SA's drinking water quality has declined since 2012, with half of sampled municipalities' treatment systems scoring poorly in their effectiveness in removing harmful bacteria, a preliminary report shows.
The Department of Water and Sanitation on Tuesday released a set of reports aimed at improving drinking water quality, wastewater management, as well as water conservation and demand management. The Blue Drop Watch report, in particular, is a technical assessment of drinking water quality based on a sample of 151 (out of 1 035) water treatment systems across different municipalities between December 2022 and February 2023.
The full Blue Drop report, which will be released in July, covers all drinking water supply systems.