Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

AfriForum’s blue and green drop results predict a dark future for water in South Africa

AfriForum’s annual, independent blue and green drop report indicates that 87% of municipal drinking water is safe for human consumption. However, the organisation warns that South Africans should not be relieved about this as this year’s green drop results indicate that only 13% of processed sewage meets the minimum standards for discharge into a water resource. Moreover, the complete mismanagement of the entire water supply chain represented by these shocking figures predicts that South Africans can not only expect higher costs for the treatment of drinking water in the future, but also the existence of an increasing risk that consumers will be exposed to unsafe drinking water.

AfriForum’s blue and green drop report for 2024 was launched today during a media conference against the background of the Percy Stewart Waste Water Treatment Works.

The Percy Stewart Waste Water Treatment Works outside Krugersdorp is currently at the heart of a large-scale water pollution crisis in the Mogale City Municipality. The processed sewage that is discharged into the environment by this waste water treatment plant did not meet the minimum standards for discharge into a water resource for the third year in a row. This dysfunctional plant is therefore indicative of the extensive and increasing decay that currently characterises municipalities across the country’s supply of drinking water and sewage treatment services.

AfriForum’s blue and green drop report contains the results of water quality samples that AfriForum’s network of 160 branches nationwide took during August from municipal drinking water (blue drop) as well as the outflow of processed sewage water (green drop) from local waste water treatment plants.

This year is already the 12^th year that AfriForum has compiled this report to make reliable information about the quality of South Africa’s drinking and waste water known to the public. Through this, AfriForum fulfils an important watchdog function through which pressure can be applied to the government, from national to local government level, to call underperforming authorities to account.

This year’s tests examined the presence or absence of various chemical and bacteriological components. The tests determine, among other things, the presence of the bacteria E. Coli, which can cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and even kidney failure, and faecal coliform bacteria, which can cause diseases such as enteric fever (also known as typhoid fever), liver inflammation and dysentery.

The 2024 blue drop results in a nutshell:

Tests done on: Municipal drinking water
Number of towns/cities tested: 210
National result: 87% of drinking water is safe for human consumption

Although 87% of the blue drop tests (182 out of 210 tests) in 2024 indicate that municipal drinking water is safe for human consumption and overall indicate that South Africa’s drinking water still meets the minimum requirements to a large extent, this however represents a decrease of nine percentage points from the 96% of blue drop tests (185 out of 193 tests) that indicated safe drinking water in 2023. Where only eight cases in 2023 indicated unsafe drinking water and these results were limited to Mpumalanga, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, in 2024 unsafe municipal drinking water occurs in 28 towns, spread over each of the nine provinces.

The 2024 green drop results in a nutshell:

Tests done on: Treated waste water at waste water treatment works
Number of waste water treatment works tested: 150
National result: 13% complies with minimum standards

This year’s green drop results, which give an indication of whether sewage is processed to a sufficient standard to be released safely into the environment, are equally shocking. AfriForum tested the outflow of 150 waste water treatment works this year. Only 13% of these (20 out of 150 tests) met the minimum standards for discharge into a water resource in 2024. The outflow from the vast majority of waste water treatment works (87%, i.e. 130 out of 150 tests) does not meet the prescribed standards. Compared to 2023 (when 81% of tests at waste water treatment plants showed pollution) this represents an increase of six percentage points.

An alarming observation is that the results of 2023’s green drop tests indicated that no processed sewage in the Free State or the Eastern Cape met the prescribed standards. In 2024, a further three provinces (namely Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal) were added to this unenviable group and there are now five provinces where none of the green drop test results met the standards.

“AfriForum’s 2024 blue and green drop results paint a dark and worrying picture of the management of South Africa’s water supply and sewage treatment systems,” says Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s advisor for Environmental Affairs. “With little to no improvement in the results of the past five years, the expectation is that a lack of access to clean drinking water and the pollution of natural water sources will increase even more in the future, unless urgent and drastic action is taken .”

According to Lambert de Klerk, AfriForum’s manager for Environmental Affairs, water supply and sewage treatment systems do not function properly because the vast majority of municipalities, which are mainly responsible for water and sanitation services, continuously underperform. Their underperformance arises due to poor management, a lack of financing, maintenance and protection of existing infrastructure. “Municipalities also fail to develop and implement new infrastructure to keep up with population growth,” explains De Klerk.

De Klerk also warns that the government alone cannot be trusted to solve the water crisis. “AfriForum believes that the water crisis essentially stems from poor management. Therefore, the only successful solution to the water crisis and the ultimate sustainable management of South Africa’s water resources lies in cooperation and alignment between all levels of government, different government departments, the private sector and community organisations.”