The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) is asking for an investigation into the criminal liability of all parties involved in the deaths of three infants in Bloemhof in the Northwest, allegedly as a result of drinking water contaminated by sewage.

The Department of Water and Sanitation has admitted that a sewage spillage in the Bloemhof area led to the pollution of the Vaal River, resulting in the quality of drinking water being affected. Hundreds of hospital admissions followed this as well as the deaths of at least three babies from diarrhoea.

The CER has written to the Northwest Police Commissioner and the Northwest Director of Public Prosecutions, requesting that the SAPS provincial commissioner commence an urgent investigation, and for the Northwest Provincial Director of Public Prosecutions to assist the SAPS provincial commissioner in finalising a criminal docket for prosecution, into criminal offences. These may include:

• culpable homicide in relation to the death of at least three infants
• contraventions of provisions of the National Water Act, 1998, particularly sections 19, 20 and 151
• contraventions of the Water Services Act, 1997 particularly section 82
• contraventions of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998, particularly sections 28, 30 and 49A(e) and (f).

“We further respectfully requested that the investigation considers the potential criminal liability of the municipal manager, the contractor allegedly engaged to fix the broken sewage pipe, any municipal employees whose responsibility it was to oversee the work of the contractor, and any party who had a legal duty to notify residents of proper measures to be taken to avoid becoming ill,” the CER said in a statement.

CER Executive Director Melissa Fourie said that municipal managers across the country need to understand that, while there are many pressing needs in municipal management, sewage treatment and the delivery of safe drinking water have to be prioritised above everything else.

“We also want to see the new Department of Water and Sanitation impose early and effective community warning systems so that the mothers of babies, so vulnerable to dehydration from the symptoms of drinking contaminated water, have the information and access to alternative sources of hydration for those children,” said Fourie.