An overview of the technological advancement of wastewater treatment for effluent reuse in South Africa: a meta-analysis

Abstract

South Africa's water resources have experienced significant negative effects resulting from poor quality effluent, posing a substantial threat to public health. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the existing technological condition of wastewater treatment and sanitary infrastructure in South Africa. The rationale for conducting this study was derived from the occurrence of a recent cholera outbreak. The research employed meta-analytical techniques to review information from sources such as published journals and reports from databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Springer and Google Scholar to investigate the impact of technological advancements in wastewater treatment and the condition of the state sanitary infrastructure in South Africa. The data was organized, summarized, and presented using basic descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel 2019. The findings of the study reveal that ponds and lagoons have emerged as the predominant wastewater treatment technology in South Africa, with Activated Sludge technology being the second most commonly employed method. The current infrastructure is insufficient to manage the escalating volume of wastewater and the heightened water quality standards that arise from population growth and expanding industrial operations. Moreover, our study indicates that despite substantial financial allocation made by the government for the enhancement and restoration of infrastructure, the effective management of wastewater remains a persistent issue. South Africa should explore and allocate resources for emerging technologies for wastewater treatment such as membrane technology and membrane bioreactor technology, which offer advantages such as treatment of high biomass concentrations, and smaller space requirement compared to traditional systems. Other benefits of these emerging treatments include lower hydraulic retention time, high effluent quality lower biosolids and higher volumetric loading. These advantages are more applicable in South Africa, since they require a smaller amount of area compared to other conventional treatment technologies, as rapid populating growth, coupled with urbanization, has led to a shortage of available land suitable for the construction of new wastewater treatment systems to accommodate development.