1. Introduction

On 4 February 2008, the Democratic Alliance - as part of its The Silent Majority initiative - visited the Percy Stewart Water Care Works, located just outside Krugersdorp, in the Mogale City Municipality, Gauteng.

The visit came on the back of a new emphasis on the state and management of South Africa's infrastructure. In large part, this new emphasis is due to the electricity crisis which has, in turn, led to greater scrutiny of other elements of South Africa's physical infrastructure, of which water management and sanitation constitutes a significant part.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence and, as the problem is further exposed, an increasing amount of statistical data, which suggests that the ANC government's failure to manage electricity properly is only the tip of the iceberg - that the country's roads, railways, piping networks and ports have also been badly neglected.

The purpose of this report is to focus on one very specific example. We believe that, in a number of respects, Percy Stewart - which has been grossly neglected and is now collapsing - constitutes a powerful metaphor for some of the broader problems facing South Africa and the government. And, by understanding these problems, it is possible to gain some insight into how to solve them.

2. The Percy Stewart Water Care works

Percy Stewart serves Krugerdorp Central, North, West, Rand and Dal, Noordheuwel and Quellerie Park, as well as Munsieville township. According to Census 2001, Mogale City municipality had a population of some 290 000; no doubt, since then, that figure has risen substantially.

The plant was built in the 1950s. It was significantly smaller back then but, over the years, it has been expanded upon and built to its current size today. The plant is located to the West of Krugerdorp, just outside the city limits, and just below Munsieville, the ever growing township, also on the city outskirts. To the West of the plant lies the Cradle of Human Kind - a 500 square meter World Heritage Site. The river that runs down from Munsieville, past the right of Percy Stewart and through the Cradle of Humankind, is one of several tributaries in the area, the majority of which end up in the Hartebeespoort Dam, some 70 kilometers away.

Krugerdorp is governed by two municipalities - the local municipality is Mogale City and the relevant district municipality is the West Rand. That said, the sign that greets you at the entrance makes it quite clear that the Mogale City Municipality is primarily responsible for the plant and its upkeep. The aerial picture of Percy Stewart (below, or see Clip 1) is taken off Google Earth and provides a good overview of the plant and its various component parts.

Essentially, the plant is made up of 10 bio-filters (the round structures); a consolidated cloverleaf bio-filter (to the right of the other bio-filters) and a BNR reactor (a Bench scale Nitrifying Reactor). 

All three of these structures give the plant a combined maximum capacity of 27 megalitres (a megalitre [ML] is the equivalent of 1 million litres). Broken down, the 10 individual bio-filters have a combined capacity of 8 ML; the cloverleaf filter has a capacity of 9 ML and the BNR reactor, 10 ML.

The total inflow through the plant currently varies between 28 and 30 ML per day.

So, even in ideal terms, it is apparent that, when fully functional, the plant is operating at the very limits of its maximum capacity. Outside of the bio-filters, the plant has a number of other systems, designed to process waste and purify the water. These systems rely on a series of powerful motors and filters and, of course, on a constant supply of electricity. The plant has a relatively small administrative centre. 

That is so far as the physical infrastructure goes; in terms of the plant's human resources, it should ideally have the following staff complement:

• A superintendent;
• 2 Artisans (to take care of electrical maintenance);
• 2 Operators or process controllers;
• 1 administrator; and
• 18 General workers

3. What we found

On paper, the plant's capacity seems less than demanding and, compared to some of the bigger waste and sanitation plants in the country, Percy Stewart is small.

However, even within those parameters, the extent of the neglect at this particular plant it difficult to capture properly in writing. But before getting to more subjective issues, these are the more objective problems.

First, with regard to the plant's physical infrastructure: The cloverleaf bio-filter has been decommissioned, as it was built too close to the valley cliff and was starting to collapse. Huge cracks are evident in the side of the filter. This has effectively reduced the plant's processing ability from 27 ML to just 18 ML.

If the plant was operating at the outer limits of its capacity when fully functional, it is now fighting a battle it simply cannot win. As things stand, 10 ML more waste than the plant can process runs through Percy Stewart every day. This waste is clearly not being processed properly.

Second, it is not just the consolidated cloverleaf bio-filter that is collapsing. Each of the individual bio-filters is falling apart - literally. In a large number of cases, three steel cables have been placed around the body of the filter and tightened, in an attempt to stop the cracks splitting further. But, as you will see from Clip 2, these aren't working. 

Below a number of filters, effluent and untreated water is spilling out and the cracks are getting bigger. Further, the cables themselves are starting to rust, and, as a temporary measure, they can only hold things together for so long.

Third, although not directly related to the treatment of waste, the state and conditions of the grounds themselves were alarming. The roads were collapsing, long grass surrounded everything, sewerage was leaking from various different structures and a number of motors were broken and simply lying on their sides.

We also established that all the telephone lines to Percy Stewart had been stolen and, as a result, it was not possible to contact the plant or for it to operate any IT equipment. That said, the plant's existing IT equipment was outdated or broken.

There is one further point worth making, which links to the introduction to this piece - that all of South Africa's infrastructure is linked. Our team arrived in the middle of a power failure. When the power cuts, the plant simply shuts down and any waste to be processed simply flows straight through. Most solids are caught in the bio-filters, but everything else passes through the system without any treatment.

4. A lack of human capacity and the consequences

Despite the meagre number of employees required to make the plant function properly, we found it operating with only a skeleton staff.

As set out above, Percy Stewart should have a full staff complement of 24. Presently, however, just 10 people are working at the plant: seven general workers, one process controller, an administrator and a superintendent. That represents a vacancy rate of 58 %.

The fact that the plant has no artisans - electricians who would oversee day-to-day electrical upkeep - is perhaps the most telling. Broken motors are left unrepaired and functioning electrical equipment is not properly maintained or serviced. It goes without saying that, should a motor break, the plant's capacity is further reduced.

The lack of a full complement of general workers has also visibly contributed to the poor condition of the grounds, the equipment and the infrastructure.

The waste water that flows through Percy Stewart is split into two outflow pipes on leaving the plant. The smaller of these two runs into a local grass farm - just below the plant - and is used for irrigation purposes. The second - far larger outflow pipe - flows straight into the passing river, a relatively minor tributary, which flows through the Cradle of Human Kind and, after 60 or 70 kms, into the Hartebeespoort Dam.

Located only a matter of 100 meters away from this second outflow pipe is the hostel, in which those people working at Percy Stewart are housed. The smell is horrendous and even the most basic analysis of the water coming out of the plant reveals it is still infused with effluent and waste. There are a number of minor human settlements that run along the river but, ultimately, it will be an already-polluted Hartebeespoort Dam and those people living on it, that will bear the brunt of the problem.

5. Who is responsible?

There are 64 seats in the Mogale City council. The ANC has been in full control of the municipality since 1994. In the 2000 local government elections, the ANC won 66% of the vote (the DA got 31%) and, in 2006, the ANC got 64 % of the vote (and the DA 26 %). Significantly, the number of votes cast in the municipality in 2006 dropped to 68 604, almost half the number to have voted in 2000 (116 064). Quite possibly, declining service delivery is one of contributing factors to the low turnout.

Certainly the municipality itself doesn't rate its own performance very highly. In its ‘Strategic Plan 2006 - 2011', titled "Business as unusual: Five years of accelerated service delivery and transformation", the municipality rates itself on its performance in various areas. The numbers don't make for impressive reading.

Indeed, out of 30 categories, the highest score the municipality gives itself (out of ten) is 5.6 - for primary health care management. Despite an ‘importance' rating of 7.9 awarded by the municipality for ‘Municipal infrastructure/facilities', it rates its own performance in this regard at just 4.4 - an honest if not damning assessment.

So it is perhaps somewhat confusing then that, towards the front of the same document, under a section summarising its performance in meeting its key strategic goal of ensuring "sound physical infrastructure", it scores 95 % for meeting its physical infrastructure targets and 100 % for its monitoring reports in 2006/07. (For environmental risk management, it doesn't score less than 90% across four categories.)

The conclusion one arrives at, given the current condition of the plant, is a simple one: either the municipality has very low standards, or Percy Stewart simply doesn't feature in its plans.

But you would be wrong. Percy Stewart does feature in the municipality's budget for 2007/08. One of the items in its 2007/08 budget plan is the "rehabilitation of Percy Stewart" to "comply with the Water Act" and to "upgrade" the facility. The budget gives a start date of April 2007 and an end date of March 2008 and has allocated a total amount of R2.4 million for the project, to be split into monthly instalments of around R500 000, until December this year.

Other than that small entry, though, details are sketchy. Certainly, given the extent of the problem, R2.4 million is only going to be enough to constitute another temporary relief measure. Remember, the individual bio-filters aside, the entire main cloverleaf filter has been decommissioned and the plant, when fully functional, doesn't have the capacity to meet demand. Against this backdrop, R2.4 million isn't going to make a dent in the underlying problem.

And while the fact that the problem has been recognised is to be welcomed, that it exists at all is the real concern. Its current condition is the result of years of neglect.

The document ‘Sanitation for a Healthy Nation' on the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry website states that, "in order to implement sanitation improvement programmes, local government must budget and source funding for this purpose" and "local government must also plan and budget for the operation and maintenance of sanitation programmes".

Quite clearly, the Mogale City Municipality has systematically failed to do this for the past 14 years. The result is that the primary sanitation plant for Krugersdorp is on the verge of collapse and - like the national electricity crisis - because it has been left so late, the municipality is now scrambling just to hold things together. Years of neglect have resulted in a very real and very imminent threat.

Significantly, a substantial and detailed report on the condition of Percy Stewart was undertaken on behalf of the local council but, despite our best efforts, we have to date failed to get a copy of it. When this report was tabled, what it says and whether it will be acted on, is obviously significant.

This is an edited version of a report published on the "The Silent Majority" website - an initiative of the Democratic Alliance - on March 3 3008. (The original report along with footage of the sewerage works can be found here.) According to the DA the intention of the website is to "bring to the fore stories and issues concerning those South Africans who do not usually have a voice in the mainstream media."