The Western Cape is the top performing province in the 2023 Blue Drop Report, claiming 15 of the 26 Blue Drop Awards. And while the province celebrates that success, they are working hard to improve the water supply systems that were rated critical and medium risk.

“The Blue Drop Certification Programme identifies focus areas for the Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement division within the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) with regards to water quality. It provides information on the water service authorities (WSAs) that are non-compliant and require support. Conversely, it is a report card for municipalities (making them accountable) and gives the public evidence on the water quality they receive and the state of the systems that provide that water,” explains Boniswa Hene, Director: Regulation, Department of Water and Sanitation.

Of the 125 water supply systems in the Western Cape, eight systems in four municipalities or Water Services Authorities (WSAs) were rated critical below 31%, and five systems in three municipalities / WSAs fell within the poor-performing category below 51%. The seven municipalities that are responsible for these thirteen systems received non-compliance letters from DWS, requesting corrective action plans. Once these corrective action plans were received and analysed by DWS, officials personally visited each municipality.

“These meetings were well received by all parties, and we were thrilled that there was a high level of attendance by both technical people and key decision makers like mayors, deputy mayors, municipal managers and chief financial officers (CFOs) from these seven different municipalities. These are the people that need to motivate their councils for budgets for water quality. It was also critical for us that these senior people sign off their own corrective action plans in order to better support the technical people on the ground,” says Hene.

Common threads with low scoring systems

“It is important to note, that while water quality is a dominant category within the Blue Drop Report, it is not the only aspect that is measured. There are categories like financial management, risk management, capacity management and technical management. So, while we had thirteen  systems that were placed within the critical and medium risk categories, they all produced good water quality, but scored low in other areas.”

She adds that there is a correlation between low technical capacity and low Blue Drop scores. “In some cases, there is no appointed chief financial officer (CFO) or no qualified process controller. Furthermore, the low scoring municipalities often failed to regularly upload required information onto DWS’s Integrated Regulation Information System (IRIS) or the data that was uploaded was inaccurate and they were penalised. For instance, one plant had qualified process controllers, but they failed to upload that information onto IRIS. Many of the municipalities also failed to document their processes in terms of maintenance or non-conformances and they were also penalised.”

Additionally, while some of the municipalities conducted their own process audits on their systems, they failed to implement the findings of those audits. Another weakness was the operational monitoring. Monitoring must be done to pick up early warning signs or anomalies before water enters the reticulation system.

“Commonalities in well performing municipalities were a strong water services provider (WSP). The WSP concentrates on operations and monitoring while the municipality has freed up resources to attend to infrastructure programmes and planning,” explains Lungiswa Mgxwati Deputy Director for Water Services Regulation at DWS.

Support

In terms of Section 154 (1) of the Constitution, the national government and provincial governments, by legislative and other measures, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers and to perform their functions. At the same time, Section 155 (7) of the Constitution gives the national government and the provincial governments the legislative and executive authority to regulate the municipalities.

“The DWS must support and regulate municipalities, and the incentive-based Blue Drop Certification programme is a great tool for this. The first intervention has been the physical meeting between DWS and the seven municipalities, where we analysed and discussed the Blue Drop Results, the corrective action plans, infrastructure needs as well as fundamental issues that are easy to correct. Often, the municipalities were surprised that they made simple mistakes that cost them important points,” says Mgxwati.

The municipalities were also reminded of the window period during the audit, where they have a second chance to submit information. From the meetings, it was decided that all municipal managers should be given access to IRIS to monitor their own municipalities and the frequency and accuracy of uploaded data.

The Blue Drop report has been used to identify needs with regards to infrastructure. For instance, a number of treatment works in the province are working over their designed capacity.

“Municipalities receive funding, but this is not always allocated towards water services. One of the resolutions from the meetings was to ring-fence funding for water and wastewater services. Since our meeting with these municipalities, we have also seen advertisements to fill critical positions like process controllers,” states Mgxwati.

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) have also provided support to struggling municipalities. Misa can second technical people to municipalities. In addition to that, the DWS has partnered with EWSETA, WISA and the CSIR to provide training for process controllers.

Municipalities that have strong oversight from communities tend to perform better. Therefore, DWS has established water and sanitation community forums in different municipalities. Through these forums, communities better understand the challenges faced by municipalities and if they can assist in any way.

“There is generally better communication between the two entities through these forums and typically less theft and vandalism of infrastructure. Municipalities may have the technical capacity, but if the community is not responding to the plans and projects of that municipality, there will be problems. We are currently establishing community forums in these seven municipalities,” comments Hene.

“Overall, we are encouraged and proud of the Western Cape’s Blue Drop Results and will continue to support the struggling municipalities. We believe that a tighter, closer relationship has developed between the DWS and these municipalities from the meetings, and that it will bear fruit in the future,” she concludes.