South Africa’s wastewater systems are under growing pressure. The latest Green Drop Report reveals declining performance, rising risk, and mounting infrastructure challenges, with nearly half of treatment works now classified as critical.

What is the Green Drop Certification Programme?

The Green Drop Report is a national regulatory assessment published by the Department of Water and Sanitation that evaluates the performance, compliance and risk of wastewater management systems across South Africa. It is designed to influence institutional behaviour and drive continuous improvement in the management of wastewater networks and treatment systems.

Scale of the Green Drop Report

• 998 wastewater treatment works (WWTW) audited
• 144 Water Services Authorities (WSAs) assessed across all 9 provinces
• 3 699 pump stations evaluated
• 73 762 km of sewer pipelines assessed
• 174 Technical Site Assessments (TSAs) conducted (physical inspections).

Province	Water Service Authorities (WSAs)	Wastewater treatment works (WWTWs)
Eastern Cape	14	125
Free State	19	95
Gauteng	9	61
KwaZulu-Natal	14	148
Limpopo	10	65
Mpumalanga	17	75
Northern Cape	26	75
North West	10	44
Western Cape	25	160
Total	144	848

A breakdown of WSAs and WWWs per province

Declining high performance systems

• There has been an increase in the percentage of systems in a critical state of performance, from 39% (334 systems) in the 2022 Green Drop Report to 47% (396 systems) in the 2025 Green Drop Report
• The percentage of systems in excellent or good (above 80%) state of performance declined from 14% (118 systems) in the 2022 Green Drop Report to 8% (66 systems) in the 2025 Green Drop Report

This means that nearly half of WWTWs in South Africa are non-compliant and not performing well. Systems that were performing poorly have dropped to critical, and if the scope includes poorly performing as well as critical, then 61% of all WWTWs in South Africa are performing below the minimum required level.

Drop in Green Drop Certifications

A wastewater system qualifies for Green Drop Certification when it achieves an overall Green Drop score of 90% or higher, reflecting strong performance across key areas such as treatment efficiency, risk management, technical capacity, and regulatory compliance.

14 Systems achieved Green Drop certification (≥90%)

This is down from:

• 22 (2021)
• 60 (2013)
• 40 (2011).

	Province	Municipality	Treatment Plant
1	Gauteng	City of Ekurhuleni	Benoni
2			Carl Grundlingh
3			Daveyton
4			Herbert Bickley
5			JP Marais
6			Welgedacht
7		Midvaal Local Municipality	Bantu Bonke
8			Ohenimuri
9	Mpumalanga	Steve Tshwete Local Municipality	Blinkpan
10	Western Cape	Saldanha Bay Local Municipality	Hopefield
11			Paternoster
12			Shelly Point
13		City of Cape Town	Wesfleur Domestic
14		Witzenberg Local Municipality	Op-die-berg

2024 Green Drop Certified Systems

What’s new in the Green Drop Report?

For the first time, Non-sewered Sanitation (NSS) and Water Efficient Sanitation Solutions (WESS) concepts were incorporated into the audit. This inclusion expands the scope of the assessment beyond conventional, centralised wastewater treatment systems to recognise alternative sanitation technologies, particularly in areas where traditional sewer infrastructure is not feasible.

	Non-Sewered Sanitation and Water Efficient Sanitation
Province	Households using dry sanitation	Volumes emptied (m³/month)	Records of trucks collecting and emptying			Method of disposal / treatment
			Not applicable	Yes	No / No proof
Eastern Cape	68 316	5 886	18	8	99	Tankers to WWTWs; sewer network collection
Free State	131 036	NI	24	NI	71	Tankers to WWTWs
Gauteng	644 571	73 417	27	20	14	Tankers to WWTWs; discharge at manhole
KwaZulu-Natal	17 679	228	68	33	47	Tankers to WWTWs
Limpopo	167	NI	20	2	43	Tankers to WWTWs
Mpumalanga	60 817	8 356	20	15	40	Tankers to WWTWs
Northern Cape	15 510	2 876	23	2	50	Tankers to WWTWs; urine diversion system (one system)
North West	53,528	NI	9	NI	35	NI / N/A
Western Cape	95 000	555	97	10	53	Tankers to WWTWs; Borchard’s Quarry FSM facility (CoCT)
Total	1 086 624	91 318	306	90	452	—

National Summary of the Non-Sewered Sanitation/ Water Efficient Sanitation Solutions

Skills

58% of wastewater treatment works have sent staff for training in the past two years, up from 38% in 2021.

The worst-performing municipalities have the lowest training participation, reinforcing a cycle of underperformance

R13.34 billion identified by Very Rough Order of Measurement (VROOM) analysis that is to restore wastewater infrastructure nationally to functional condition. VROOM is a national estimate of rehabilitation cost, not a detailed budget. It is used to prioritise capital investment intervention.

While pockets of excellence remain, the overall trajectory highlights an urgent need for coordinated investment, stronger governance and sustained technical support to stabilise and rebuild South Africa’s wastewater sector.