AFRIFORUM SHOULD NOT MISLEAD SOUTH AFRICANS ABOUT WATER QUALITY TESTING

The Department of Water Affairs has today, Tuesday, 18 February 2013 noted with concern the launch of the Afriforum "Blue and Green Drop Branch Project 2014" which purports to be "an initiative to test the quality of potable and treated water in the municipalities". According to this initiative, the Afriforum will traverse the country and conduct water testing in identified areas - "local authorities and the media will be invited to accompany the test teams in order to ensure the validity of the tests" they said in their statement.

At face value this may appear to be a genuine initiative but a careful examination of the facts reveals the opposite and at worst the risk carried by such opportunism. Firstly the type of testing they are referring to focuses only on water quality analysis which is just a portion of the original Blue and Green Drop audits that the department conducts on an annual basis.

Our audits in contrast focus on the entire value chain {reticulation, pumping, treatment and discharge} of the waste water business with regard to the treated water assessment. The blue drop which is drinking water quality looks at risk management from catchment to consumer - from source to tap - {treatment, reticulation}It must be noted that such kind of analysis and evaluation is based on annual results and not a once off sampling which does not record any sort of trend in analysis.

In addition, the Afriforum will assess only 125 wards according to their initiative whereas our programs are focused in their entire country. Our previous assessment results alone record 821 waste water collector systems and 931 water supply systems {drinking water}. So the credibility of the 125 approach is on its questionable and therefore should not be trusted by anyone.

Besides the limited scope of these samples that the Afriforum wants to do, it would be interesting to find out how the Afriforum intends to access the premises for the purposes of conducting the tests without the legislated permission from the Minister of Water Affairs or any water service institution in the country. The Water Services Act requires that such access be granted by the Minister or other such authority in the designated area. The law does not allow ordinary citizens access to water treatment facilities unless the Minister the Minister grants permission in writing.

"While the organization reserves the right in terms of the constitution to engage in its political programs and public engagement initiatives, the department wishes to warn the organization that such actions carry the possibility of a legal challenge and an even more dangerous potential to mislead the public about the true nature of water services regulation and performance monitoring" said Mava Scott, spokesperson for Water Affairs.

Statement issued by Mava B Scott, Department of Water Affairs, February 18 2014

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