Minister of the Department of Water and Environment Affairs (DWEA), Ms Buyelwa Sonjica, and her deputy, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, awarded the Blue Drop certificates to 22 municipalities on 12 May 2009 in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.

The awards went to those municipalities who met the Blue Drop requirement for ‘high- quality drinking water’. The event ran in conjunction with the three-day Drinking Water Quality conference which was hosted by DWEA and the Water Institute of South Africa.

Eight Western Cape municipalities come up tops when they took the majority of the awards from the different categories.

Amongst the winners were the:

"The Laingsburg Municipality in the Karoo was sited as a ‘story of promise’ when it improved its Blue Drop score from zero in November 2008 to 70,7% when it was assessed recently," informed DWEA.

DWEA’s Drinking Water Quality manager, Leonardo Manus, told the press that the municipalities that did not receive the certificate are being helped by the department to meet the minimum standard.

"In general terms, South Africa’s water is safe to drink from the tap. This includes towns and cities whose municipalities did not qualify for the Blue Drop certification," said Manus.

Towns that are awarded the Blue Drop status are required to comply with 95% the weighted criteria in the bi-annual assessment. The evaluation is per drinking water services systems (from catchment to consumer) and is then aggregated from each town.

Parallel to the Blue Drop certification is the Green Drop certification programme which is designed to evaluate the quality of municipalities’ waste-water management services.

The Green Drop status means that the municipalities have an excellent waste-water management system and is taking responsibility for improving the environment and health of the community as a whole. ◊