South Africa’s rivers ‘turning into sewers’, WaterCAN study warns

South Africa’s water crisis has reached emergency levels, with widespread contamination of rivers and failing wastewater infrastructure threatening public health, according to a new citizen science study by water watchdog WaterCAN.

"We gave out about 500 testing kits to do these tests around the country. About 139 were done and uploaded to our map. From that, there were some that were done on rivers and some which are done on tap water. Because of the lack of access to water, we also said that people should do testing on JoJo tanks because that's what people use in informal settlements.

What our results showed us is that many of the rivers, in fact, almost about 66% of the open water that was tested showed that they were present of E. coli," explains Dr Ferrial Adam, Executive Director at WaterCAN.

She adds: "In terms of our rivers and streams, quite honestly, they turn into open sewers because of the amount of sewage that's flowing into our open waters, and that is actually very worrying."

"Our water is full of poo poo. We know this because almost 70% of our wastewater treatment works are not working well. They are in a critical state, and they are spewing raw sewage into our rivers and streams."

While most urban tap water is still treated before reaching households, Adam cautions that this depends heavily on location, with parts of the Eastern Cape, Free State, North West and Northern Cape already deemed unsafe for drinking directly from the tap.

The report also raises concerns about government reliance on water tankers as a long-term solution, warning that infrastructure failures, unpaid contractors, and political inaction are deepening the crisis.

"There's definitely the issue of the water tank mafia, for sure. The whole thing of municipalities purchasing water tanks is almost as if they're saying that this is how you're going to get water, and that we should fight, that we should be objecting to. It should be a temporary measure."

Adam called on citizens to push back against complacency, stating that public pressure and civil society action are now essential to prevent further deterioration of South Africa’ water systems.

To listen to Dr Ferrial Adam in conversation with 702's Bongani Bingwa, click the audio below: