The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) recently released the 2010 Blue Drop report which aims to ensure the improvement of the quality of tap water through compliance monitoring.
The report revealed a municipal Blue Drop score of 36% for Grahamstown, having declined from last year’s score of 58%.
The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) recently released the 2010 Blue Drop report which aims to ensure the improvement of the quality of tap water through compliance monitoring.
The report revealed a municipal Blue Drop score of 36% for Grahamstown, having declined from last year’s score of 58%.
A year before DWA introduced the drinking water quality (DWQ) regulation programme in 2005 a survey was conducted which indicated that less than 50% of municipalities monitored drinking water quality according to legal requirements.
The introduction of the regulation saw performance improving to 100% by early 2008. But the negative reporting of the water quality lowered public confidence and this ultimately triggered the initiation of an “incentive-based regulation programme,” which then became known as Blue Drop Certification in 2008.
According to DWA, 38 water supply systems obtained the prestigious Blue Drop Award for the 2010 assessment cycle, which is a 40% improvement from 2009.
Peddie managed to make it on the list as one of these 38 water supply systems. According to the report, Makana Municipality’s average performan ce dropped from 34.66% to 28.4%.
“While them unicipality might still be in the position to provide safe drinking water most of the time, the DWA has a lower level of confidence in the institutions ability to sustain the provision of safe water,” the regulator indicated in the report.
“The Department’s Emergency Response unit recently performed a process optimisation assessment of the Waainek and Kleynhans water treatment facilities.
This initiative was done to assist with improving the adverse quality situation in a sustainable manner.” The report also mentioned that improvement is required in chemical monitoring since “erratic sampling” was recorded with no chemical data submissions made since August 2009.
Albany Museum’s Freshwater Ichthyologist Dr Jim Cambray is the chairperson of the Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC) which is a project of the Makana Environmental Forum.
Cambray says that the KCC is concerned that Peddie with its small staff capacity and few resources obtained Blue Drop status while Grahamstown showed a decreasing trend in monitoring and providing good quality drinking water.
It worries him that the municipality knew that a follow-up report from 2009 would be due for the following year.
He added that it is important that the municipality follows the criteria as he derives from the report that they did not submit the data for chemical compliance.
Cambray said that the KCC have attempted on numerous occasions to get the municipality to publish results of the water tests which assess the quality of drinking water in Grahamstown.
He said that he liked the fact that the Blue Drop report is transparent and allows the public to see the problems encountered by municipalities as well as offering comparisons to other municipalities.
According to Cambray, the importance of the report is “getting the municipality to fufill their function in providing good quality water”.
He applauds the DWAF for this campaign as it has made people and the municipalities aware of the problem with our water.
He said that the KCC plans to keep an eye on the municipality to ensure that they regularly publish water quality results as this will in the future allow the “community to trust the quality of the water coming out of their taps”.
But it is also important that the community in turn ensures that the municipality does their job. “By law, the water should be sampled and tested on a regular basis, at a certified lab and that these results be made public.
The municipality has been negligent in the past. Hopefully with the structure that the Municipal Manager and her new staff have now put in place Makana will soon have Blue Drop status.
If Peddie can have this status surely we can!” The Blue Drop status is awarded through the usage of a nine criteria performance areas.
The municipality has improved since last year in the Process Control criteria as well as compliance with the National Standard in submitting data to DWAF.
It has also lowered their performance for the efficiency of the monitoring programme, credibility of sample analysis and regular submission of DWQ data.
Environmental Specialist at Amatola Water, Dr Nikite Müller observed from the report that Makana did not only not achieve Blue Drop status, “but they simply didn’t bother to do any chemical monitoring”.
She added that their “management of drinking water quality services delivery is shocking. They achieved scores of G for four of the criteria this is the lowest score attainable suggesting that there is no water safety plan, there is no asset management plan, there is no publication of water quality data and no failure response management.
Furthermore, their monitoring programme and compliance and control of processes only scored D. The highest they managed were C, for submitting the little data to water affairs.
The municipality is failing in water quality service delivery all round, and that water quality is merely a small component of that service delivery.”
Municipal spokesperson, Thandy Matebese said that the municipality will continue with their 10 point Implementation Plan which is part of a five-year comprehensive turnaround strategy.
The plan, which was announce at the beginning of April, looks at appointing qualified and experienced staff in the Water Services Section by the end of this financial year.
The municipality initiated the conducting of chemical and microbiological tests from an independent body, Amatola Water in response to allegations and concerns from the Grahamstown community.
It wasintended that “Amatola Water as a reputable state-owned enterprise be contracted for Bulk Provision Support which includes water operations and quality” he said.
He said the main challenge the municipality faces is that they are competing with other municipalities and the private sector in retaining and attracting specialists and personnel in their water departments.
Two senior technician posts have already been filled since the beginning of April. Other challenges are the maintenance of water quality which has been addressed with the employment of a water quality specialist beginning of March and a lack of interest in the posts advertised by the municipality.
“We had to resort in taking people with the municipality from junior positions or lower ranks and providing them with in-house training” for specific posts.
The scarce skills allowance is also used to address this problem as it is an allowance “given to municipal employees that the municipal deems as a field that has scarcity”.
Matebese also said they would get an extra pump, “as we have been having problems with the pumps in the James Kleynhans dam.
We normally use two pumps and we will have two on stand-by.” He said that it was important to have a extra pump as water cuts are normally experienced when only one pump is working.
He said that they expect to receive the most recent results on the water tests from Amatola Water soon. These results should be released through their website until they win back the confidence of the community.
The Blue Drop report can be viewed on the Kowie Catchment Campaign or DWAF website (www.dwaf. gov.za). (www.grahamstown. co.za/kowie /index.html)
Water Supply Systems Blue Drop Performance
| Performance Area Systems | Alicedale | Grahamstown | Riebeeck East |
| Water Safety Plan | G | G (not complying) |
G |
| Process Control & Maintenance Competency | D | D (some compliance) |
D |
| Effi ciency of Monitoring Programme | D | D | D |
| Credibility of Sample Analyses |
E (some compliance) |
C (complies with a majority of requirements) |
D |
| Data Submission to DWA | C | C | C |
| Compliance with National Standard | D | D | D |
| Failure Response Management | G | G | G |
| Responsible Publication of Performance | G | G | G |
| Effi cacy of Asset Management | G | G | G |
| Microbial DWQ Compliance with National Standard |
96.43%* 12 months data |
96.43%* 12 months data |
96.43%* 12 months data |
| Chemical DWQ Compliance with National Standard |
No data | No data | No data |
| Blue Drop Score (2010) + Trend |
25.00% ↑ |
36.13% ↓ |
24.13% ↑ |
| Blue Drop Score (2009) | 22% | 58% | 24% |
| * Compliance determined from Municipal Overview |
