Question NW15 to the Minister of Water and Sanitation
29 July 2024 - NW15
Moore, Mr S J to ask the Minister of Water and Sanitation
Whether, considering that before the publication of the full 2023 Blue Drop, No Drop and Green Drop Reports on 5 December 2023, the last Drop Reports were published in 2014, and noting that significant deterioration in water and wastewater quality and increased water losses have since occurred, her department intends to statutorily conduct Drop Reports; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) how regularly will reports be conducted?
Reply:
a) The Constitution, National Water Act, and Water Services Act compel the Department of Water and Sanitation to support municipalities and to intervene where there is non-compliance with the national minimum norms and standards. The Green, Blue and No Drop Certification programmes are tools to provide regulatory information regarding water and sanitation services, which are largely the Constitutional responsibility of municipalities.
The drop reports are both a regulatory mechanism and a support mechanism. The results of the reports are provided to all water services authorities, and they are advised as to the causes of poor performance and what needs to be done about it.
The Department is empowered by the National Water Act to issue notices and directives to municipalities to stop sewage pollution. When municipalities do not act on these notices and fail to provide the Department with plans to address sewage pollution, as a last resort the Department is empowered by the National Water Act to lay criminal charges against the municipality for the sewage pollution. Sometimes these regulatory actions are prompted by the results of Green Drop assessments, and sometimes they are prompted by other monitoring mechanisms of the Department.
In the past, DWS generally did not take strong regulatory actions against municipalities and relied on the inter-governmental relations approach which was not effective. However, DWS has been strengthening its regulatory function and making its regulatory actions more consistent, and this has resulted in an increased number of civil actions and criminal charges against municipalities which have not responded to notices and directives to take action to stop sewage pollution.
The Water Services Act does not contain similar provisions for the Department to issue notices, directives and to lay criminal charges for non-compliance with norms and standards for water and sanitation services. During the last financial year, the Department engaged in a public consultation process on proposed amendments to the Water Services Act. The amendments aim to strengthen the role of municipalities as Water Services Authorities, which are meant to function as local regulators to ensure that the local Water Services Providers provide services which meet minimum national norms and standards. The amendments propose that this should be done through the introduction of an operating license requirement for Water Services Providers, to ensure that they have a minimum level of competency. Water Services Authorities will be required to only approve and contract with Water Services Providers that have an operating license.
The amendments also provide for gross non-compliance with key norms and standards for water and sanitation services to be criminal offences, similarly to the National Water Act. The Water Services Amendment Bill will be submitted to Cabinet shortly, to seek approval for it to be tabled in Parliament.
The Blue, Green and No Drop reports assessments will be conducted bi-annually (i.e. once every two years) and progress assessments will be conducted during the gap year.
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