MAHIKENG MAIL – MAHIKENG - Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, Sello Seitlholo has fervently called on municipalities that were discharging raw sewerage into water sources to take decisive action and tackle municipal waste water infrastructure challenges in order to address the widespread problem of pollution in rivers and streams.
The Deputy Minister met with different stakeholders and the Executive Mayors of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Francis Baard and Pixley ka Seme District Municipalities in North West, whose waste water systems discharge effluent into the rivers, and where cholera bacteria was detected in raw water.
The Department of Water and Sanitation recently issued a warning about the presence of cholera bacteria in raw water along the Harts and Vaal Rivers, following a routine raw water sampling at five monitoring sites namely Wentzel Dam, Schweizer Reneke, Christiana, Barkley West Caravan Park, and Douglas Weir in September. Deputy Minister Seitlholo also revealed that municipalities along the Lower Vaal catchment in North West and Northern Cape discharge raw sewage into the river, with Gauteng being the main culprit with a discharge of about 160 million litres daily into the water courses in the Middle Vaal catchment. Deputy Minister Seitlholo released the latest results on the follow-up tests which were taken after the previous warning was issued. The results of the second tests have revealed that the cholera bacteria (Vibrio Cholerae) were still present in the raw water, however it was a non-toxic strain.
“There are two types of strains of cholera. One that occurs in the environment (non-toxic) and the other known as an enterotoxigenic strain that produces cholera toxin that can cause gastrointestinal illness. The strain detected is not responsible for causing gastrointestinal illness,” he said.
The Deputy Minister however, urged water users to continue to be cautious around raw water, and the affected municipalities to also continue taking extra care in the water treatment process, disinfection and chlorination of the water in their water supply systems. He further reiterated the importance of ensuring that effluent that is being discharged into rivers by municipalities and industries, should be that of required standards in line with the National Water Act.
“Municipalities are at the forefront of representing the interests of South Africans in their area of jurisdiction. Together we need to change the mindset of normalising discharging raw sewage into our rivers and get back to basics of not allowing sewer to get into dams, river system or any water resource. That is the standard that all of us should strive towards,” said Deputy Minister Seitlholo.
