{"id":2949,"date":"2026-04-07T12:29:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:01:15","slug":"how-much-longer-are-south-africans-safe-to-drink-safely-from-the-tap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/?p=2949","title":{"rendered":"How much longer are South Africans safe to drink tap water?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The water crisis deepens: 13% of SA\u2019s water now unsafe to drink according to online Citizen of 6 December 2024<\/strong>. The quality of South Africa\u2019s drinking water is dropping drastically, with AfriForum\u2019s independent blue and green drop 2024 report finding the country\u2019s water systems, particularly wastewater treatment works, has deteriorated.\u00a0 The report, which was launched earlier that week, revealed that 13% of water nationally is not safe for human consumption. \u201cThe percentage of tests that pointed to drinking water that is unsafe for human consumption over these five years were 3% in 2020 (five out of 178 tests), 2% in 2021 (four out of 188 tests), 4% in 2022 (six out of 170 tests), 4% (eight out of 193 tests) in 2023 and currently 13% (28 out of 210 tests),\u201d said Lambert de Klerk, manager for environmental affairs at AfriForum. 20 of 150 tests met minimum standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online Polity reported that Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister Sello Seitlholo<\/strong> \u2013 who has been outspoken about water pollution \u2013 says the pollution crisis is largely driven by failures in some municipal wastewater treatment plants, which are discharging untreated or partially treated sewage into South Africa\u2019s freshwater systems, contaminating rivers, dams and groundwater sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has far-reaching health implications, with exposure increasing the risk of waterborne diseases such as Escherichia coli\u00a0(E. coli), cholera, diarrhea and typhoid, besides others. It also affects agriculture, as farmers who irrigate with polluted water risk damaging their crops. \u201cWe are facing a pollution crisis in South Africa and we have to take action now,\u201d says Seitlholo, noting that no amount of cleaning the dams and rivers will help unless the sources of the problem are resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The water crisis deepens: 13% of SA\u2019s water now unsafe to drink according to online Citizen of 6 December 2024. The quality of South Africa\u2019s drinking water is dropping drastically, with AfriForum\u2019s independent blue and green drop 2024 report finding the country\u2019s water systems, particularly wastewater treatment works, has deteriorated.\u00a0 The report, which was launched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[141,139,140,138],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pollution","tag-dangers-of-tap-water","tag-sewage","tag-uranium","tag-water-pollution"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2979,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions\/2979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancientmineralwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}