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City’s water treatment plants attain top-tier food safety certification

On Thursday, 9 November 2023, on World Quality Day, the City of Cape Town’s Brooklands, Blackheath and Voëlvlei Water Treatment Plants (WTP) received their ISO 22000 food safety management system certification, from the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). ISO 22000 is an international, voluntary standard covering food safety management, with the focus product in this case being drinking water.

On World Quality Day, the City's Water and Sanitation Directorate received the official ISO 22000 certification from the SABS for three of its 12 Water Treatment Plants (WTP) namely, Brooklands, Blackheath, Voëlvlei. Continuously seeking to improve water quality systems, the Water and Sanitation Directorate worked towards attaining ISO 22000 certification because it is a credible and internationally recognised standard. Organisations in the food industry implement this standard to ensure that manufacturing processes are controlled, to deliver on quality and safety standards consistently and to adhere to legislative requirements. <figure class="subtopic-fullsize-img"> <img src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Images%202/1%20Blackheath%20Water%20Treatment%20Plant.jpg" class="responsive" alt="" style="width:948px;" /> </figure>'Water is as critical to our well-being as the food that we eat. Monitoring the quality of its production is just as imperative, which is what motivated us to measure up against one of the highest international food-safety standards in the world,' said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation. ISO 22000 can be combined with the growing list of management standards already implemented by the City, including ISO 9001, DWS Blue Drop requirements and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. Collectively these steer the directorate forward in consistently providing the best possible quality drinking water. <figure class="subtopic-fullsize-img"> <img src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Images%202/2%20Voelvlei%20Water%20Treatment%20Plant.jpg" class="responsive" alt="" style="width:948px;" /> </figure>The review process to reach this milestone included a rigorous assessment of all current procedures applied in alignment with the control measures of those stipulated in the ISO standard. First, internal reviews were conducted and training provided in preparation for the SABS certification process. External auditors then evaluated the City's control systems, risk management and hazard analysis processes. Thereafter, a recommendation for certification was put forward to the SABS Approval Board. It was a successful outcome for all three plants that went under scrutiny and as a result, ISO 22000 certificates were approved and issued. 'The City of Cape Town is an important stakeholder of SABS as the City has achieved SABS certification to both local and international standards. The SABS further encourages similar entities to implement best practices on standardisation and subsequent certification by SABS, thereby providing assurance to the market of quality products and services. Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right and with ISO 22000 certification, residents can be assured that the quality of water supplied by the treatment plants meet the requirements of international standards. In light of the water quality issues in South Africa, SABS certification will go a long way in assuring water quality,' said Dr Sadhvir Bissoon, acting CEO of the SABS. <figure class="subtopic-fullsize-img"> <img src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Images%202/3%20Brooklands%20Water%20Treatment%20Plant%20Team.jpg" class="responsive" alt="" style="width:948px;" /> </figure>'It is a proud moment for the Water and Sanitation team that worked tirelessly towards the successful ISO 22000 certification. This gives us all extra reassurance that Cape Town's potable water remains exceptional in quality, proven even when measured against multiple international standards,' said Councillor Badroodien. More about the newly certified ISO 22000 Water Treatment Plants: Brooklands WTP lies in the Cape Peninsula Mountains within the SANParks boundary, above Simon's Town in the Elsies Rivier Valley. Built in 1974, it has a design capacity of 5,20 Ml/d. Blackheath WTP is in the western region of the Saxenberg agricultural area and slopes in a westerly direction towards the Rustdal and Blackheath Industrial areas. It forms part of the largest water supply schemes in Cape Town, commissioned in 1983 with a design capacity of 430Ml/d. Voëlvlei WTP sits just off the R44 between Gouda and Hermon, within the Cape Nature reserve at Voëlvlei dam. It was built with a design capacity of 270 Ml/d in 1972. End

2023-11-13T22:00:00Z

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