Joburg residents fear tanker water is ‘dirty’, making people sick

Johannesburg residents still using water tankers for potable water have raised concerns over the health risks.

Residents in Blairgowrie said a sudden uptick in illness had sparked fears. They suspect water tankers are behind the sudden surge of health scares.

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Stomach cramps reported

A resident, Anna van Rooyen, alleged a growing number of people had reported stomach cramps and vomiting after drinking water from tankers.

“People have been coming forward with this mysterious sudden illness and it is concerning,” she said.

“My husband and I have not been spared. We are afraid to drink the water or use it for cooking as more people come forward.

“We are not sure where the complete source of this is, but all of us were taking water from the tankers on a daily basis.”

Van Rooyen questioned whether the water utility had specific tests for water in the tankers to detect potential problems.

“We are concerned for our health but also because we will have to take out money to buy fresh water to consume.

“Will the water coming through our pipes after 11 days of no running water be safe to drink?” she asked.

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Yesterday marked 11 days of the water outage, as more than 20 suburbs still remained without water.

The City of Joburg has deployed 35 trucks to deliver water to affected areas over the past week. Joburg Water said it was too busy to comment yesterday.

Another resident, who did not want to be named, said he had fled the city after a health scare, which he believed was linked to the water.

Making children sick

“The survival of my family cannot be reliant on water that is making my children sick.

“My wife, who is breastfeeding, and our two young children, including a newborn, got very sick from diarrhoea and stomach cramps,” he claimed.

He said hygiene had been heavily compromised as the community was forced to share unsanitised taps and he feared bacterial contamination.

“The entire community uses four taps and every single hand touches that tap, so there’s limited hygiene,” he said.

“You can actually smell the grease on them, but my biggest concern is that, with the desperation of the municipality to get the water [to the suburbs], it is likely that it is not treated correctly.”

Power outages have affected Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, resulting in the crippling of reservoirs and taps running dry.

Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk said that while the outage had pointed to health risks, she was not aware of the incidents concerning water tankers in the Randburg area.

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