Recent water incidents

Over the past three months 80 children have died of diarrhoea after drinking dirty tap water in the Ukhahlamba district municipality, which includes the towns of Barkly East, Maclear, Sterkspruit and Elliot in Eastern Cape. There was a breakdown at a municipal water purification works last October.

Nearly 2000 people were treated in Delmas and Standerton, Mpumalanga, between October and February following an outbreak of diarrhoea. The province’s ailing sewage system was blamed.

Although no proper audit has been done, several municipalities face a chronic shortage of technical skills required for the delivery of clean and safe water.

A few days after the Dusi Canoe Marathon in January, about 40% of participating canoeists came down with diarrhoea. The Msunduzi River in KwaZulu-Natal, on which the race is held, had E.coli bacteria levels of 115000 per 100ml nine days before the race. Acceptable levels are between 100 and 1000.

In February, the water affairs and forestry department said more than half of SA’s public dams — including the biggest, the Gariep Dam in Free State — did not comply fully with modern-day safety standards. It said that in October last year, 160 of the country’s 294 dams did not comply with safety standards.

In March, four of Durban’s beaches were stripped of their Blue Flag status by the international rating body due to high levels of faecal pollution.

A report by national aquatic biologist Dr Mark Graham said almost 30% of Durban’s watercourses were polluted.

The Democratic Alliance said a study it conducted recently found that many water boards delivered water that contravened safety standards and contained dangerously high levels of bacteria. Amatola in Eastern Cape and Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga were incapacitated by high levels of unpaid debt from municipalities, preventing them from making much-needed investments in infrastructure development.

Forty-three out of 83 municipalities in Free State received “code red” ratings last month in the water affairs and forestry department’s monthly drinking water quality summary report, indicating that the quality of the water was seriously compromised.

Free State University’s Jan Roos reported high levels of E.coli bacteria in the Vaal River last year.

Business Online, 17 May 2008