the Water Institute of Southern Africa (Wisa) as a “diagnostic of a national essential service in critical condition” rather than just a technical audit.
Of the 848 wastewater treatment plants assessed nationwide, 396 are in a critical state, while only about a quarter are performing at a standard that meets regulatory requirements.
“That’s not a statistic to skim past,” said Lester Goldman, its chief executive. “It means that right now, across communities from Limpopo to the Western Cape, poorly treated or untreated sewage is finding its way into rivers, dams and the water sources that millions of people depend on for drinking, for farming, for survival.”
For too long, Goldman said, wastewater treatment plants had been treated as invisible infrastructure, the “big toilets” of the country that attracted attention only when they overflowed.
“When nearly half of our plants fail to meet basic standards, that invisibility becomes dangerous.”
The crisis is often attributed to ageing infrastructure and constrained municipal budgets. While both are real pressures, they are not the root cause.
Goldman pointed to a deeper structural breakdown: a fragmented governance system shaped by procurement delays, under-costed tariffs and financial models that do not reflect the true cost of maintaining wastewater infrastructure.
Municipalities, he said, were being squeezed from multiple directions but the underlying problem was also one of institutional focus and accountability.
Compounding the crisis was a widespread misunderstanding of regulatory requirements.
Many municipalities, Goldman said, were operating as though outdated compliance frameworks were sufficient, when in fact, current regulations required measurable performance outcomes and functional service delivery.
“The gap between where many municipalities think the bar is and where it actually sits is, in itself, a governance failure,” he said. “We cannot manage what we do not accurately measure and we cannot fix what we refuse to hold to modern standards.”
The regulatory disconnect has allowed underperformance to persist without consequence, even as environmental and public health risks escalate.
Despite systemic failures, Wisa said the human capacity to fix the system existed.
Across the country, skilled engineers, scientists and process controllers continued to operate plants under increasingly difficult conditions, often without adequate resources or institutional support.
The disconnect between skill and support was one of the most damaging aspects of the crisis, he said.
As one process controller in Limpopo said: “We know how to run these plants. We keep improving. But without support, we can’t apply what we know. And when superiors don’t even show up to roadshows, you have to ask: Why wouldn’t they want better water, better staff, better communities?”
Goldman said that when leadership was absent, even the most skilled professional became a “spectator to a slow-motion disaster”.
Wisa positioned itself as a technical and professional body, not an operator or regulator. Its role, Goldman said, was to set standards, certify skills and strengthen the professional pipeline that kept the sector functioning.
But it cannot compensate for governance failures. “We don’t operate plants and we don’t have the legislative power to sanction municipalities,” Goldman added. “What we can do is ensure there is a competent, ethical and empowered workforce ready to deliver when the system allows it.”
However, he cautioned that professionalisation alone cannot reverse systemic decline without parallel reforms in funding, enforcement and municipal governance.
Reversing the deterioration of South Africa’s wastewater system will require simultaneous action across three fronts.
First, enforced accountability, with real consequences for municipal leadership failures rather than procedural compliance. Second, financial realism, including tariff and funding structures that reflect the true cost of maintaining functioning wastewater systems.
And third, institutional support, ensuring technical staff have the authority and resources needed to translate expertise into effective service delivery.
Cleaner rivers, safer drinking water, improved public health outcomes and more resilient ecosystems remain achievable, but only if institutional systems align with technical capacity, according to Goldman.
“At Wisa, we remain committed to professional excellence and to the practitioners who deliver it every day,” he added. “Now we need the rest of the system to meet us there.”
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