water shutdown ethekwini municipality

eThekwini Municipality areas to face 24-hour water shutdown on Tuesday. Image: Adobe Stock

Forget the bottled stuff: Joburg’s water found to be of ‘impeccable quality’

Joburg’s water has been found to be of an exceptional standard and in line with what is expected of a world-class city.

water shutdown ethekwini municipality

eThekwini Municipality areas to face 24-hour water shutdown on Tuesday. Image: Adobe Stock

While many facilities and municipal services in Johannesburg appear to be in some need of attention, Joburg’s water treatment facilities and the quality of its drinking water have been found to be exceptional.

The City of Johannesburg’s environment and infrastructure services mayoral committee member, Mpho Moerane, carried out a site inspection of Joburg Water’s Cydna Laboratory in Houghton on Thursday last week.

JOBURG WATER’S TREATMENT FACILITY

Cydna Laboratory is where Johannesburg Water conducts quality control testing. The laboratory is the site where water quality tests for both potable and effluent water are carried out.  

The Cydna testing lab is said to be Joburg Water’s premier testing facility, enabling Johannesburg Water to be streets ahead of other water providers around the country regarding performance and water quality.

During the visit, Moerane observed how the city’s water was treated and processed. He also saw how wastewater was treated before being let back into the system for human consumption.

JOBURG WATER’S BLUE DROP STATUS

Moerane praised Johannesburg Water for its outstanding performance. He said Joburg Water had managed to surpass targets on drinking water quality and consistently keep up the high standards of the Blue Drop Status requirements for drinking water quality management.

“The city’s water is of such impeccable quality that any Johannesburg resident does not even need to be drinking bottled water because the quality of our water is scientifically proven to be of Blue Drop standard,” Moerane said, as quoted by IOL.

MAINTAINING HIGH STANDARDS

Although Joburg’s water quality shows a small decline of 0,2% in the last two quarters of 2020/2021 compared to the previous quarter’s 99.9%, the city can still boast having some of the best water in the country and indeed the world.

“The current results are, however, still an excellent achievement by Joburg Water, as they exceeded their target by 0.7%, registering a 99.7% Drinking Water Quality level for the residents of the municipality,” Moerane said.

There are many countries in the world where municipal water is not fit for human consumption. This is certainly not the case in Johannesburg.  Moerane assured the public that his department was working with Joburg Water to ensure they continued to make improvements in the coming quarters.

ALSO READ: A rundown mess: Joburg now far from a city of world-class standards [photos]