Aging infrastructure which resulted in water losses of upt to 40% should be overhauled urgently.
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With over 40% of water produced lost due to aging and broken infrastructure as a result of leaks or theft, the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) says it is imperative to fix and renew aged and defective infrastructure to turn these numbers around.
SAICE said the announcement by Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo last year of nearly R98 billion in support to municipalities in infrastructure development across 144 water service authorities was encouraging, but there were still serious challenges to overcome.
It said expenditure at the DWS hovered between R17 billion for all water programmes, including new projects and maintenance, between 2018 and 2022. Although the budget for the 2023-2025 period was R69.3 billion, it failed to make a dent, falling R200 billion short of the necessary target.
Wynand Dreyer, chair of the SAICE Advocacy Committee, said dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants contributed significantly to untreated, or partially treated, sewage being discharged into the environment, including rivers and oceans. He said the lack of compliance and monitoring exacerbated the crisis.
"During minor floods, the impact of the degraded water flow into rivers is huge, with wastewater treatment plants discharges stimulating excessive reed growth, which in turn alters riverbeds. The result is that instead of there being a 1:50 or 1:100 year chance of floods, developments in areas that were previously far away from the flood zones now fall within these flood zones, increasing their risk of being flooded.
"Dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants have played a significant role in untreated, or partially treated, sewage being discharged into the environment, including rivers and oceans. Lack of compliance and monitoring by competent authorities exacerbates the water crises. This polluted the watercourses from which drinking water was abstracted, adding to the complexity and cost of purification, and polluted the oceans and seafood consumed.
Segomotso Kelefetswe, SAICE’s advocacy contributor on water infrastructure, said the increasing demand for inner city accommodation as a result of migration to urban areas required the planning of serviced human settlements in appropriate areas. Engineers should contribute towards these developments, he said, adding that there was no denying the effect of the failure of many municipal governments to maintain and enhance their infrastructure, in the face of increasing demand by growing inner city populations.
“This situation requires holistic project management and implementation setup to ensure the project cycle can be used to contribute to success in restoring aging or collapsed infrastructure, plan better and operate the system properly. If the system is not robust, corruption, theft and vandalism remain the cancer of the system,” said Kelefetswe.
He said the government should appoint properly qualified and professionally registered personnel with reputable track records. Alternatively a panel of experts should be appointed to support implementation, training and development to improve skills and retain talent.