South Africa’s worrying state of wastewater management requires urgent public-private partnerships to accelerate technology development to improve the current situation, says Dr Rembu Magoba, Manager of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Water Research Centre.

Dr Magoba was speaking at the Africa Water, Waste and Green Energy Conference held in Cape Town recently. Government representatives, business leaders and decision-makers from African countries attended the conference. The country's wastewater treatment system has worsened over the years since 2013. 39% of assessed wastewater treatment systems are now classified as critical, a drop from 29% in 2013.