The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has revived its Blue and Green Drop Certification Programmes that assess the quality of drinking water and wastewater management in municipalities across the country.
The resuscitation of these programmes following the Presidency’s commitment to fast-track the delivery of economic reforms through Operation Vulindlela which aims to enhance service delivery in various sectors of society.
The Blue and Green Drop Certification is a programme that is used to monitor and manage the quality of potable water as well as waste water in an effort to ensure safe water is delivered to communities. The reporting system is a vital part of the compliance monitoring utilized by the department. The system celebrates the great performing municipalities and enables government to focus sector skills and resources to towns and municipalities where intervention is needed.
Read: Water and Sanitation Reinstates the Blue and Green Drop Programmes
This will also assist in prohibiting the complete degeneration of resources such as water and waste water treatment plants which will in the end require more money to resuscitate. DWS in the Free State held a Blue and Green Drop symposium on 12 and 13 July 2021 in preparation for the reinstatement of the programme.
The Water Services providers such as municipalities, Bloemwater and Sedibeng Water joined this symposium to better understand the role they will play in ensuring quality water. The last Green Drop and Blue Drop reports were published in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Some municipalities will hence be propelled to ensure the state of wastewater treatment and water infrastructure at municipal level is up to standard.
