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sean phillipslatest news & developments
The Blue, Green and No Drop certification programmes are the department’s regulatory mechanisms to improve municipal drinking water quality, wastewater management, water conservation and demand management.

SA’s water crisis deepens: Nearly half of wastewater systems critical

The latest Green, Blue and No Drop reports show widespread deterioration of water and sanitation infrastructure. Nearly half of wastewater systems are critical, drinking water…

Sean Phillips, the director general at the department of water and sanitation. (DWS/Facebook)

There won’t be dry taps during six-month Lesotho Highlands Water Project Tunnel shutdown, says government

The six-month period required to conduct maintenance is crucial to ‘avoid any catastrophic event’

An employee with the City of Tshwane collects a sample of water from a municipal tank truck in Hammanskraal on May 23, 2023, where a cholera outbreak, including surrounding areas, killed 31 people.
(Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images)

SA water woes must not be ‘exaggerated’, says Mchunu

The minister is adamant the country is not experiencing a crisis, despite about half the water in our systems being unsafe for drinking

Nearly half of South Africa’s drinking water systems are in a poor state. (Getty Images)

Severe decline in drinking water quality since 2014

Nearly half of South Africa’s drinking water systems are in a poor state

Rand Water is already over the limit for water it can extract from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) and it would be irresponsible to increase it for Gauteng, said the director general of the department of water and sanitation.(Photo by Deaan Vivier/Beeld/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Gauteng’s treated water availability is tight, says water and sanitation department

Extracting too much water from the Vaal River system will result in a worse crisis

Sean Phillips, the director general at the department of water and sanitation. (DWS/Facebook)

Sean Phillips: ‘We need to turn around water sector’

The director general said high levels of support and intervention by the department are slowing the decline in water and sanitation services, not reversing it

The survey found that although the proportion of respondents who are connected to piped water remains high (92% in 2023-24), the percentage of respondents who believe their water is “always clean” declined from 75% in 2020-21 to 60% in 2023-24. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)

Portable treatment plant to supply drinking water to Hammanskraal by March next year

The Rooiwal wastewater treatment works is set for a R4 billion upgrade