A severe public health and ecological crisis is gripping Buffalo City, where derelict and non-operational wastewater treatment plants are discharging raw sewage directly into the Buffalo River, the municipality’s main water source. An investigation, first exposed by Go Express, reveals a systemic failure of critical infrastructure, prompting urgent warnings for residents to boil all drinking water.
The crisis centers on multiple treatment plants, including the Bhisho Waste Treatment Plant and the Schornville plant, which investigators found completely non-operational, vandalized, and stripped of essential electrical equipment. At Bhisho, critical infrastructure such as transformers and cables lie cut and useless on the ground, with no audible signs of any processing activity.
Newspaper editor Mfundo Piliso, who investigated the sites, reported that Buffalo City Metro employees are merely pouring chlorine into stagnant sewage pools, a grossly inadequate measure. He stated there is no functional infrastructure to properly process wastewater.
“What we found out is that there is no actual work being done in our treatment plants,” Piliso said. “Everything has been destroyed. It has been stolen, vandalized and there’s actually no word from the municipality.”
An insider within Buffalo City Sanitation revealed to investigators that there is “no engineering solution” currently in place to address the breakdown. The source linked the crisis to a national decline in municipal engineering capacity post-1994, highlighting a critical shortage of engineers hired to maintain and repair such infrastructure.
Piliso reported that the municipality has been unresponsive to detailed media inquiries. After he submitted questions, the municipality’s primary action was to issue a social media notice advising residents to boil tap water—a move he confirmed but characterized as insufficient given the scale of the problem.
Experts warn of imminent and irreversible damage. Entomologists have stated that without immediate intervention, the Buffalo River will face death as an ecosystem. Another expert consulted estimated that resolving the national wastewater infrastructure crisis would require over 45 billion rand, with no significant work currently underway in Buffalo City.
The failing plants pose a direct threat to thousands of residents who rely on the river for water. The situation at Schornville was described as equally devastating, with the plant completely vandalized and representing a “serious health crisis.”
As raw sewage continues to flow unabated into the water source, the community faces a mounting dual threat: an acute public health hazard and the potential death of a vital river system, with municipal accountability and action remaining elusive.