Calls for municipalities to uphold the quality of drinking water

Deputy President David Mabuza has called on municipalities to ensure that the quality of drinking water remains compliant with minimum standards.

The Deputy President said this when he responded to oral questions from permanent and non-permanent delegates of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Wednesday.

“We take this opportunity to urge municipalities to continue with ensuring that our country’s drinking water remains compliant with the set standards, while also fast-tracking efforts of improving the levels of access to water.

“With all these measures in place, we should not worry about the possibility of contamination of our drinking water,” he said.

In addressing the decline in water quality, the Deputy President had been asked by the ANC’s Eastern Cape delegate, Nokuzola Ndongeni, if government has engaged the Water and Sanitation Department on the growing concerns surrounding the quality of water.

Mabuza said the department has confirmed that the country’s water quality remains compliant with the minimum standards for drinking water, as specified by the South African National Standards.

He said this has been further confirmed in the recent announcement by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on reported cases of typhoid in different municipalities in parts of the country.

“The NICD has clarified that the detection of typhoid, between December 2021 and February of this year, was not linked to contaminated municipal water.

“Whereas there were reported cases of typhoid in the North West, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, the quality of water in these areas was found to be compliant with the national drinking water standards.”

The Deputy President said as an ongoing measure, the Department of Water and Sanitation will continue to monitor the processes that Water Services Authorities implement, and it will engage them where non-compliance is detected.

“For example, these entities are required to register for a monitoring programme on the Integrated Regulatory Information System, which indicates the sampling point of water, frequency of its monitoring and what factors are monitored related to water quality.

“It is mandatory for all Water Service Authorities to share their results on water quality on this system, and appropriate action is taken where challenges related to water quality are detected.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation has also revived the Blue Drop Certification Programme, which seeks to implement a proactive drinking water quality risk management approach in order to ensure that quality failures are minimised; and that where it occurs, acceptable interventions are implemented to safeguard affected communities.”