Julian Rademeyer

can be said to of quality’.

“However, this statement must be used cautiously because it only refers to water that meets the standard, and not for the whole country,” she said.

Her colleague, Dr Kevin Murray, research manager for water quality management at the WRC, said he too was not aware of any study that placed South Africa into a handful of countries with the best water in the world.

“I am under the impression that our drinking water is generally world-class but I am not aware of any ranking study.”

Dr Anthony Turton, a prominent water resource management specialist and professor at the University of the Free State’s Centre for Environmental Management, said the claims by the IWMSA sounded “more like propaganda than empiric”.

“I am not aware of any objective ranking system operating at global level. In fact, the water world is filled with myths of this nature. The bottom line is that water has to be sup-

‘world-class plied at a given quality in each country.

“These quality standards are not entirely consistent, although there is some convergence on norms such as those provided by the World Health Organisation.

“Certainly every EU member state has water that is safe to drink, simply by virtue of the fact they are strictly governed by the EU Framework Directive. There are more than 12 countries in the EU (27 in total), so there goes the validity of the statements made by IWMSA,” Turton said.

“Certainly the US and Canada are world class, as are many South and Central American countries.

“In Asia we have sophisticated economies like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and oth- ers, all of which have high quality.

“Australia stands out above the rest as a world trendsetter in standards of all sorts, including water accounting.”

Turton, who co-authored chapters in the 2012 United Nations World Water Development Report, said: “By and large, it is absolutely safe to drink tap water in most places and certainly not just 12 countries in the world. That is absolute nonsense.”

So where did the IWMSA’s claims originate? The statement was issued by Reputation Matters, a “corporate reputation management company” employed by the IWMSA to handle media relations.

Esther le Roux, the Reputation Matters media contact who handled the statement,