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.

Mabuza made the comments last week at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

“We 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.

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The deputy president said the Water and Sanitation Department has confirmed 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.”

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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.

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