E coli flows from Boven’s taps
According to Pretorius, ELM had failed to address their concerns for the past five years. He described the water as a "slimy mess" which affected all residents of the town.
WATERVAL BOVEN – For several years, residents of Waterval Boven felt they were being kept in the dark about the quality of drinking water in this town. Recently the fear of a serious health risk became a reality as the November 2014 drinking- water quality report indicated a failure on Escherichia coli, also known as E coli.
After numerous attempts to gain clarity on the situation at the Emakhazeni Local Municipality (ELM), Mr Rudolph Pretorius, a resident of Waterval Boven, turned to the Department of Water and Sanitation which confirmed the findings of the report. According to the report 10 units per 100 millilitres of Ecoli were found in the water.
According to Pretorius, ELM had failed to address their concerns for the past five years. He described the water as a “slimy mess” which affected all residents of the town.
“We have been complaining about the water for several years. Unfortunately ELM doesn’t care about or is interested in the well-being of Waterval Boven residents. It is too much effort to attend to our problems,” he said.
According to Pretorius he contacted various officials at the municipatily, including a health inspector, technical manager as well as an engineer, asking for assistance, but they were apparently “too busy”. The engineer, Mr Dave Hepworth, however, paid a visit to his house and acknowledged that his complaint was valid. Pretorius said after Hepworth had left he did see an improvement but that was unfortunately short-lived. “After about a week we faced the same problems again. Is somebody not doing his work?” he wanted to know.
Pretorius in the meantime installed water-purification filters at his home, but said that after a week it was totally clogged up with a slimy mess. “I have to dock up R700 each week in order to have safe drinking water. Our constitution states clearly that all citizens in our country is entitled to clean drinking water. What we have is far below normal standard. There is not even enough water pressure to shower,” he said.
Lowvelder this week also requested the latest result from the department, as well as from ELM but did not receive any response before going to print. Upon a visit to ELM last week, Cllr Xolani Ngwenya, mayor of the municipality, however, told Lowvelder that the water of all four towns under its management which include Waterval Boven, Dullstroom, Belfast and Machadodorp, was safe to drink.
