More water woes
Impact being felt at hospitals, schools
FOR AN hour-and-a-half, Alice Ndlovu and her fiveyear-old son Junior walked from one street to another in Brixton, Joburg, searching for a place from which to fetch water.
Ndlovu said she hadn’t had water for 28 hours. “My son hasn’t bathed, I haven’t bathed and I can’t even cook for him!
“I’m very worried about the situation. It’s bad,” she said yesterday, carrying a bucket.
She said her son didn’t go to school because it wasn’t hygienic as the toilets weren’t flushing.
“I need to keep him healthy, so until the water comes back, he’s not going back there.”
Other people walked down the streets with empty buckets.
They were just some of the Jobug residents struggling to get water yesterday, as shortages worsened and the heatwave continue to pummel Gauteng and parts of the country.
Patients were turned away at some of Joburg’s hospitals, among them Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Netcare Milpark as they suffered water shortages. Pupils at two of Joburg’s schools were forced to stay at home yesterday because their institutions had no water. Violet Seabi recounted how her brother, who she declined to name, was turned away from Netcare Milpark Hospital and diverted to Garden City yesterday.
Seabi said her brother fell sick as soon as he arrived at work.
“He was very dizzy and he called an ambulance. I rode in the ambulance with him. When we arrived at Milpark, we were told that they are diverting patients to Garden City Hospital because of the water issue,” she said.
“As we were driving to Garden City, we were worried because people were carrying buckets of water in the streets. Luckily, there was water and he was admitted,” Seabi said.
Netcare general manager for emergency, trauma, transplant and CSI Mande Toubkin said Milpark Hospital experienced water supply problems in the morning but they were resolved by the afternoon.
“Contingency plans were activated to ensure that patients in the facility received care without interruption. This included the postponement of non-urgent sur- gery. The hospital was temporarily placed on divert. Once a steady supply of water was in place via the contingency plan, the divert was recalled.”
Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa hospitals were provided with mobile tanks to alleviate the water shortages. Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu announced that all non-emergency operations would be postponed until a con- sistent flow of water was restored.
Several areas in Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Joburg have been hit by water cuts due to low rainfall and a heatwave, according to Rand Water.
Mahlangu asked for patience. “We would like to appeal to the public to be patient with us where we’re not able to deliver particular services. We must have ablution facilities, and if there’s no water, toilets are not going to work properly and it’s unhygienic for hospitals to operate in this way.”
DA health spokesman Jack Bloom said that while the water tanks at the hospitals were helpful, they couldn’t compensate for piped water.
“Hygiene will suffer and infections could increase. It is hugely distressing for both staff and patients,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Department of Education said it was ready to deal with the water crisis and so far only two schools have been affected.
Departmental spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said the department was on standby to ensure affected schools received water tankers as soon as possible.
Apart from Brixton, suburbs such as Crown Gardens, South Hills and Germiston experienced water shortages.
Rand Water said water was trickling back although there were still issues with the Illovo Tower and Hursthill Reservoir. It said the Illovo Tower was running low and therefore the pump station had to be shut. Tankers would be sent to affected areas like Illovo and Inanda.
Gauteng Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Jacob Mamabolo has called a special meeting of the Gauteng City Region Water and Sanitation Forum on Monday to address the water shortages.
But this would not bring any joy for people like Ndlovu. After failing to get water in Brixton, she travelled to Garden City Hospital. “I got some but I couldn’t do it again today as it’s too far for my son to walk.”
THE AVERAGE South African used 26 percent more water than the global average, and water expert Dr Anthony Turton says the country wouldn’t be suffering so much if it wasn’t so wasteful.
One South African uses an average of 235 litres of water a day while others across the world use 173 litres a day.
In an analysis recently published in @Liberty, the policy bulletin of the Institute of Race Relations, Turton stated: “A key part of the problem is that 37 percent of the water supplied by municipalities is ‘non-revenue’ water, which is either lost to leakages or is never billed or paid for.
“In some of the worst-performing municipalities, distribution losses are estimated to be close on 50 percent.”
These losses cost municipalities around R11 billion a year, but cannot easily be overcome with existing state capacity.
Another reason for the high level of water wastage is the lack of engineering skills in municipalities.
Turton said the water shortages were predicted seven years ago by the South African Institute of Civil Engineers. He believes the “racialising” of the appointment of skilled workers led to the problem. “The shortage of engineering skills at thirdtier level is an ‘ induced’ deficit related to the ruling party’s insistence on a rigid form of racial transformation.
“Were it not for this factor, the engineering skills available would suffice to meet present needs. If the government was willing to deracialise the appointment of technical skills, the shortage would be overcome.”
Turton’s report states that many poorly functioning municipal wastewater plants “spew close on 4 billion litres of untreated or partially treated sewage into the country’s rivers every day”.
“If current transformation policies continue to take precedence, we can anticipate a further deterioration in the operation of wastewater treatment plants.
“This is likely to generate a growing burden of disease, especially in poor communities, and an escalating cost for the treatment of potable water from sources contaminated by sewage.
“The possibility of major public health crises in the short to medium term is also growing and can no longer be discounted.”