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Speaker 1: All right, let's go to those water reports then offered

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Speaker 1: by the Department of War ten Sanitation and ATMA is

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Speaker 1: the chief director for Water Use Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement

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Speaker 1: and at a very good afternoon, and welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Collectively, the reports do not paint a good picture. But

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Speaker 1: perhaps let's take them one in turn. What are the

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Speaker 1: main outcomes from the green Drop report?

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Speaker 2: All right, so just again, I know it gets confusing.

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Speaker 2: The green Drop report looks at the environmental impact, so

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Speaker 2: it looks at the wastewater processes. Unfortunately for the Green Drop,

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Speaker 2: we monitor all the whitewater treatment works in the country.

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Speaker 2: There has been a continued decline since our last assessment

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two. We look at about eight hundred

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Speaker 2: and forty eight systems across the country. Last time we

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Speaker 2: assist in twenty twenty two, about forty seven percent of

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Speaker 2: them were in a critical set of performance. Oh sorry,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't thirty nine percent. Now it is in forty

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Speaker 2: seven percent. So it's been an additional sixty systems that

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Speaker 2: scored nor to thirty on our scorecard for wastewater treatment works.

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Speaker 1: And what has been the contributing factor to this gradual.

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Speaker 2: Decline mostly budgetary allocations in terms of wastewater management is

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Speaker 2: not a priority. Money seems is prioritized to go elsewhere

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Speaker 2: and wastewater is not the sexiest thing to spend money on. Also,

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Speaker 2: in terms of capacity, specifically in the Northern Cape, the

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Speaker 2: personnel is not available to manage the processes and these

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Speaker 2: works do require technical people to run them and they

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Speaker 2: are not either not appropriately skilled with the people that

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Speaker 2: are there, or there's a shortage of stuff to run

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Speaker 2: the infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: And does the report, I suppose, offer any recommendations as

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Speaker 1: to what needs to be done to turn this around.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. The Department obviously also has been working with the

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Speaker 2: municipalities that were ready in a critical state. From twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two, there was about one hundred and five systems

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Speaker 2: that had The Department has been supporting in terms of

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Speaker 2: its grant funding and continues to do that. We do

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Speaker 2: believe that there will be an improvement in the next

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Speaker 2: round of the report, because there's also delay in the

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Speaker 2: financial years that we are reporting. Further to that, the

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Speaker 2: Department has taken enforcement action against where the municipalities have

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Speaker 2: failed to provide corrective action. Unfortunately, we've also had to

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Speaker 2: open criminal cases where there's continued disregard of the Department's

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Speaker 2: recommendations and requirements.

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Speaker 1: Because that's key, is it, not Annett, There needs to

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Speaker 1: be some level of consequence management, otherwise we will never

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Speaker 1: see the necessary work being effected in those areas that

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Speaker 1: need the repairs, improvements and so forth.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, the Department is further also amending its primary legislation

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Speaker 2: or Water Services Act. We're bringing in a licensing system

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Speaker 2: for water services providers so that we have licensed, competent

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Speaker 2: water services providers that can provide the services to our

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Speaker 2: citizens that they require in accordance with the national standards.

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Speaker 1: All right, that's a green drop report. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the No Drop progress report.

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Speaker 2: All right, So the no drop if we talk about

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Speaker 2: no job, we're talking about water use efficiency. It's mostly

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Speaker 2: or not mostly it's focusing on our drinking water systems

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Speaker 2: and how well our municipalities are able to handle the

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Speaker 2: water that it receives, so either where they've already where

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Speaker 2: they themselves treated and provided, or where they receive it

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Speaker 2: from a water board. We have six water boards in

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Speaker 2: the country where they then receive the bulk water and

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Speaker 2: they distributed to their customers. Even in twenty twenty three

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Speaker 2: when we release the full report, because now we've looked

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Speaker 2: at a progress report, the level of average level in

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Speaker 2: the country is forty seven percent. That unfortunately has not improved,

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Speaker 2: but also saw the lining. It hasn't declined further, but

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Speaker 2: it is not a good picture. We are losing too

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Speaker 2: much water in our system. So non revenue water. Just

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Speaker 2: to explain again, it is unmeted water or where there's

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Speaker 2: poor billing in revenue collection or poor meter where there's

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Speaker 2: actual losses. That is what we see as non revenue water.

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Speaker 2: So if, for instance, the municipality receive one hundred liters

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Speaker 2: from a water and they are unable to repay sixty

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Speaker 2: liters of that hundred liters, so that leads to municipalities

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Speaker 2: being in financial trouble and not being able to pay

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Speaker 2: the water boards. So I don't know if you're you're

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Speaker 2: often any specific information, but that is just in the

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Speaker 2: natural the no drop reports some of our biggest.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Sorr, I was going to say that some provinces

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Speaker 1: are really in trouble. I mean, the Western Cape is

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Speaker 1: sitting at twenty four point nine percent, so just below

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Speaker 1: a quarter of the water that is lost if you like,

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Speaker 1: through the system. But a province like Bomolanga is sitting

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Speaker 1: at fifty nine point three percent, fifty five percent for

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Speaker 1: the Free State, fifty six percent for Northern Cape. Those

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Speaker 1: are extremely high percentages.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, we and I mean our citizens call us out

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Speaker 2: on it as well, saying the dams are full, how

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Speaker 2: do we not have water but we cannot and why

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Speaker 2: do we pay for water when we lose all of

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Speaker 2: it or most of it? I think citizens need to

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Speaker 2: also ask the municipalities to address the illegal connections sought

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Speaker 2: out demetering, get their billing and revenue collections in order

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Speaker 2: so that everyone can pay what they are using. But

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Speaker 2: definitely in terms of actual losses, and the report goes

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Speaker 2: into detail around that is also staggering. If we look

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Speaker 2: at physical losses, so actual actual losses through leaks, the

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Speaker 2: metropolitan municipalities, for instance, Jobak loses twenty five percent, Mongolm

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Speaker 2: loses forty one percent, Itaquinly loses forty percent through actual

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Speaker 2: losses of water that they receive.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, by way of comparisoning, the number of

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Speaker 1: liters of water and volume that Jobak loses is almost

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Speaker 1: similar to the amount of water we consume in Cape Town.

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Speaker 1: That's an extraordinary amount of water.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. So sometimes when we look at the centrogens

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Speaker 2: it gets a bit deceiving. You have to look at

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Speaker 2: the volumes as well that we are talking about, and

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Speaker 2: Houting is a very thirsty well and also because of

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Speaker 2: the population, it is a very thirsty mint metro but

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Speaker 2: non metro province. But it can't lose that much either.

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Speaker 2: We can't keep building infrastructure and then it's lost.

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Speaker 1: Let's bend funny to look at the Blue Drop progress support.

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Speaker 2: All right, So Blue Drop looks at the drinking water

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Speaker 2: in the country again. Our full report was released in

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Speaker 2: September twenty twenty five. It had shown a deterioration since

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Speaker 2: the last time we had produced the report, so we

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Speaker 2: were very happy to see marginal improvement in terms of

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Speaker 2: the risk profile of our drinking water systems. There is

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Speaker 2: some provinces that are having critical critical risks. We must

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Speaker 2: remember that there's about one thousand drinking water systems in

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Speaker 2: the country, so it's not like it's gone where we

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Speaker 2: have a national grid that we can pull from. There

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Speaker 2: is definite boundaries to these systems. So we see that

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Speaker 2: in the Northern Cape we have a increase or not

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Speaker 2: an increase, but a high level of critical systems. We're

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Speaker 2: looking at twenty four percent of the Northern Cape systems

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Speaker 2: in a critical state of performance. And when we say

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Speaker 2: a critical state or what when we talk about risk,

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Speaker 2: we're only looking at the system, the water works itself,

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Speaker 2: and we're looking at does it have the capacity to

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Speaker 2: treat the water that it's receiving. Is the municipality or

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Speaker 2: the water services authority monitoring the water quality that it

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Speaker 2: is providing? So microbiological, is there any bacteria or water

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Speaker 2: that is of risk to human health? Is there any

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Speaker 2: chemical constituents in the water that is problematic for humans

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Speaker 2: to consume or for people to have issues long term

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Speaker 2: with their skin? And those are the types of and

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Speaker 2: whether they are complying to the or implementing their water

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Speaker 2: safety plan, so anything they could pose a risk to

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Speaker 2: the drinking water. So when you are not paying attention

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Speaker 2: to those things, you are increasing the likelihood of producing

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Speaker 2: poor water quality. It is.

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Speaker 1: It is a human right right having access to clean,

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Speaker 1: adequate water, which means this government, regardless of which spear

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Speaker 1: of government it is, has a moral and legal obligation

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Speaker 1: to deliver water to all people. Who live here in

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Speaker 1: South Africa, and I think you will accept that we're

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Speaker 1: not doing it well, we're not doing it efficiently. Is

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Speaker 1: government is your department alert to the need to what's

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Speaker 1: what I'm looking for? Turn things around in such a

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Speaker 1: way that one we stem the losses as we have

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Speaker 1: discussed that we ensure that there's a proper quality of

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Speaker 1: water that is delivered to all corners of South Africa

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Speaker 1: and done in a way that is efficient and not

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Speaker 1: a burden to taxpayers.

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Speaker 2: One. So the presidency is also recognized this and it's

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Speaker 2: in the phase two of Operation Bulunguela, which is a

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Speaker 2: presidential team that assists in cross government collaboration and unlocking

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Speaker 2: the challenges that we see in the way public the

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Speaker 2: local government is structured. With the white paper that is

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Speaker 2: being reviewed, we see it through the fiscal reforms that

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Speaker 2: National Treasury is doing. So the municipalities have got the

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Speaker 2: financial resources and ring fencing the trading services so that

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Speaker 2: money that is generated through water sales doesn't go to

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Speaker 2: paying for other functions when the water infrastructure is failing.

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Speaker 2: We have regulatory oversight and regulations that make it compulsory

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Speaker 2: for the right people to be appointed and with strengthening

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Speaker 2: that even with the metropolitan areas, National Treasury has included

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Speaker 2: a metro Trading Services reform where there is commitments and

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Speaker 2: based on that there is performance grants that gets paid

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Speaker 2: to the municipality that then doesn't get spent anywhere else

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Speaker 2: other than under the training services, so that we have

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Speaker 2: bigger capital investments so that the infrastructure can deliver the

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Speaker 2: services that it requires.

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Speaker 1: All right, and Nat, thank you very much indeed for

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Speaker 1: your time this afternoon. And Atma is the Chief Director

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Speaker 1: for Water Use Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement with the Department

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Speaker 1: of Water and Sanitation. Reflecting on the three reports that

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Speaker 1: the department has recently released,