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The state-of-the-art Cydna Laboratory continuously tests Joburg's tap water, making sure it is good to drink.
JOBURG'S tap water is known for its good quality, which is maintained with constant testing through Johannesburg Water's Cydna Laboratory.
The Cydna Laboratory tests about 1 300 000 cubic metres of tap water per day
The laboratory recently received a prestigious Blue Drop award for 2009/10 by the Department of Water Affairs. The awards are made after annual scientific research, testing and assessing water quality from 787 municipal water authorities in the country. Joburg scored 98,4 percent.
This accolade can largely be attributed to the continuous testing of water at the Cydna Laboratory in Houghton. Joburg Water, the City's water and sanitation service provider, tests and supplies approximately 1 300 000 cubic metres of tap water and treats about 930 000 cubic metres of waste water daily.
It ensures the high quality of its service and keeps the environment in which it operates hygienic. The utility provides a comprehensive chemical and microbiological lab service within the company and offers other City departments a centrally located lab complex with two satellite facilities.
"The Blue Drop rating will be encouraging for the teams and fans that [are] based in Joburg during the World Cup as the city is one of few big cities in the world where you can drink straight from the tap," notes Tebatso Baldwin Matsimela, Joburg Water's marketing and communications manager.
Cydna Laboratory is accredited by the South African National Accredited System (SANAS), which gives formal recognition to laboratories and other testing facilities, ensuring they are competent to carry out specific tasks.
Testing
Joburg Water is responsible for an area of about 1 646 km2 in size, and supplies 3,8 million residents with water. It vigorously tests potable, or drinking, water; industrial water; rivers and streams; seepage water; borehole water; sewage; effluent and other wastewater; koi and other fishpond water; and ornamental water-feature water.
Highly qualified staff ensure residents drink quality tap water
The laboratory is staffed by highly qualified scientists and chemists with experience in a wide range of chemical, physical and microbiological analysis. Sampling points comprise specifically installed taps in protected steel casings, at utility depots and on private premises such as garages.
Frequent samples are taken throughout the city as the requirement for Joburg includes 380 samples per month with its target being 500 samples per month. Testing is also done of swimming pool water, sludges and composts, soil, dairy products, foodstuffs and disinfectants, and food hygiene samples.
Joburg Water buys 500 000 millilitres of water from Rand Water via 43 meters, which is fed to 66 reservoirs and 27 towers. In an extract from a utility report, it is noted: "There is sufficient evidence to suggest that these entities [JW and Rand Water] could be compared with the best water utilities in the world."
Through its monitoring plan, the City water distributor aims to protect the public by assuring the quality of its water, as well as managing any risk by detecting potential problems that need corrective action. This monitoring plan covers each reservoir and tower that is a distribution zone, each informal settlement and all direct feed.
It is through all these tests and monitoring processes that Joburg Water is "able to respond quickly to any water quality problems and assure the public that every drop of the more than billion litres of water that passes through our network per day is well within the SABS standard for class one drinking water", Matsimela says.
Samples of water are tested for E.coli, coliforms, heterotrophic plate count, turbidity, colour, odour, taste, pH, residual chlorine and conductivity. The lab has state-of-the-art equipment such as flow injection analysers, gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers, inductively coupled plasma / optical emission spectrometers, laboratory information management systems, ion chromatographs, colilert equipment and cryoscopes.
Some of the accolades in possession of Joburg Water
Awards
Joburg Water has received several accolades in the past:
- Top Empowered Transforming Municipal Owned Entity for its efforts towards the development of black economic empowerment and employment equity;
- Kamoso Award for its valuable contribution towards creating employment opportunities in its Expanded Public Works Programme;
- Best Infrastructure Maintenance Award at the Kamoso Awards in the national category;
- Recognition from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry for its valuable contribution towards water conservation and water demand management in the domestic sector;
- Isigidi Award at the Biennial Water Institute of Southern Africa Conference for its Olifantsvlei Treatment Works as the best managed large facility in the country;
- Wilson Award for its Driefontein Wastewater Treatment Works as the best operated treatment works in the country on a small to medium scale; and
- Through the South African Local Government Association, which benchmarks the processes, it won the awards for the Best Performing Metropolitan and for having the Best Management Information for the 2005/06 and 2006/07 financial years.
In addition, Joburg Water has numerous public education projects that it is implementing, aimed at water conservation and water demand management through behavioural change.
"Johannesburg Water is poised to meet the challenges of the growing city and given the size of our operations, it is indeed a big achievement for it to provide residents with the best quality drinking water in the country," concludes Matsimela.
"Tap water in Johannesburg is safe, healthy and affordable. Visitors should not be deceived into unnecessary expenses of buying bottled water."
For more information about Joburg Water, visit its website or call the 24-hour water helpline on 011 688 1500 or the Joburg Connect call centre on 011 375 5555.
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