| Summary: | South Africa is a water-scarce country and over the years, the quality of water resources has deteriorated due to poor effluent discharge, agricultural, industrial, mining and human activities. The major contributing factors of poorly-treated or inadequately treated wastewater may be attributed to: (a) the poor design and construction of wastewater treatment plants; (b) lack of qualified process controllers; (c) non-compliance with applicable legislation; (d) lack of proper monitoring; and (e) management issues with regard to wastewater treatment plants. Water quality is important as many communities depend on water resources for their daily activities and livelihood. There is a need therefore to build and manage wastewater treatment plants effectively as they have an impact on water quality.
Wastewater treatment plants in South Africa are regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998, the National Water Act 36 of 1998, the Water Services Act 108 of 1997, Provincial legislation, Municipal by-laws and other Government policies applicable to Local Government. Chapter 7 of the Constitution inter alia, provides that Local Government has the duty to provide a safe and healthy environment to its community in a sustainable manner. Schedule 4B of the Constitution imposes the function of delivering water, sanitation and wastewater treatment services on Municipalities. This responsibility rests on District Municipalities but may be performed by a Local Municipality if the district municipality lacks the capacity to do so. Although Local Government has the right to govern on its own initiative the affairs of its communities, it needs support and monitoring from other spheres of Government (National and Provincial) to ensure the delivery of wastewater treatment services in a sustainable manner.
In this study, Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality is used as an example of a Municipality in the Limpopo Province faced with challenges related to the operation and management of its wastewater treatment plant. This study aims to determine who should be responsible for the regulation of wastewater treatment plants in Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality area in order to ensure service delivery to communities in a sustainable manner. In order to deal with the challenges experienced by Local Government in dealing with wastewater treatment plants, the study considers Best Practice Guidelines and external service delivery mechanisms, specifically in the form of Public-Private Partnerships.
The study concludes with recommendations based on Best Practice Guidelines which Municipalities can use to avoid wastewater pollution and proposes management mechanisms in managing a Public-Private Partnership effectively in order to ensure that they provide service delivery in a sustainable manner. === LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
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