Most of South Africa’s 800 municipal water treatment plants are releasing raw sewage into the country’s rivers. Water affairs department officials say they have been told to look the other way until after next year’s local government elections. "We have been led to understand that until the 2016 elections there should be less focus on exposing any wrongdoings at municipal plants," says a water affairs enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity. There was no explicit command, but the "order" came from the top of the department, says the official, who is one of three in the department who confirmed the hands-off edict occurred. …This means municipalities have little oversight, the official says."“Our hands are tied by politicking and heavily polluted water is the result."