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Our water is full of sewage. Today we can vote to fix it

The lost years of local government must end

A communal standpipe in Johannesburg. Archive photo: Ihsaan Haffejee
Today, South Africans have an opportunity to wipe out mismanagement and corruption in local government.
Since June last year, we have reported from 28 municipalities in all nine provinces. The same problems crop up again and again: finances in disarray, unfinished infrastructure projects and roads in decay. But the starkest findings of our election series relate to water and sewage.
In more than half of municipalities that treat their own water, drinking water is rated poor or bad, or the municipality doesn’t test for compliance. In 78% of municipalities, treated sewage fails E. coli standards or isn’t reported on.
In many municipalities, raw or partially treated sewage flows into oceans and…

Read More: Our water is full of sewage. Today we can vote to fix it.

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