11 Mar 2019

Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS) chief executive officer says accreditation is accepted as the most transparent and non-discriminatory mechanism to assure competence of testing laboratories. 

Speaking at the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) Mmamashia laboratory’s ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certificate presentation recently, Ms Maureen Mutasa said accreditation did not just assure competence of the testing laboratory, but it increased safety, reliability and competitiveness of products. 

She further said accreditation enhanced market access, thus facilitating trade and contributing towards national social and economic development. 

Ms Mutasa said the Mmamashia laboratory was the 4th laboratory in 13 SADC member states, excluding South Africa and Mauritius, to be accredited in the scope of microbiological analysis and the ninth to be accredited in the scope of chemical analysis. 

SADCAS was the first multi economy accreditation body in the world and signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement (ILAC MRA) for testing, calibration, medical laboratories and inspection bodies accreditation schemes. 

She said the laboratory was originally accredited in the scopes of chemical analysis and microbiological analysis and the certificate, which was issued on August 2, 2013 was valid for five years until August 1, 2018. 

She said throughout the validity of the certificate, SADCAS undertook annual periodic onsite assessments based on which the Mmamashia laboratory maintained their accreditation and even extended the scope of accreditation to additional tests under the scope of microbiological analysis. 

Ms Mutasa noted that Mmamashia laboratory’s re-application for re-accreditation was received by SADCAS on January 28, 2018, with re-assessment only being undertaken from June 26-27, 2018. 

“The delays in conducting the re-assessment were a result of the restructuring at WUC,” she said, resulting in the accreditation certificate expiring before re-accreditation. 

Ms Mutasa further said the decision to re-accredit Mmamashia laboratory was made on December 18, 2018 by the SADCAS Accreditation Approvals Committee, six months after reassessment and is valid for five years until December 17, 2023. 

“Mmamashia laboratory has been re-granted the unique accreditation number Test-1 0004 and Test-5 0009 indicating that the laboratory is accredited in the scopes microbiological analysis (determination of coliform bacteria, Ecoli, fecal coliforms and heterotrophic plate counts) and chemical analysis (determination of trace elements, heavy metals and anions in water),” she continued. 

 She said water is an essential part of everyday life and clean water is a basic and crucial human rights issue. 

She said key issues of concern with drinking water are whether it is safe, free of pathogens, toxins and contaminants and in the case of bottled water, whether people can trust the labelling. 

Ms Mutasa said Mmamashia laboratory supports the regulatory functions of WUC, a parastatal mandated with the supply and distribution of water. 

She indicated that it also serves as a testing facility for both individuals and industry in quality control process through testing of water. 

“The Mmamashia laboratory covers a wide range of technical disciplines including chemistry, microbiology and physical tests on water and waste water. Testing is at the very core WUC services and ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard that testing laboratories have to comply with in order to be accredited,” said Ms Mutasa. 

With SADCAS being in its 11th year of operation, she said the organisation has up to date issued 120 certificates to 96 facilities in 12 SADC countries and one non-SADC country of which 18 are from Botswana. 

For his part, WUC chief executive officer, Mr Mmetla Masire said the biggest beneficiary of the certificate accreditation would be the entire population of Botswana, as WUC serves close to 400 000 supposedly paying customers. 

“We service a little over 500 villages and this will create assurance with our customers regarding our drinking water and the processes we use to check quality of water,” he said, further adding that the recent cases of diarrhea outbreak in the country are a case in point. 

He said as WUC, they are concerned about the amount of money Batswana spend on buying bottled water, especially when some of the bottled water companies are nowhere near the standard of having safe, quality drinking water as recommended. 

“People should utilise our drinking water, save money and start trusting WUC,” he said. 

Mr Masire said they would not take the re-accreditation lightly and would also continue working hard in making sure that they are not stripped of the certificate if standards drop. ENDS