DURBAN - Two KwaZulu-Natal municipalities have been awarded Green Drop Certification by the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The DWS revived the Green Drop awards and certification programmes meant to encourage water services authorities (WSA) in such municipalities to ensure the overall improvement of municipal wastewater management.
The Blue Drop Certification Programme seeks to protect citizens from the hazards associated with contaminated drinking water, while the Green Drop Certification programme seeks to protect the environment from the hazards associated with polluted wastewater/sewage.
The KZN recipients were the iLembe District Municipality and the uMgungundlovu Municipality, while the Witzenberg Local Municipality in Cape Town scooped the top awards.
The department handed out 23 awards – 22 to municipal systems and one to a private entity. The competition was tight with 30 municipalities scoring 88-89%, making them serious contenders. But the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senso Mchunu, said it was quite alarming that 334 systems out of 850 are classified as critical.
The report said: “One of the key challenges is ageing/ aged infrastructure, sewage spillages, and failing wastewater treatment works. The department was concerned that there are so many systems with scores below 31%, indicating a dismal state of wastewater management, posing a risk to environmental and public health”.
The Blue Drop Risk Rating gave eThekwini Municipality a 32.6 rating. According to the report, four drinking water supply systems were assessed under eThekwini. Three of the four supply systems achieved a low-risk rating while the rural boreholes system achieved a critical-risk rating.
The report found that the rural boreholes system did not have information on Iris (DWS’s Integrated Regulatory Information System) and this impacted the scores.
The report said the eThekwini Main, Ogunjini, and Tongaat supply systems were all operating well within design capacities which will ensure sufficient supply for consumer demands.
“Excellent microbiological monitoring compliance was achieved for the three systems where monitoring was undertaken.
“This indicates that water supplied from these systems is safe for human consumption. Chemical compliance is also excellent for these three systems. However, alignment of the chemical monitoring programme to Sans (SA National Standard requirements) is lacking for the Ogunjini supply system.”
The report stated that the eThekwini Main, Ogunjini, and Tongaat supply systems staff were adequately aligned with the regulatory requirements for technical skills.
However, the rural boreholes system achieved a poor score under this criterion, indicating that operations and maintenance may be lacking in this system.
The report recommended that this should be addressed urgently to reduce the risk of water supply interruptions that may arise from poor operations and maintenance practices.
“With the exception of the rural boreholes system, all other systems achieved excellent scores indicating availability and adequate implementation of Sans 241:2015 and World Health Organization-aligned Water Safety Plans for effective risk management of these systems.
“The Regulator encourages the WSA and WSP (water supply providers) to implement the following recommendations to maintain a low-risk rating and improve on the high-risk rating: development and implementation of microbiological and chemical monitoring programmes. Subsequent water quality results should then be submitted to the Regulator,” it said.
The report said: “This is especially for the rural boreholes system; alignment of Ogunjini supply systems chemical-monitoring programme; appointment of suitably qualified staff and/or training of existing staff; adoption and implementation of water safety plans and development of risk-based monitoring programmes.”
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