An investigation by the Democratic Alliance (DA) has found that there are serious problems with water provision in some parts of the country.

Over the last four months members of the DA have travelled across Limpopo, the North West, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape to investigate the water quality and water supply in municipalities.

This follows the outbreak of diarrhoea in Brits in the North West and violent water protests in Mothutlung where four people died earlier this year.

According to DA Shadow Minister of Health Dr Wilmot James, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Kevin Mileham and DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Leon Basson, water supply is reliable and fit for human consumption in most places. However, there is a growing number of towns where water supply is erratic or where water has become contaminated with bacteria.

Findings

• water in Brits in North West has an E. Coli content 320 times more than is fit for waste water treatment
• water in Rietfontein in North West has an E. Coli content 1000 times more than is fit for waste water treatment
• water in Mokopane in Limpopo has an E. Coli content 40 times more than is fit for human consumption.
• in Thabazimbi in Limpopo, there is a burst sewage pipe that has been spilling raw sewage into a water main for the past two years. We have not yet commissioned a study on this case, but the water is almost certain to be contaminated with E. Coli
• in Makana in the Eastern Cape, there has been a complete collapse of the water supply infrastructure, with the town experiencing regular water outages
• at Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape, four hospitals’ water tested positive for E. Coli and three different sites across the metro tested positive for E. Coli in the water
• at Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality in Mpumalanga, two years ago, yet another case of mines not managing their environmental impact and polluting water sources.

“We are extremely concerned by our findings,” say James, Mileham and Basson. “We are convinced that if our own small-scale investigation was able to produce so many shocking findings, then a more systematic investigation by the appropriate state entity will find massive problems across the country.”

In most cases these problems are caused by a collapse in the local water treatment infrastructure, or the local sewage infrastructure.

The DA claims to be in possession of a report by the Department of Water and Sanitation which confirms this crisis.

 

Call for inter-ministerial task team

“Getting to the bottom of this will require interdepartmental cooperation. We therefore call for the establishment of an inter-ministerial task team consisting of the ministries for Water and Sanitation, Health, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, together with water and sanitation experts, health experts, engineers and specialists in the field of water purification to investigate the extent of water contamination and to make recommendations to the minister of water and sanitation as to how to address these challenges.”

James, Mileham and Basson say they will engage with the relevant ministers to ensure that further action is taken by the state to clean up our water supply.