White River water crisis worsens
Some White River residents’ foul-smelling brown tap water reportedly now has worms in it as well.
Another year, another struggle for the residents of White River.
The water issues they have experienced for years now have gone from bad to worse as their foul-smelling brown tap water is said to now also contain worms.
A concerned resident of 19 Jasmyn Street, where the worms are reportedly crawling out the tap water, told Lowvelder that it was horrible. “We don’t even feel like having a bath or shower. A lot of times the water is so brown that when we wash our clothes, it comes out dirtier and have stains that cannot be removed. You can wash again and again, they do not come out, so trying to keep them clean is impossible. Our kids’ white shirts for Rob Ferreira High School need a lot of replacement due to this, and the school shirts are R250 each or more, so it’s very expensive to replace them so often.”The ward councillor in the area, Rowan Torr, said one of the main problems is that the City of Mbombela (CoM) does not have proper equipment.
@lowvelder WATCH | Some of the worms claimed to have emerged out of some of the residents’ taps when they are opened for water. > Video: Supplied #water #dirtywater #whiteriver #witrivier #mbombela
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“The CoM does not use a pump to pump the water in holes after they dig to fix broken and burst pipes, and all the dirty water goes into the system. I have asked the municipality on several occasions to provide proper equipment when they are attending to burst pipes, but nothing happened. The dirty water that goes into the system is the reason for the worms, the foam and bad smells coming out of the taps. I have also requested that the CoM’s Water Quality Department at our water treatment plant immediately test the water and then issue a municipal statement with the results,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Grant Dyers of Gozone Water, who specialises in purifying water, said: “Using too many chemicals to keep the water clean is also a health hazard. The water will look clean due to the chemicals, but in reality, it will also result in people getting sick. One of the major problems in White River is the ageing infrastructure that is not upgraded to meet the demands of the growing population. If the water network could be upgraded so fewer pipes would burst, the water problem would be resolved.”
The residents of White River, who have been pleading with the CoM to address their water problems for the second year now, are still continuing to pay for these services. Only those who can afford it are able to buy alternative clean water.
Lowvelder’s efforts for comment from the CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, were unfruitful; he did not respond to any of the paper’s repeated phone calls or text messages.
