Water quality has deteriorated sharply, forcing the Department of Water and Sanitation to consider revoking the water licences of some municipalities. The Blue Drop ratings of six of the country’s nine provinces declined substantially between 2012 and 2014. One province had no system that was able to achieve Blue Drop status. On Wednesday, the department briefed Parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation on its Green Drop and Blue Drop assessment tools as well as on how councils and water authorities performed on the tool indices. The Blue Drop tool is intended to measure the quality of drinking water and legal compliance with requirements in providing water. The Green Drop regulation process is an incentive-based regulation that compares the performance of water service institutions. It rewards or penalises them based on the evidence of their performance in managing waste water. The portfolio committee had been waiting for the update on the Blue Drop and Green Drop to...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.