ZERO HEROES
Informal settlements with poor sanitation infrastructure especially at risk
Cape medics ready for dry taps
● Hospitals in Cape Town are gearing up for the diseases Day Zero could bring.
“Healthcare workers have been put on high alert to be vigilant and maintain an elevated index of suspicion when evaluating all patients,” said Western Cape health department spokeswoman Marika Champion.
The province’s central medical distribution centre was “adequately stocked” with medication to deal with outbreaks, she said, and stock levels at clinics and hospitals were being electronically monitored regularly.
A province-wide “early warning system” was in place, provision had been made for emergency orders “should it be required”, and couriers were available if a hospital needed medication at short notice.
New boreholes were being drilled and older ones reactivated at several hospitals, while a project to “boost the mains supply pressure” at Lentegeur Hospital in Mitchells Plain was under way “to enable us to fill the 700 000-litre water storage tower”.
Dr Che Linderts, an expert in public health at the University of the Witwatersrand, said water scarcity brought “a higher risk for disease caused by ingestion and contact with contaminated water”.
Examples included skin diseases, and diarrhoeal diseases which spread through faeco-oral transmission — when germs from faeces enter someone’s mouth — and “inadequate or absent food preparation practices”. An example was fruit and vegetables not being washed properly before being eaten.
Linderts said informal settlements were particularly vulnerable because of poor water and sanitation infrastructure.
Other major risks were heat stress and dehydration as a result of dry weather conditions. “High temperatures could lead to morbidity and mortality, especially in infants and the elderly.”
According to Dr Harsha Somaroo, Linderts’s colleague, another area of concern is mental illness, which could take the form of anxiety, emotional distress and depression.
These could result, for example, “from a loss of financial livelihood as a result of crop or livestock failure” or businesses going under because they rely heavily on water.
Food insecurity and general “uncertainty about the future” could also lead to mental health illnesses.
Dalene Meyer, who queues for water at the Newlands spring four times a week, said: “My life is already stressful. I am a single mom with three children and a full-time job. This week, when the temperature was in the mid-30s, I felt close to a nervous breakdown. I asked myself: ‘Is this how it is going to be? Are the easier days going to be once in a blue moon after the taps run dry?’ ”
Mncedisi Twala, of the Cape Town branch of NGO Abemi South Africa, said those living in shacks in or around Cape Town had noticed a decline in the quality of tap water.
“The colour keeps changing, and we are not the ones who can get to that clean mountain water you find at the springs.”
Many shack dwellers were in a state of panic about transport to the distribution points the city council was going to set up after Day Zero, he said.
For patients who can afford private healthcare, hospitals are said to be on track.
Lika Tolken, of Mediclinic Southern
Major risks include heat stress and dehydration as a result of dry weather conditions
Africa, said all its facilities “have measures in place to ensure business will continue as normal in the event of Day Zero”.
She said back-up water supplies were ready, and if a hospital experienced an influx of patients related to the drought, “we are in a good position to deliver the necessary care”.
The group’s executive committee responsible for identifying risks and possible responses to the crisis is meeting Western Cape disaster management officials this week “to ensure that our efforts are aligned with those of the emergency services within the province”, she said.