In 2008, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) realised that many municipalities do not manage, maintain and operate their wastewater systems in compliance with legislation posing an apparent risk to human health and safe environment.

A set of criteria was developed to collectively assess the entire wastewater system within each municipality as well as its ability to provide acceptable service to its community. This set of criteria is called the Green Drop Certification programme.

A steady increase

The number of municipalities participating in the Green Drop assessments has steadily increased since 2009. In this regard, 152 municipalities participated in the 2013 Green Drop assessments, compared to 98 municipalities assessed in 2009 an increase of 55%.

Similarly, the number of wastewater systems assessed in 2009 has also increased from 444 to almost 1000 wastewater systems in 2013, representing a 56% increase over 5 years.

In this regard, 100% of municipalities have responded positively to the Green Drop challenge and showed up for audits every year, with more and more municipal systems having managed to achieve higher scores each year, despite the stringent nature of the Green Drop Certification criteria.

Improved wastewater management

The assessment data from the green drop system also suggests that municipal performance in wastewater management has significantly improved steadily over time. Today, there are more good performers than in 2009 and 2011.

In 2013, more than 90% of municipalities had design details, drawings and a clear knowledge of their systems as well as ability to make informed decisions compared to less than 20% in 2009, with majority of municipalities measuring various types of flows as well as showing flow meter calibration certificates to verify credibility of their flow information.

Progress in small and rural towns across South Africa has also been observed with performance improving up to 70 % and 75 % for Tsantsabane and Kgatelopele local municipalities (North West) respectively.

Generally, the risk based approach, through the use of the Wastewater Risk Abatement Plan (W₂RAP) Guideline has played a significant role in enabling municipalities to identify their critical risks; plan in advance and motivate successfully for budgets and other resources to Council to address the identified risks.