The Green Drop Crisis: we have the skills. Now we need the system

South Africa’s latest Green Drop Report is more than a dataset. It is a diagnostic of a national essential service in critical condition. Of the 848 wastewater treatment plants assessed across the country, 396 are in a critical state. Only around a quarter are performing well enough to meet required standards.

By Dr Lester Goldman, CEO of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA)

That’s not a statistic to skim past. It means that right now, across communities from Limpopo to the Western Cape, poorly treated or untreated sewage is finding its way into rivers, dams and the water sources that millions of people depend on for drinking, for farming, for survival. For too long, we have treated wastewater treatment plants as invisible infrastructure, the “big toilets” of the country that only attract attention when they overflow. When nearly half of our plants fail to meet basic standards, that invisibility becomes dangerous.

A symptom of something deeper

The crisis is often blamed on aging pipes and tight budgets. Both are real. But they are symptoms, not the root cause. The harder truth is that infrastructure failures are the visible surface of something more entrenched, a fragmented governance model where financial constraints, procurement delays and tariffs that don’t reflect actual costs make long-term sustainability almost impossible.

Municipalities are being squeezed from every angle. But the squeeze alone doesn’t explain everything. Some of what’s broken is a matter of focus.

The regulatory gap nobody is talking about loudly enough

Many municipalities are still operating as though Regulation 2834, an older framework built around baseline compliance and paperwork, is the standard they’re being held to. It isn’t. Regulation 3630, the current framework, demands measurable performance and real service delivery outcomes. The gap between where many municipalities think the bar is and where it actually sits is, in itself, a governance failure. We cannot manage what we do not accurately measure, and we cannot fix what we refuse to hold to modern standards.

Some of what’s broken is a matter of focus.

The people holding the system together

On the ground, a different story is playing out. South Africa does not lack talent. We have skilled engineers, dedicated scientists and process controllers who are constantly upskilling, people who show up and carry the system even when the system doesn’t carry them back.

Yet too many of them are working with one hand tied behind their backs. Decisions sit with people who aren’t present. Resources are trapped in processes that don’t move. Institutional support, where it exists at all, is inconsistent.

As one process controller in Limpopo put it: “We know how to run these plants. We keep improving. But without support, we can’t apply what we know. And when superiors don’t even show up to roadshows, you have to ask, why wouldn’t they want better water, better staff, better communities?”

When leadership is absent, even the most skilled professional becomes a spectator to a slow-motion disaster. Accountability isn’t just about finding someone to blame when things go wrong. It’s about building a system that enables people to do things right.

We cannot manage what we do not accurately measure, and we cannot fix what we refuse to hold to modern standards.

What WISA can and can’t do

At WISA, our role is specific but vital. We don’t operate plants, and we don’t have the legislative power to sanction a non-compliant municipality. What we can do is professionalise the sector by setting rigorous standards, certifying skills and amplifying the voices of practitioners who are too often unheard. We ensure that when the necessary investment and political will arrive, there is a competent, ethical and empowered workforce ready to deliver. But professional bodies alone cannot fix what governance, funding and enforcement have allowed to deteriorate.

What needs to happen now

Turning this around requires movement on three fronts simultaneously:

Enforced accountability, moving beyond tick-box compliance and attaching real consequences to performance failures at municipal leadership level.

Financial realism, funding models and tariffs that reflect the true cost of running and maintaining a modern water system, not the cost of the system we wish we had.

Institutional support, giving technical staff the authority and resources to match their expertise, so that competence can actually translate into results.

A diagnostic, not just a warning

The Green Drop Report is not simply a warning. It is a detailed picture of how infrastructure, finance, governance and operations interact, and what happens when that interaction breaks down. The fix has to be equally joined-up.

Cleaner rivers, lower public health costs, viable agriculture, functioning ecosystems, these are within reach. But only if governance catches up with expertise.

At WISA, we remain committed to professional excellence and to the practitioners who deliver it every day. Now we need the rest of the system to meet us there.

Because this was never really just about wastewater. It’s about whether South Africa can protect its water security, its public health, and its future. And on current evidence, we are running out of time to get it right.