To reduce leakages from the water supply networks and boost water use efficiency, the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) would, from this month, implement ‘No Drop’ assessments across all municipalities in South Africa.
The report assessment programme would be rolled out to the municipalities from October to March 2014, with the results of the first assessments to be published in the Blue Drop / No Drop Report in 2014.
Thereafter, the results, which would provide the public and the water sector with audited and verified information on water use, water loss and efficiency of water used and managed within a municipality, would be released every two years.
The results would be integrated into the Blue Drop scorecard. The No Drop assessment would deal with water loss issues, while the already-implemented Blue Drop assessment dealt with the quality of drinking water.
“South Africa is a water scarce country and the supply-demand curve shows that South Africa will face a supply-demand deficit of around 17% [equating to] 3.8-billion kilolitres of water by the year 2030,” said Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.
But ageing infrastructure, inadequate maintenance and repairs of existing infrastructure, a long response time to water leaks and bursts, technical competency shortcomings in municipalities and a culture of water wastage challenged the water sector.
Data from 132 municipalities – 75% of the total volume of municipal water supply – revealed that the current level of nonrevenue water reached 36.7%, of which 25.4% was considered to be losses through physical leakages.