South Africa’s water situation is dire – regions in the country are often without the precious resource for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time when our water quality continues a downward spiral. Modern Mining spoke to the Federation for a Sustainable Environment’s (FSE), Chief Executive Officer, Mariette Liefferink, about South Africa’s current water situation and how the mining sector is investing in infrastructure development to help alleviate some of the country’s water woes.
According to the World Bank Group, South Africa will be unable to reach its SDG6 goals, that is ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, by 2030. As it stands, a funding gap of R333 billion is anticipated over the next ten years and a projected 17% water deficit by 2030.”
South Africa’s water crisis is caused by insufficient water infrastructure maintenance and investment, recurrent droughts driven by climatic variation, inequities in access to water and sanitation, deteriorating water quality and a lack of skilled water engineers.
Liefferink explains that following the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) 2021 Report, which arose from an inquiry into the sewage pollution of the Vaal and the rivers of Tshwane, failing Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs) are a problem nationwide, rendering Constitutional rights vulnerable.
“The Commission found that the situation regarding WWTWs and pollution of South Africa’s water resources is dire and widespread and, given the breadth of the challenges and their impact on large numbers of people, the SAHRC stated that the situation could lend itself to being declared a national disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act.”
So appalling is our water situation that the Department of Water and Sanitation’s National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (2018) reported that between 1999 and 2011 the extent of main rivers in South Africa classified as being in poor ecological condition increased by 500%, with some rivers pushed beyond the point of recovery. It also stated that more than 50% of South Africa’s wetlands had been lost and of those that remain, 33% are in a poor ecological condition.
“The DWS’ National Eutrophication Management Strategy for South Africa (2022) supports the findings of the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan and reports that South Africa itself has some of the most highly enriched surface waters in the world. It found that eutrophication challenges in South Africa are exacerbated by insufficient wastewater infrastructure and investment; deteriorating ecological infrastructure; recurrent droughts driven by climatic variation and an inescapable need for water resource development; inequities in access to safe sanitation, against the backdrop of a growing population; water use regulation that is not consistently and adequately protecting South Africa’s water resources against eutrophication; and a lack of skilled water scientists and engineers. The strategy cautioned that poor water quality including eutrophication, is already having significant impacts on economic growth and on the well-being of South Africans.”
Similarly, the 2022 Green Drop Report found municipal wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure to be in a worse condition, with 44% of the systems in a critical state and 64% in a poor or critical state.
“This indicates a reluctance by municipal councils to budget for maintenance of wastewater infrastructure. The 2023 Blue Drop Report indicated a similar deterioration in water services in terms of the quality and reliability of water supply. It found that it was not microbiologically safe to drink the water in almost half (46%) of our drinking water systems during 2022, when the Blue Drop audit was done. This resulted in an increased risk of life-threatening water borne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhoea.”
Government intervention
According to Liefferink, the DWS contributes R12 billion per annum as well as technical advice and management support to poor performing municipalities. However, the challenge for government is that it must repeatedly provide municipalities with grants to repair infrastructure that it had not maintained, which required further funding.
“The Water Service Act makes a distinction between a water service authority (the municipality) and a water service provider. Almost all municipalities are currently both a Waster Service Authority and a Water Service Provider, having approved themselves as sole Water Service Providers. The Water Services Act requires Water Service Authorities and Water Service Providers to be managed and accounted for separately by the municipalities, which is not currently happening. To address these problems, the DWS has proposed reforms to the Water Services Act which include, for example, that the proposed amendment prohibits a person from operating as a water service provider without being granted an operating licence in terms of the Act and that a water service authority may only approve a water service provider if the water service provider is licensed to do so in terms of the Act. Where there is persistent non-compliance, the Minister of Water and Sanitation may rectify the non-compliance at the cost of the water institution and revoke the licence of a water service provider.”
By amending section 63 of the Water Services Act government expects to strengthen enforcement through directives and to define the function for which the Water Service Provider is accountable, such as revenue and finance, asset creation, operations and maintenance, human resources, procurement, and customer relationships.
New legislation for mines
Government recently proposed amendments to the National Water Act (NWA), which relate to the prohibition of prospecting and mining in strategic water source areas.
Liefferink explains that in terms of the proposed amendments, all open cast mining and underground mining that has the potential to cause acid rock drainage or acid mine drainage will be prohibited. This is of particular importance to water source areas that are threatened by or vulnerable to mining.
The proposed amendments will impact acid producing mines, such as coal and gold mining, which are categorised as Category A mines – in other words, any mine where sulphide-producing or other acid-generating material occurs in the mineral deposit.
“Since the proposed amendments have a retrospective application, it may result in the Minister of Water and Sanitation reviewing or possibly revoking a water use licence authorisation of a mining company currently operating in a strategic water source area, or prescribing additional terms and conditions. Some ore bodies are in strategic water source areas such as, for example, a proposed underground coal mine within the Enkangala/Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area. The amendments to the National Water Act envision prohibiting mining in areas that are critical for ensuring water security. However, the mining industry may argue that this proposed prohibition will sterilise a mineral resource.”
Water consumption by the mining sector
Based on research by the CSIR, South Africa’s mining industry consumes between 2% and 5% of South Africa’s available water, which is substantially less than agriculture (61%), domestic/municipal use (27%) and industry (7%).
According to the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, agriculture will require 9 700 million m³ by 2030 while mining and bulk industrial will require 1 017 million m3. Municipal demand is anticipated to be 5 800 million m³ per day.
“Since 2020, diversified miner, Sibanye-Stillwater has reported a 4 061 Ml (37%) reduction in potable water withdrawals at its South African operations. The miner endeavours to reduce its reliance on, or extraction from, municipal water systems and aims to use alternative water sources such as groundwater and reclaimed mine process water, to replace purchased water. As part of its water sustainability strategy, Sibanye Stillwater is continuously identifying and reducing the waste of water through advanced initiatives, including improved metering, water balance management, leak detection, and repair initiatives.”
Another miner working to reduce its water consumption is gold producer, Gold Fields which, according to the Group’s 2020 – 2025 Water Stewardship Strategy, is focused on understanding and securing water resources for its life-of-mine, as well as embedding water planning into operational management and updating water security risk profiles to support sourcing of water while reducing its demand for freshwater.
JSE-listed DRDGOLD’s report for the six months, which ended on 31 December 2023, noted that it had a 61.3% decrease in externally sourced potable water and its consumption of potable water during the same period was 536 Ml.
Mining sector extends a helping hand
Given that most municipal wastewater treatment works are dysfunctional, some mining companies, including Sibanye-Stillwater, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold, have been collaborating with government and local municipalities to address some of the associated challenges.
International precious metals mining company, Sibanye-Stillwater is assisting the Mogale City Local Municipality in addressing the challenges with the Percy Stewart WWTWs, with gold miner, Harmony Gold offering the Welkom municipality aid with its WWTWs.
“Dysfunctional WWTWs in Mogale City Local Municipality, Rand West City Local Municipality, Merafong Local Municipality, Matjhabeng and Matlosana discharge raw sewage into water systems, which impact not only the local streams, rivers, dams, and pans, but also surrounding communities and agricultural downstream water users and mining companies’ operations and rehabilitation objectives. Mining companies, such as Harmony Gold and Sibanye-Stillwater have identified opportunities to assist local municipalities through their Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) and Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives to provide municipalities with technical advice, skills and capacity. In the case of Harmony Gold, the company has been assisting with refurbishing, operating and maintaining key wastewater treatment plants in their respective regions.”
Liefferink adds that, aside from providing technical advice to the Mogale City Local Municipality, Sibanye-Stillwater also engaged a specialised wastewater contractor to assess the costs associated with refurbishing the primary and secondary process steps of the Percy Stewart WWTWs. Poor management of the WWTW negatively impacts the rivers within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
“The undertaking is expected to be cost-effective and enhance the facility’s overall compliance. With the need for sustainable solutions, ongoing efforts are directed towards quantifying the cost for the comprehensive refurbishment of the entire facility. This initiative, currently underway, aims to significantly improve the plant’s long-term performance. Sibanye-Stillwater, however, cautioned that the success of both engineering approaches (the refurbishment and replacement of failing units) hinges on the dedication of skilled plant operators and a robust maintenance system and sustained compliance in the future.”
According to Liefferink, following a visit in July/August 2023 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights’, Dr Marcos Orellana, to Sibanye-Stillwater and Gold Fields’ South Deep operations, and the West Rand AMD Treatment Plant, he noted that the (Western Basin) AMD Treatment facility “embodied collaboration between the government and a mining corporation” and that the polluted water from tailings were reused in the mining operations, in a closed loop system.
Of the initiative, Dr Orellena said it was an example of a good practice where rehabilitation is being undertaken while mining operations were ongoing and not postponed until mining operations concluded.
Sibanye Stillwater also partnered with the Welkom’s Matjhabeng Local Municipality for the refurbishment and interim operations of the Theronia Wastewater Pump Station. The refurbished plant was recently handed back to the municipality.
In January 2023, Harmony Gold refurbished the Witpan WWTWs in Matjhabeng at a cost of R10.7m and refurbished the Stilfontein WWTWs in Matlosana and Oberholzer in Merafong, in August 2023, at a cost of R9.2m and R15.6m respectively.
“South Africa’s water situation requires urgent intervention. It would be most beneficial if more businesses follow the examples of companies in the mining sector to collaborate with government and local municipalities and lend a helping hand to alleviate the water challenges the country faces,” concludes Liefferink.
