Green drop assessment: majority of South Africa's wastewater treatment facilities score less than 50%
A reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question has confirmed the DA's allegation that only 32 of the wastewater treatment works assessed for compliance with Green Drop certification criteria have been awarded the Green Drop. This equates to a compliance level of just 7%.
The full text of the parliamentary question and the reply to the question are shown below. It is important to note that 47% of the works in South Africa were not assessed by the Department. The reasons for this are unclear.
The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs launched, in late 2008, a Green Drop certification program for wastewater treatment works in an effort to ensure that they progressively improve their operations so as not to impact negatively on the water bodies into which they discharge their product. The Green Drop report has not yet been released, despite calls by the DA and by concerned citizens and media across the country. The DA has previously expressed concern that this is primarily due to the shocking content of the report.
The breakdown of the 32 works which have been found to comply with requirements is as follows:
- Eleven (11) systems from Ethekwini Metro
- Six (6) systems from City of Johannesburg
- Seven (7) systems from City of Cape Town
- Two (2) systems from City of Tshwane
- Two (2) systems from Ekurhuleni Metro
- Two (2) systems from Mbombela Local Municipality
- Two (2) systems from George Local Municipality
55% of the works assessed scored less than 50%, and, according to the Minister, this is "cause for concern".
The DA has previously stated that the public has a right to know the extent of the dysfunctionality of municipal sewage treatment works, and, more importantly, has a right to demand that the Department make public its plans to address this dysfunctionality.
The Minister states, in her reply, that "an action plan is being finalised, based upon the findings of the assessment". The DA is aware that the figures quoted above have been common knowledge within the Department since at least May 2009, and quite probably well before that date. It is most disturbing that is, after almost a year, the Department still does not have an action plan which details a set of urgent measures to address the obviously extreme level of dysfunctionality within this sphere of the water service sector.
We now know that the crisis within wastewater treatment capability is not a perception, but a reality.
The Department will be presenting a two-day workshop on its strategic plan to the parliamentary Water and Environmental Affairs Portfolio Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The DA trusts that the acting Director-General will present a sound strategy to address what is a threat to economic growth, to the environment and most certainly to health.
We will continue to relentlessly pursue the unacceptable breakdown of our wastewater treatment capability through every means available to us. We cannot accept any extension of the period of apparent inaction in addressing this issue, which has potentially fatal consequences.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 141
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 11 FEBRUARY 2010
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 1)
141.Mrs A T Lovemore (DA) to ask the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:
(1) (a) How many wastewater treatment works have been assessed as part of the Green Drop certification programme and (b) which wastewater treatment works have qualified for the awarding of a Green Drop certificate;
(2) whether the report will be made public; if not, (a) why not and (b) what caused the delay in the publication of the report; if so, when;
(3) whether the publication of the report will be accompanied by a public commitment to a plan of action to address shortcomings identified in the report; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? nbsp; ; NW149E
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REPLY:
(1)(a) A total of four hundred and forty nine (449) out of eight hundred and fifty two (852) municipal Waste Water Systems (including the Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW)) were assessed for the first Green Drop Certification programme.
(1)(b) To contextualise the findings of the report, the Green Drop status is awarded to WWTW that have a achieved a total of 90% and above from the seven (7) critical performance areas namely: skills, monitoring program efficiency, credibility of the waste water sample analysis, regular submission of results to DWA, waste water compliance, response management in case of failures and the capacity of a WWTW to handle the load.
The results of the assessment are as follow
7% of the assessed WWTW achieved the Green drop status. The breakdown of the 32 systems that received the status is as follows:
Twelve (11) systems from Ethekwini Metro ("This should, presumably, read Eleven(11)...")
Six (6) systems from City of Johannesburg
Seven (7) systems from City of Cape Town
Two (2) systems from City of Tshwane
Two (2) systems from Ekurhuleni Metro
Two (2) systems from Mbombela Local Municipality
Two (2) systems from George Local Municipality
38% of the assessed systems achieved from 50% - 89%. In this case there is room for improvement in some of the key critical performance areas.
The remaining 55% of the assessed WWTW that scored below 50% is cause for concern. This is where the action plan will put more emphasis.
(2)(a) Yes, the report will be made public.
(2)(b) My Department expanded its waste water regulatory initiative to obtain more information on the remainder of systems not assessed in the formal Green Drop Certification programme to have a broader picture of all municipal waste water services systems.
(3) Yes, an action plan is being finalised, based upon the findings of the assessment.
Statement issued by Annette Lovemore, MP, Democratic Alliance deputy shadow minister of water and environmental affairs, March 11 2010
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