Almost half of wastewater systems in critical state, report finds

Water Affairs ministry said 47% of the country’s wastewater treatment systems have worsened and are in a critical condition. This is according to water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina, who released the Green Drop Report 2025 on Tuesday. The wastewater treatment plants are facilities that treat and purify water for consumption however, these facilities are now in a critical state posing risks for illnesses.

The report covers the results of 848wastewater treatment systemsaudited during the 2023/24 municipal financial year. Majodina said the findings were concerning, with systems in a critical state increasing from 39% (334 systems) in 2022 to 47% (396 systems) in 2025. “Conversely, systems performing at excellent or good levels have declined from 14% (118 systems) to 8% (66 systems),” she said.

“Only 14 Green Drop certifications were achieved this year, down from 22 in 2022, highlighting a deterioration in municipal wastewater performance.” READ|Water pollution sparks rise in litigation against councils Majodina said the Green Drop report was complemented by progress assessment reports for Blue Drop and No Drop, covering drinking water quality and water-use efficiency for the 2023/24 municipal financial year. Nationally, drinking water systems showed marginal improvement, with low-risk systems increasing from 60.2% to 61.9%, and critical-risk systems decreasing from 9.9% to 7.9%. Majodina said provincial performance remained uneven, with the Western Cape and Gauteng maintaining the strongest overall risk profiles, while Mpumalanga and North West recorded notable improvements. The Northern Cape continued to perform poorly, with the highest concentration of critical-risk systems and severe weaknesses across multiple indicators.