Who's accountable for raw sewerage spills?Who’s accountable for raw sewerage spills?

It is estimated that South Africa’s sewerage treatment systems are currently six billion rand behind in development. Due to the lack of upgrading treatment works,raw sewerage spills are becoming more &more common throughout South Africa.

Who’s to Blame?

I’m briefly going to explain how we,as responsible citizens,could make a difference in reducing raw sewerage spills into our rivers and estuaries. If you type the word ‘sewage’in Google and you’ll find +-23million links,that will give you all sorts of information on sewage treatment,sewage systems,sewage pollution,sewage pumps,sewage in rivers and the list goes on! I however,have narrowed the 23million pages down into two simple solutions.

Apart from the lack of upgrading the infrastructure,the single biggest factor causing sewage spills are the amount of water arriving at the sewage treatment works. Sewage treatment works does not have the capacity to hold the amount of water arriving at the facilities during peak hours. As a result,raw &untreated sewage are spilled into rivers and estuaries.

There is only one simple solution;

• Reduce the amount of water that are being send to sewage treatment works.

How to achieved this?

• Greywater (bath / shower / laundry) accounts for 70% of water that are send to sewage treatment works. By installing a greywater reuse system,you could reuse your greywater to irrigate your garden with. If every household took the initiate to reuse greywater,the volume of water arriving at sewage treatment works,will be reduced by 70%.
• Alternatively,one could look at reducing the amount of water required to flush your toilet with. To gain a better understanding of such systems,please follow the link Water Rhapsody Toilet Multiflush

Both these solutions are long term sustainable solutions that will have an positive impact on the environment and more importantly,REDUCE your water bill &  water usage.