The Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) has advised South Africans to read the blue drop report and contact their municipalities to ascertain the quality of water they are receiving from the municipality. The National Department of Water and Sanitation released the report this week, which assessed the state of all drinking water systems throughout the country.
One of the main findings of the report was that 46% of water quality tests carried out by municipalities between 2021 and 2022 ranked poor in microbiological water quality compliance.
WISA Director Ayesha Laher says communities need to hold municipalities accountable.
“If you live in a big city or metro, it is important to look at your municipal score to find out whether the water quality is safe or not. If it is not safe and you have children at home, if you have old people or people suffering from disabilities, and it’s microbiologically not safe, you need to boil that water to protect yourself, and then you need to make a noise about it.”
Poor governance and leadership have been identified as some of the reasons for the country’s bad drinking water quality. That is according to the Executive Manager for Water Use, Waste Water Resources, and Sanitation at the Water Research Commission, Jay Bhagwan. He was reacting to the Blue Drop report released by the National Department of Water and Sanitation this week.
The report assessed the state of all drinking water systems throughout the country.
One of the main findings of the report was that 46% of water quality tests carried out by municipalities between 2021 and 2022 ranked poor in microbiological water quality compliance.
Bhagwan says municipalities need more upskilling to operate water systems effectively.
“In water-stressed environments like the Northern Cape, Limpopo, the North West Province, etc., you see patterns that start talking to the real issues of inequity in the country. They don’t have the kind of revenue streams that they would need to run the systems. There is no skill or support that they have to operate these systems, etc. So, it’s a whole issue of governance related to poor skills, poor investment in operation and maintenance, poor revenue streams, and poor leadership in those areas that is contributing to the performance.”
