The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s water quality crisis has been resolved.
This announcement was made by the municipality on Friday after previous reports of a deterioration in the quality of the metro’s drinking water earlier in the week.
Water samples that were tested during the course of last week revealed that E.coli had been detected in the water.
The metro’s acting executive director of infrastructure and engineering, Joseph Tsatsire, said that part of the mitigation measures was to increase the dosage of chlorine at all reservoirs that experienced microbiological failures.
“This was followed by a rigorous sampling and testing exercise to determine if there were any improvements in the system. All the samples that have been taken and tested since [Thursday] have confirmed that there are no longer any traces of contamination in the city’s water system,” Tsatsire said.
Before the water was deemed completely safe, the NMBM revealed on Thursday that there was no more E.coli present in the water and that approximately 70% of the samples were compliant with the South African National Standard (SANS).
He continued to caution residents to still boil water, as some coliforms were still detected during testing and these samples needed to be at least 95% compliant before the water could be deemed safe.
The water quality is indeed now compliant, according to the NMBM.
Tsatsire, Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Eugene Johnson and the municipality’s deputy director of environmental health, Dr Patrick Nodwele, addressed the media in a press briefing to discuss the water quality crisis.
Tsatsire said that one of the major contributing factors of the contaminated water, that was specifically detected at the Grassridge temporary water treatment facility, was the fluctuating reservoir levels due to the drought.
“Through vigorous routine testing and sampling of water in the distribution system for the past [weeks] the NMBM has learnt that certain microbiological limits were exceeded.
“It is through this process that the municipality has come to detect failures in water compliance with SANS standards.
“These results came against earlier results that certified our water was safe to drink,” the NMBM said early last week.
Residents were urged by Johnson to boil water or add a little bit of Jik to the water to kill the bacteria.
“The metro has experienced a drought for several years now. As dam levels go down, the quality of the water decreases and treatment of the water is made difficult.
“In reservoirs there is settling of silt and mud at the bottom that accumulates over time. Water is then pushed from that dirt into the reticulation system.
“The effort you put into treatment when the water is at a level of 18% as opposed to 100% differs because there needs to be a change in chemical composition,” Tsatsire said during the briefing.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape Department of Health said that there were three cases of children presenting with an E.coli infection from Kariega reported and treated at their facilities.
“Sadly, one of these children, aged one year and five months, passed away, one has been discharged and one is still at Dora Nginza Hospital ICU,” said the head of the department, Dr Rolene Wagner.
“We are not in a position to confirm what could have led to the cases that have been reported, but generally, such infections happen when people consume water that has been contaminated with faeces from humans or animals,” she added.
Addressing these cases, Nodwele explained that it cannot be confirmed for certain that the child died due to the contaminated water of Nelson Mandela Bay as E.coli can also be found in foodstuffs, for example.
He mentioned that no E.coli was detected in Kariega’s water in January this year.
“Kariega had no water for a week at the end of January until the beginning of February and when water is not available, personal hygiene aspects are affected. There is a good chance the E.coli did not come from the metro’s drinking water. The exact cause of the death of the child is still to be determined,” Nodwele said.
The municipality assured residents that the water was being treated with chlorine and tested every four hours to check compliance.
While some residents have taken the mayor’s advice to use Jik in their drinking water with scepticism, analytical chemistry lecturer at NMU, Dr Gletwyn Rubidge, said that this could indeed help, especially since it is very likely that the quality of drinking water could drop again.
“That’s definitely a possibility because Jik is basically like chlorine and can kill some of the bugs but people need to be wary of overdosing with Jik.
“Some residents could also use charcoal filters but buying bottled water and boiling water first is probably the best option.”
Rubidge also addressed the fact that some residents have brown water while others don’t.
“I don’t know exactly what the cause is of the brown water, but there is a brown residue inside the pipes that the water is flowing over all the time, and looking at our laboratory tap water filters (at work), they also get a brown residue.
“I think those are just small amounts of iron in the pipe that have found their way through the system. I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem. It looks bad and sometimes you get that white milkiness that clears after a while but that is normally just dissolved air.
“As you let the water out the taps, the pressure drops and the little air bubbles come up and float to the top eventually.
“With regard to the brown water, it could be okay and not too much of a hazard unless there is some muck that has fallen into the pipes when people are working on them.”
In the meantime, Wagner has called upon residents to exercise caution at all times.
“Should people feel any aches or upset stomach, they should seek medical help immediately so that they can be examined and, where possible, treated.
“We have also confirmed with the National Health Laboratory Services that there have been no reported typhoid cases in Nelson Mandela Bay,” Wagner said.
