Cape Town - The quality of drinking water from some municipal water treatment systems did not meet the South African National Standard (SANS) 241 for consumption and could have posed a potential health risk.
This was a concern shared by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) following the release of the 2023 blue drop watch report in relation to water produced from some municipal water treatment systems during the 2021/2022 municipal financial year that did not meet the SANS 241 standard.
DWS Minister Senzo Mchunu was joined by Director-General Dr Sean Phillips to release the preliminary Blue, Green and No Drop Watch Reports that aim to improve municipal drinking water quality, wastewater management, water conservation and demand management.
Phillips said in the last report - the 2012 Blue Drop report - 10% of municipalities had bad or poor microbiological water quality, compared to 50% in the 2021/2022 sample.
Lack of infrastructure maintenance and municipalities' lack of compliance in testing was among the issues identified.
“This indicates that there has been a deterioration in drinking water quality since the last blue drop report was done.
“DWS has sent directives to the municipalities identified as having systems with poor or bad compliance. The directives require the municipalities to inform their residents should they still have poor or bad compliance.
“The public can safely consume water from their taps if their municipalities indicate that the water being provided is being tested and meets the requirements of SANS 241.
“Water Stewardship Assurance Services (WSAS) are responsible by law to inform affected constituencies as soon as there is any change in quality,” said Phillips.
The Western Cape recorded the most municipalities in the country with an excellent record of how well the treatment process was in removing harmful bacteria from the water, and the chemical suitability of the water for human consumption, as well as for protection of infrastructure and household equipment.
According to Phillips, seven municipalities face legal or criminal action after notices and directives were not acted upon.
“During the audit period, 11 municipalities did not report water quality data to the Department or provide any other evidence that they have been testing their water quality. The Department has issued non-compliance notices to those municipalities instructing them to issue advisory notices to their residents that their water might not be safe to drink if it has not been properly tested,” he said.
Phillips said the full reports were expected in September.
The report comes as the country is faced with a cholera outbreak with deaths reported in Gauteng, Free State and Mpumalanga to date.
“Our main concern is that the cholera outbreak should not spread to other provinces, especially via contamination of water.
“All these measures that have been placed including monitoring shows that we are concerned.
“In terms of Water and Sanitation, it has come to a point where we need to upgrade our interventions and that is why we had a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“A number of proposals have been suggested,” he said.
Cape Times