Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa

3.7 Efforts at Reducing Ecosystem Health Risk ThroughWastewater Treatment

are relatively advanced as regards practising wastewater reuse or having wastewater treatment plants that produce safe effluent (Bahri, Drechsel and Brissaud 2008). Wastewater has been reclaimed for potable use in Windhoek, Namibia (Box 3.12). However, in many other countries on the continent, urban wastewater is either untreated or partially treated before discharge into water bodies. This is due to a lack of – or simply partially functioning – WWTPs. It has been estimated that 90 per cent of untreated wastewater in Africa is released directly into rivers, lakes and oceans (UN-Water 2017). Challenges

Ecosystems impacted by discharge of untreated wastewater and human excreta have less capacity to provide a number of important services on which humans rely. In South Africa, it has been reported that more than two-thirds of the wastewater treatment facilities examined did not meet theminimumquality- control standards. In South Africa, fish death as a result of the negative impacts of wastewater on ecosystems has been reported in the Vaal – a major river – and the Vaal Dam, into which untreated sewage is discharged. This highlights the need for wastewater treatment.

facing the WWTPs include insufficient technical capacity to cope with increased wastewater load due to population increase, pollution load variation caused by uncontrolled discharge into the sewage network and power cuts where treatment processes require energy (Nikiema et al. 2011). The most significant challenge is funding wastewater treatment plants. In developed countries, a lot of money is invested in wastewater treatment and in designing and building systems for wastewater collection. However, this is not the case for many African countries because collection and treatment of wastewater is less prioritized and obtaining funding is also a challenge (Grayson 2013).

Several countries in Africa including Egypt, Morrocco, Namibia, South Africa and Tunisia

Fish death as a result of the negative impacts of wastewater on ecosystems

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SANITATION AND WASTEWATER ATLAS OF AFRICA