Despite the fact that the Madibeng Municipality is facing criminal charges for discharging unpurified sewage into the Crocodile River, its water was found acceptable in the 2012 Blue Drop report.Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa announced the results of the 2012 Blue Drop Certification Programme on Monday.
The Blue Drop report is a national assessment of drinking water quality and involved an audit of 153 local, district and metropolitan municipalities, and nearly all the country’s water systems (931 plants).
Madibeng is one of the 47% of South Africa’s waste-water treatment works that received a zero Green Drop score in 2009. It upped its score from 36.72 in 2011 to 57.93 in 2012.
Leonard Manus, director of water services regulation, said the national department had sampled water from municipalities from January 2011 to December, and risks to the water included high microbiological failure and a lack of commitment to respond to the problems such as water treatment or the need for disinfectants.
Manus said water safety was a priority for the department and it would provide “full support and assistance” to the hot spots.
No specific deadlines have been given for the municipalities to clean their water, but Manus said: “We will work with the teams and give them all the support, but we will also put pressure on them to sort it out as soon as possible.”
He warned that the department would take action against municipalities that did not cooperate, including taking them to court, as with Madibeng.
“We will take the municipalities and the accounting officers (municipal managers) to court for neglecting to comply with legislation.”
Molewa said that the latest Blue Drop report showed “significant improvements” nation wide, which highlighted the positive impact that the incentive-based regulation approach had on the South African water sector.
The North West province showed the most improvement from 62.3% in 2011 to 78.7% in 2012.
The Blue Drop scores were determined based on assessments conducted by a panel of drinking water professionals of municipalities’ drinking water system.
These areas were water safety planning, drinking water quality process management and control, drinking water quality compliance, management accountability and local regulation, and asset management.
Manus said R220-million was channelled through the Accelerated Community Infrastructure Programme last year alone to address water-related issues.