During the recent WISA Conference, held in Cape Town from 6-10 May 2012, the Department of Water Affairs acknowledged the achievements made by South African municipalities in providing clean drinking water to their communities. Every year since 2009 the Department of Water Affairs has recognised the efforts of all those municipalities that show marked progress in improving their water quality.  

This year’s top ten municipalities awarded certificates were Ekurhuleni, Gauteng Province, which scored 98.95%, City of Johannesburg with 98.92%, Mogale City local municipality, also in the Gauteng Province, with 98.79%, followed closely by eThekwini Metro in KwaZulu-Natal with 98.77%, Tlokwe Local Municipality in the North West Province scored 98.45%, the City of Cape Town attained 98.14%. Witzenberg Local Municipality in the Western Cape achieved 97.63%, Randfontein Local Municipality in Gauteng 97.54% and the George Local Municipality 97.41%.

According to the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs,Edna Molewa other municipalities, should also be congratulated for showing dramatic improvement. These include Victor Kanye Local Municipality (formerly Delmas) in Mpumalanga, which scored 18.26% last year (2011) and improved to an astonishing 80.07% this year; and Thembisile Local Municipality, also in Mpumalanga, who moved from 27.77% to 78.30%.

The Minister stressed the importance of water-safety planning as a key driver of the Blue Drop Certification Programme. “An example of this is when contamination of water at Diepsloot in Gauteng occurred; because safety planning was in place authorities were able to shut down the water supply until they were satisfied the water was again safe to drink” said Molewa.

The Department is measuring the performance of municipalities using key performance indicators of the Regulatory Performance Measurement System. The Minister indicated in her speech that this report allows the public to view the status of municipal water services and enables authorities to compare their performance with other similar-sized municipalities.

Visit: Department of Water Affairs website www.dwa.gov.za