South Africa Tackles 10-Year Sewage Crisis in Potchefstroom

Imagine living with raw sewage flowing past your home for 10 years, watching it poison the river your community depends on for drinking water and farming. That nightmare is finally ending for residents in Ikageng, Potchefstroom, as South Africa's Department of Water and Sanitation takes direct action to fix what local officials couldn't.

Deputy Minister Sello Seitlholo met with JB Marks Local Municipality officials on January 16, 2025, delivering a clear message: the excuses stop now. The Mooi River, which supplies water for homes, farms, livestock, and industries across the region, has suffered years of contamination from broken sewage systems and overflowing manholes.

The problems stem from aging infrastructure the municipality simply couldn't maintain. Without proper equipment, workers tried fixing overflows by hand, but raw sewage kept flowing into stormwater drains and straight into the river.

Between 2020 and 2023, desperate residents and farmers filed complaint after complaint with national environmental authorities. Inspections confirmed the crisis, leading to official legal notices under the National Water Act, but the municipality's responses failed to stop the pollution.

Civil society groups eventually opened a criminal case, now under investigation by environmental inspectors. The complaints kept coming because the problems kept happening, proving the local government lacked the tools and resources to protect its own people.

The Bright Side

The national government isn't just issuing more warnings. They've approved concrete funding through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant to completely rehabilitate sewerage systems in the hardest-hit areas of Promosa and Mohadin.

During his inspection, Deputy Minister Seitlholo saw firsthand the two households in Extension 7 near Poortjies Dam that have endured a decade of sewage exposure. His reaction was blunt: "The current situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue."

The municipality now has approved projects and a clear mandate, but Seitlholo identified the missing piece: proper equipment to respond quickly when problems arise. Without vacuum trucks, jetting machines, and other essential tools, even the best intentions fail when a pipe bursts at 2 a.m.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled within two weeks to verify progress. This isn't a vague promise to do better someday; it's accountability with a calendar and consequences.

For the Mooi River and the communities depending on it, help is finally arriving with the funding and oversight needed to turn plans into working sewers.