Highlights and trends from the Green Drop Certification Programme 2009-2013

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A set of criteria was developed to assess the entire wastewater system within each municipality collectively, as well as its ability to provide acceptable service to its community. This set of criteria is called the Green Drop Certification programme.

A small team of wastewater experts travels around South Africa to conduct an audit and give a score to each wastewater system within a municipality. This is also a platform for the Regulator to intervene in municipalities with low Green Drop scores and in need of urgent intervention.

The number of municipalities participating in the Green Drop assessments has steadily increased since 2009. In this regard, 152 municipalities participated in the 2013 Green Drop assessments, compared to 98 municipalities assessed in 2009 an increase of 55%.

Similarly, the number of wastewater systems assessed in 2009 has also increased from 444 to almost 1000 wastewater systems in 2013, representing a 56% increase over five years. In this regard, 100% of municipalities have responded positively to the Green Drop challenge and showed up for audits every year, with more and more municipal systems having managed to achieve higher scores each year, despite the stringent nature of the Green Drop Certification criteria, which was designed to become more rigorous with time, incrementally, as the programme aims to change behaviours, improve and stretch performance and manage risk more effectively for all South Africans.

Significant improvement

The assessment data from the Green Drop system also suggests that municipal performance in wastewater management has significantly improved steadily over time. Today, there are more good performers than in 2009 and 2011.

In 2013, more than 90% of municipalities had design details, drawings and a clear knowledge of their systems as well as ability to make informed decisions compared to less than 20% in 2009, with majority of municipalities measuring various types of flows as well as showing flow meter calibration certificates to verify credibility of their flow information. Progress in small and rural towns across South Africa has also been observed with performance improving up to 70% and 75% for Tsantsabane and Kgatelopele local municipalities (North West), respectively.

Generally, the risk-based approach, through the use of the Wastewater Risk Abatement Plan (W2RAP) Guideline has played a significant role in enabling municipalities to identify their critical risks; plan in advance and motivate successfully for budgets and other resources to the council to address the identified risks.

Currently, 77% of all wastewater systems have developed site-specific W2RAPs, which are now in implementation phase, leading to an overall improvement in wastewater management. Similarly, the national risk profile for wastewater treatment has also significantly improved, with nine municipalities on the high-to-critical risk categories in 2009 moving to the medium-to-low risk categories by 2013. Since the Green Drop was implemented, a notable reduction in the national average Cumulative Risk Ratio (CRR) has been observed.

Continuous risk abatement translates to lower risk scores, improved effluent quality and improved wastewater management in South Africa. More importantly, the CRR risk scores gives the department, as well as its sector partners CoGTA, SALGA, the Treasury, etc. valuable information to see which municipalities are in ICU and how they can be resuscitated.

In this regard, the risk-based approach of the Green Drop Certification programme has generally promoted a positive culture in wastewater management within the South African Water Services Institutions, and this positive trajectory is expected to continue into the future.