WORLD WATER MONITORING DAY
18 October 2006 is International World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) which offers the opportunity for communities all over the world to make a positive impact on the quality of both resource and drinking water by involving the general public, especially school children. The awareness component which will accompany the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's initiatives today will place an emphasis on the crucial importance of monitoring as part of the water quality assurance function.
Word Water Monitoring Day Schools Initiative
The Department will engage with selected schools that are participating in the 2020 Vision Programme and equip them with monitoring kits to determine the physical and microbiological quality of tap water by means of indicative methodologies. This will be done in cooperation with the responsible Water Services Authorities (WSU) since the municipality will be benefiting by having access to additional water quality information.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene campaign (WASH)
The Department’s initiatives will also include the WASH campaign. WASH is about highlighting health, hygiene and sanitation as critical factors in stopping spread of waterborne diseases, complementing existing activities and promoting key messages through public-private partnerships. Greater focus would be placed on those groups most vulnerable to water and sanitation related diseases and those responsible for maintaining a healthy environment at household and community levels. The vulnerable groups include women, the poor, young children, those affected by HIV/AIDS while those responsible for their environment include heads of household, community health forums etc.
D-Day for Municipalities to Implement Sampling Programmes
While the 18th will be used by the Department to empower the public in terms of water quality monitoring and awareness of resource protection, it needs to be noted that this day has been set as the D-day for Water Services Authorities to comply with Regulation 5 under Section 9 of the Water Services Act of 1997.
It is the legislated duty of Water Services Authorities to have sampling programmes in place in order to ensure that the quality of drinking water supplied to the public by means of formal reticulation, complies with the National Standard (SANS 241:2005). The Department: Water Affairs and Forestry, as sector regulator, has repeatedly called upon Authorities to adhere to this legislative duty and is now announcing that within the next month a report will be published on the status of compliance to the requirement to have sampling programmes in place.
However all WSA’s might not be equally capacitated and therefore those who might be challenged to comply with this requirement must inform the Department of its inability to comply soonest, with motivation. This does not mean that exemption will be granted but the notification will enable National Government to effectively channel resources to ensure that sampling procedures are put in place where required, as soon as possible.
The Department is committed to inform the public on the efficiency levels of Drinking Water Quality Management at Municipal level and therefore Municipalities are encouraged to regularly publish a report on the status of Drinking Water Quality to their respective constituencies. These efforts will be complemented by an Annual Report on municipal performance in this regard.
WSA Monitoring Success
Initial interaction with Local Government revealed that the need exists to sensitize Municipalities on the importance of Drinking Water Quality Management and it can be noted that the consequent initiatives had a fair amount of success. This is evident from the improvement which was detected in the Annual DWQ Survey’s results regarding the percentage of WSA’s that are monitoring the Quality of Drinking Water. While only 58% of WSAs reported in 2005 that they are monitoring drinking water quality, the figure increased to 85% in 2006, and with current DWAF initiatives ( the implementation of electronic monitoring mechanisms) this figure is expected to increase even further in 2007.
The fact that South Africa is one of a few countries in the world where one can drink water directly from a tap, is a noble status which this Government is not at all willing to surrender hence the commitment to maintain this level of confidence and to ensure the improvement of the drinking water quality in areas where it has been found to be questionable.
National Government’s Commitment to Safe Drinking Water
While there is a high level of confidence in the quality of water reticulated in the bigger municipalities and metropolitan areas, the Department still faces the challenge of increasing the confidence levels in other areas. Recent surveys performed support the claim that drinking water quality in metropolitan and larger municipalities is generally better managed than at smaller municipalities and this has had a direct impact on the quality of water eventually supplied to the public.
Nevertheless, the Government is not oblivious to the fact that the challenge remains to ensure that all areas of the Country receives safe drinking water consistently and therefore various initiatives were initiated to ensure that high levels of confidence are established in the overall quality of drinking water. The challenge is two-fold; one to ensure that the high quality of drinking water in the bigger areas is maintained, while the quality levels in other areas are also being increased.
Our fellow citizens who do not enjoy access to a safe water supply as yet, are not excluded from Government’s plans in this regard since a concerted effort is being made to have all South Africans supplied with safe water by 2008.
The Department is currently supplying all Water Services Authorities with an electronic Water Quality Management System (eWQMS), in order to equip Municipal Management with a tool to manage the quality of drinking water as effectively as possible. This system has proven to be quite successful in the Free State and Western Cape Provinces and similar results are expected in other provinces where the roll out is currently taking place.
It should be noted that National Government is committed to ensuring that safe drinking water is being reticulated since it is an undisputable fact that the quality of drinking water cannot be compromised, and that the majority of our population cannot afford alternative means such as bottled water and home purification systems to fulfill their need for clean, safe and reliable water supply.
>> Press Release, 18 October 2006
>> Speech by Min Hendricks: Drinking Water Quality Debate, Parliament, 19 Oct
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