CoE walks away with major awards

The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) walked away with another Blue Drop Award at the 2023 Department of Water and Sanitation Drops Awards recently.

This comes amid the national government’s National Blue Drop Report for 2023, which contains a comprehensive assessment of all water supply systems in the country, revealing that almost half of the water supply in the country falls below a 50% compliance score, and almost of third of them are in a critical position.

The Blue Drop has become a flagship initiative for the Department of Water and Sanitation and a benchmark for good practice and excellence in drinking water services management.

For each water supply system, the department assesses, among others, the condition of the infrastructure; whether they followed proper treatment processes; whether proper monitoring and controls are in place; and whether the staff has the necessary skills and qualifications.

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The CoE is among the best scoring (more than 95%) and thus scooped a Blue Drop Award in the process.

As if not enough, the city also claimed a No Drop Award. This category assesses the degree to which the drinking water distribution systems of municipalities supply water efficiently and without wasting it.

Ekurhuleni was among the top four in the country, scoring more than 90% and received the prestigious honour.

“We continue to demonstrate our commitment to provide good quality drinking water in the city while fully consumed with efforts to ensure to curtail non-revenue water (water losses).

“The awards we have been receiving lately are a good motivation to the teams that work extremely hard towards ensuring that quality flows from our taps.

“We are honoured that the Department of Water and Sanitation recognises our efforts,” said city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi, congratulating ‘the team for delivering yet another award for the city and their hard work’.

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“The National Blue Drop Report for 2023 revealed Gauteng has the highest percentage of drinking water systems with excellent or good performance and 62% followed by Western Cape at 50%.

“In 2008, following among other factors, reports of poor water quality and sporadic outbreaks of water quality-related diseases, the government realised some municipalities were not managing, maintaining and operating their drinking water purification systems in compliance with legislation,“ said Mashazi.

“Recently, the city also lifted The Water Wise and The Bulk Water Distribution awards at Rand Water’s 120 Years Legacy Celebration and Awards ceremony,” said Mashazi.

CoE spokesman Zweli Dlamini said the inefficiency in managing drinking water services, which was becoming a prime risk to human health, could be attributed to various factors, including the lack of managerial and technical skills in municipalities; ageing and dilapidated infrastructure; rapid housing developments not aligned with infrastructure plans and budgets; and poor understanding of the complexities of drinking water purification.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation responded by developing a set of criteria that would, collectively, assess and measure an organisation’s ability to render an acceptable service to its community and to identify those organisations that deliver an excellent service. This led to the introduction of the Drop Awards,” said Dlamini.

“Each year, a small team of water experts travel around South Africa to conduct an audit and give a score to each water supply system within a municipality.

“The audit includes the physical inspection of raw water pump stations and purification facilities.

“The audit results serve as a trigger to redirect the necessary regulatory – and support interventions to remedy non-compliance in municipalities with a Blue Drop score of less than 30%,” said Dlamini.

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“Meanwhile, the city appeals to the public to continue working with the local authority in dealing with water losses. Members of the community may either report water leaks and burst pipes through the walk-in centres in their areas or contact us through the call centre on 0860 54 3000 or the My CoE App,” said Dlamini.