Blue Drop and No Drop audits are underway

BLUE DROP AND NO DROP

audits are underway

Blue Drop/Green Drop technical lead Dr Marlene van der MerweBotha speaks to Kirsten Kelly about the audit process for water treatment plants that is currently taking place across the country.

On 31 March this year, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) released the first Green Drop Report since 2013. With the exception of a few star municipalities and private works, the overall results (as expected) were dismal. Only 23 of the 995 wastewater systems in South Africa achieved a Green Drop certification.

“However, the DWS Minister, Senzo Mchunu, must be praised for releasing these results. They will be used as a baseline and benchmark to plan and incentivise improved wastewater treatment performance in the future. It is critical that these programmes must be driven from a management, institutional and technical level, with decisive political leadership,” says Van der Merwe-Botha.

In the past, South Africa has given far more attention to water treatment, while wastewater treatment plants were inefficient, received minimal budgets and inexperienced process controllers. Since the first Green Drop Report in 2009, there has been greater attention on all wastewater treatment plants and the 2022 Green Drop Report will be instrumental in driving their operational improvement.

Dr Marlene van der Merwe-Botha, Blue Drop/ Green Drop technical lead

Blue Drop and No Drop

Currently, the Blue Drop audits are underway (from September to December), with the results to be released by the Minister in April next year. “Symposia were held with the water sector around the country in June and July 2021, where everyone was informed of the Blue Drop criteria. It was very well attended,” adds Van der Merwe-Botha.

The audit process is conducted by inspectors that are qualified water professionals (engineers and scientists) from both the private sector and DWS. The auditors are only trained on the audit scorecard and IRIS because they already understand the technology, science and engineering aspects that underline an audit. Audit panels are then formed with a lead auditor; they are then allocated municipalities to assess on a particular date.

Municipalities are notified of the date and time the audits will take place and are required to prepare a portfolio of evidence. “The first audit takes place in person. Once the desktop audit is completed, one or two supply network points and treatment plants are visited by the audit panel to confirm that the technical and functional status of the actual infrastructure is in line with the desktop audit.

“From there, it is a moderation process. The municipality will receive back their preliminary data to make any possible further improvements and gather any other available evidence. After that, there is a virtual confirmation audit where the municipality can present further evidence and the scorecard is updated accordingly. Then there is another moderation process

to produce the final Blue Drop results, after which data is processed and the various provincial and national reports are developed. These reports undergo various quality assurance phases after which the Minister signs off the report,” explains Van der Merwe-Botha.

History and changes to the Blue Drop programme

The Blue Drop and Green Drop certification programmes were launched in 2008. In 2014, the No Drop programme was also introduced to focus on water losses and non-revenue water from municipal water distribution systems. The release of these reports was halted in 2013, though all were reinstated last year.

Van der Merwe-Botha states that the Blue Drop audit process this year is very similar to the process prior to 2013, and is centred around monitoring and complying with SANS 241. However, there is greater attention to the financial side of treatment plants. “We benchmark budgets and expenditure and calculate what it costs to treat a kilolitre of water at a specific quality.” Given the many incidents of water quality failures around the country, risk-based monitoring is now a sizeable portion of the scorecard. All programmes are established around incentive-based regulation that has later been coupled with risk-based regulation.

“We do not use the term ‘penalise’ loosely. These programmes are geared towards incentivising good practice, responsible behaviour and compliance with legislation and standards while disincentivising under-performance and dysfunctional infrastructure. The audit process is consultative and we encourage municipalities to ask and learn from the auditors on how to improve their Blue Drop score and, thereby, water services in ensuring good-quality drinking water,” adds Van der Merwe-Botha.

The Blue Drop and Green Drop fall under the Regulation, Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Division of the DWS and any non-complying, failing, dysfunctional system will be issued with directives. Municipal managers and technical managers will be held accountable for their systems. The underlying governance and accountability drivers are valuable elements of the Drop programmes.

She adds that many municipalities have deeply committed water officials working for them. “We have the foot soldiers but without support from management and leaders, the correct tools, knowledge and competencies, that commitment is fruitless. The right people must be appointed in the right position, and existing staff must be trained and upskilled. We see a direct link between good Drop scores and competent staff and investment in officials responsible for wastewater/ water treatment.”

The programmes now also place a greater focus on the qualifications and experience of people within the water departments of municipalities.

Energy

Water and wastewater infrastructure is one of the major consumers of energy within municipal operations and service delivery. Energy use typically represents around 30% of the costs of running a water and wastewater treatment plant and electricity prices are predicted to grow above inflation levels every year.

“For the water sector, electricity becomes a critical driver from a budget and technology point of view, and for quality water and effluent. Therefore, energy has been introduced into the Green Drop and Blue Drop audit criteria. Municipalities now have a fresh perspective on energy efficiency and capacitated municipalities provide good data on the cost of their electricity per kilowatt hour, the amount of electricity used, as well as energy management plans to become more energy efficient and to generate energy,” states Van der Merwe-Botha. The water sector has been shown to hold the greatest electricity savings potential within municipal operations and is thus a high priority for energy-efficiency investment by municipalities. Establishing a baseline costing for energy, given that it is usually the single highest cost in delivering the service, is good management practice and will provide a strong basis from which to calculate and motivate the financial opportunities that efficiency measures may provide. “This is the strength of these programmes; they can be used to push and motivate for a resolution to a particular

problem. It also provides a performance comparison between treatment plants,” adds Van der Merwe-Botha.

Tackling the Blue Drop programme

Van der Merwe-Botha encourages all municipalities to tackle their water safety plan, as it is a good starting point to achieving Blue Drop status. “Water safety plans rely on sound integrated water quality management principles that are quite simple to implement but, as with most management systems, they require attention to detail, planning and discipline in execution. By identifying risks, a plant can prioritise certain projects and allocate budgets and human resources in a meaningful manner. The water safety plan can be used to motivate for human capital and sufficient budgets. It creates an enabling environment for the improvement of water treatment plants and ensures safe drinking water to users.

“I am encouraging municipalities to get their teams together, include their finance and procurement departments, and start compiling the portfolio of evidence to identify (and address) any gaps. Everyone (technical, procurement, financial) must be available for the inspector on the audit date; a venue/ room should be organised for the audit and it may be a good idea to do a dry (practice) audit before the actual audit takes place. Remember that the physical sites must be ready, as a few will be visited by the auditor,” she says.

A few quick wins include registering process controllers on the IRIS system, creating water safety plans, and doing condition assessments of the water network, pump stations and treatment works, while adhering to risk-based management and SANS 421. “I would like to remind municipalities that the public, state officials and funders will see their Blue Drop results and they therefore need to maximise their efforts and preparation for the Blue Drop audit,” states Van der Merwe-Botha.

All three programmes have been punted as a truly unique South African solution to South African problems that set an extremely high standard in water and wastewater treatment. “Green Drop, Blue Drop and No Drop status is only achieved if a 90% score is reached. I am extremely proud of these programmes as well as the people on the ground that are working on these programmes. The Green Drop Report has already added a new energy into the sector and is inspiring water professionals. I believe the Blue Drop and hopefully future No Drop reports will continue with this momentum,” she concludes.

NO DROP, BLUE DROP AND GREEN DROP

• No Drop – falls under the Water Use

Efficiency Division of DWS, measuring water usage indicators such as water use per capita, water losses and water use efficiency. • Green Drop – provides an analysis of the current state of wastewater infrastructure and management in the country, and also tracks performance and compliance over time. • Blue Drop – measures and assesses all aspects contributing to the provision of safe drinking water.