Study the text below and answer the questions that follow.
Water crisis in South Africa
A new report by South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation paints a grim picture of the
quality of the country’s drinking water, and its water infrastructure. The Blue Drop Audit Report is
meant t...
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Question 1
Study the text below and answer the questions that follow.
Water crisis in South Africa
A new report by South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation paints a grim picture of the
quality of the country’s drinking water, and its water infrastructure. The Blue Drop Audit Report is
meant to ensure that water service authorities are held accountable for providing safe drinking
water. The audit report found that the quality of the country’s drinkable water is getting worse.
Nearly half (46%) of all water supply systems pose acute human health risks because of bacteria
or other pathogens in the drinking water supply. The report also found that more than two thirds
(67.6%) of all wastewater treatment works are close to failure. On top of this it showed that over
47% of all clean and treated water was lost through leaks, or could not be accounted for.
The national Blue Drop Risk Rating is an assessment focused on critical risk areas within water
services. It looks at water supply systems at a specific moment in time. This year’s report showed
that the overall risk had dropped from 52.3% in 2022 to 47.15% in 2023 after some water supply
systems made improvements and improved their risk category from critical or high to medium or
low risk. But this should not be celebrated. To achieve Blue Drop certification, water supply
systems must meet 95% of the criteria for delivering clean, drinkable water – and only 26 of South
Africa’s 958 water supply systems managed this.
The report found that several water supply systems were operating close to or beyond their
design capacity. Monitoring and compliance were severely deficient. This makes fixing problems
impossible as the scale of the issues at stake are not being identified.
The report said that in 23 parts of the country, water supply systems are in “poor and critical
condition”. Almost half of all water supply systems (46%) do not comply with microbiological
standards. In these water supply systems, drinking water is contaminated by sewage and bacteria.
Viruses and parasites such as Legionella and Cyanobacteria may have grown in the piped water
systems and or water sources.
These present acute health risks, such as gastro illnesses with diarrhoea usually being the prime
symptom. Other primary waterborne illnesses can include cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and
typhoid. Another problem the report highlighted was that more than half of the country’s
municipalities (57%) do not notify water users when they discover that the water has been
contaminated. Not issuing notices or warnings of contaminated drinking water places citizens at
risk of contracting waterborne illnesses and is an unacceptable practice due to the possible
serious health repercussions of drinking contaminated water.
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