South Africa needs to modernise how it monitors and evaluates wastewater treatment systems if it is to strengthen environmental protection and prepare critical infrastructure for increasing climate pressures, said Vaal University of Technology’s (VUT’s) Dr Kgomotso Mtshatsheni.

Fewer than half of South Africa’s 876 wastewater treatment works had comparable design-capacity use data for both 2013 and 2021. In 2021, 341 wastewater treatment works, representing 38.9%, did not report this information.

Design-capacity use data help authorities determine how much wastewater a facility receives and whether it is operating within the limits for which it was designed, she told delegates at the Second International Conference on Climate Resilient, Smart and Sustainable Futures, hosted by Great Zimbabwe University.

Mtshatsheni, during her presentation on a qualitative analysis of monitoring and evaluation gaps in wastewater treatment systems for environmental sustainability under climate change, unpacked how weaknesses in data collection, monitoring methods, institutional capacity and governance affect South Africa’s ability to manage wastewater sustainably.

The analysis, drawing on academic literature, Green Drop assessments, international standards and reports from organisations including the United Nations Environment Programme, identified four interconnected weaknesses affecting wastewater management: persistent data deficiencies, monitoring approaches that do not adequately account for climate risks, limited institutional and technical capacity and fragmented governance.

“South Africa cannot repair what it cannot properly see or measure. When wastewater data are incomplete or unavailable, authorities cannot plan effectively, direct investment to where it is needed most or respond timeously to risks facing communities and the environment,” she said.

Without reliable and continuous information, it becomes difficult to establish how much wastewater reaches treatment facilities, how much is treated and where infrastructure interventions are most urgently required.

The interruption of Green Drop reporting between 2013 and 2022 further reduced national visibility of wastewater performance, and such information gaps weaken infrastructure planning, investment decisions, regulatory oversight and environmental protection.

Mtshatsheni called for wastewater monitoring to move beyond narrow compliance reporting and short-term operational assessments.

“Monitoring systems should also measure climate risks, ecosystem health, energy consumption, emissions, resource recovery and the ability of treatment facilities to recover from environmental disruptions,” she said, noting that this is becoming increasingly important as climate change places additional pressure on wastewater infrastructure.

Various environmental conditions can reduce treatment efficiency, increase energy requirements and heighten the risk of pollution entering rivers and other freshwater resources.

For example, flooding and heavy rainfall can increase the volume of water entering treatment systems and disrupt operations, while drought can raise salinity levels and affect biological treatment processes.

Exacerbating this are shortages of monitoring skills, inadequate laboratories, non-functional flow meters, weak Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems, limited decision-support tools and poor coordination among responsible institutions.

“These weaknesses can create a chain of consequences extending beyond administrative reporting. Inadequate information can lead to poor decisions, inappropriate investment, operational inefficiencies, higher energy consumption, increased carbon emissions and reduced climate resilience,” Mtshatsheni explained.

To mitigate this, she proposed a climate-adaptive monitoring and evaluation framework founded on four principles, namely real-time monitoring, adaptive management, coordinated governance and continuous institutional learning.

“The framework considers the potential use of Internet of Things sensors, AI and digital twins to improve data collection, detect emerging operational problems and support evidence-based decisionmaking.”

However, technology alone cannot resolve the country’s wastewater challenges, and digital systems must be supported by skilled personnel, functioning infrastructure, dependable data and clear institutional accountability.

The analysis recommends future digital-monitoring pilot projects, assessments of wastewater institutions’ readiness to access climate finance and the development of reporting standards suited to South Africa’s environmental and institutional conditions.

The work contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

It also supports the ambitions of VUT’s Strategy 2033+, including its focus on research, innovation, sustainability and translating knowledge into solutions that create meaningful societal impact.