News Release: Garden Route District Municipality’s Environmental Health Practitioners fulfill significant role in Water Quality Monitoring

For Immediate Release
27 September 2021

Water is a national resource, fundamental to life, as well as growth and development. It, therefore, stands to reason that the quality of our drinking water and water resources is highly dependent on the overall management of the water cycle.  

According to Johan Compion, Garden Route District Municipality’s (GRDM) Manager for Municipal Health and Environmental Management, GRDM is mandated by various legislation to monitor the quality of our drinking- and wastewater. He said: “The applicable legislation is enforced by Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) and is stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, the Water Services Act, no 108 of 1997, the National Water Act no. 36 of 1998 and the National Health Act no. 61 of 2003”. To this he added: “Therefore all these health powers are vested in district municipalities, which includes water quality monitoring and environmental pollution control”.

GRDM has eight regions with offices to ensure that water quality in all regions is monitored at intervals required by the legislation mentioned above. The offices are situated in the following areas of the Garden Route district, including Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, George Head office with two sub-regions, Mossel Bay, Riversdale and Oudtshoorn, with a sub-office in Ladismith.

Typical water types that are monitored, sampled and analysed include, but are not limited to: drinking water, surface water (rivers and dams), treated sewage effluent, recreational waters (seawater and public swimming pools) and industrial effluent. Compliance rates for potable water are above ninety (90) per cent, and where samples do not comply with legislation (norms and standards), the reasons are investigated and corrective measures implemented. Waste water plants are also inspected, and sampling is done to ensure that the final effluents are safe to discard in the environment as per permit requirements.

Compion further highlighted and said: “Close cooperation with local municipalities, the Department of Water Affairs, the Department of Environmental Affairs, other government departments and private entities, as well as role-players, exist, to ensure that short-, medium- and long-term goals are met.

In conclusion he emphasised: “Notwithstanding all the above-mentioned facts, residents in the Southern Cape, are the main shareholders to ensure a healthy and safe environment and are encouraged to use water sparingly, to report any form of pollution and refrain from discarding any chemicals or foreign matter in sewage systems and water bodies”.

ENDS