1. Drinking Water Challenges from a Municipal Perspective Neil Macleod

2. Context Less than 50 % of SA water services authorities have Blue Drop accreditation from DWA and only 11 have retained their Blue Drop status since the inception of the initiatives Skills are critical to the success of any service provision, point of use solutions being no different More than 80 of the 274 municipalities in South Africa currently employ no engineering professionals

3. SANS 241 Water testing to validate compliance with SANS 241 is not clearly understood by most South Africans Few water samples are tested by ISO 17025 accredited laboratories The media used to analyse the microbiological quality of the water can dramatically affect the results

4. Piped or point of use The cost of point of use systems is generally higher than conventional piped water systems Regulation of the water quality is equally challenging for both alternatives in all but the most capacitated municipalities Point of use solutions tend to make use of proprietary systems that require specific product knowledge in order to be operated effectively

5. Asset management Assets are undervalued in municipal accounts and so the future viability of most municipal water supply infrastructure is not certain The current focus is primarily on the expansion of networks to bring water to those who do not have access to piped water Past decisions on the choice of piping materials are impacting on service levels, non revenue water and water quality

6. The link to sanitation The decision to separate government responsibility for water and sanitation is having unintended consequences The major impact is evident in service delivery protests, but more significantly in river water quality Rivers and ground water are the primary water sources in South Africa and natural water quality is a major contributor to the cost of purifying water

7. Financial considerations The direct medical costs to the SA economy of people drinking water that does not comply with SANS 241, was estimated to be in excess of R4 bn per year in 2004 Economies of scale should not be forgotten when it comes to the supply of potable water Bottled water typically costs 1000 times the cost of tap water The cost of maintaining point of use solutions is generally underestimated, particularly at the household level