POLOKWANE – There has not been much fuss over the gradual yet steady and unabating pollution of the dam on the corner of Landdros Maré Street and Potgieter Avenue, with not many people even being aware of the pollution.

This, in spite of the park in which the dam is situated having become part of the internationally known Parkrun South Africa when it was officially opened as Parkrun Polokwane in April by marathon legend Bruce Fordyce.

Parkrun organises free weekly 5 km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in. The pleasant parkland surroundings at the dam were considered the ideal setting for the city’s own Parkrun.

John Maake, Susan Bopape and her son Jimmy are just some of the handful of homeless people who sleep in the park and use the water that flows from a stream into the dam for drinking, cooking and cleaning. They say a natural resource is “slowly being killed” and those who depend on this water have become ill. They say the municipality takes no notice of them or their complaints. “We are not taken seriously by the municipality; they know we don’t have money for court battles or anything else,” Bopape said.

According to Bopape a little over two weeks ago both she and Jimmy had such bad stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches that they were forced to go to the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital for treatment. She said they were both diagnosed with gastroenteritis and a form of Hepatitis E. A local doctor in private practice, Dr Daniel Ledwaba, took pity on the family and assisted them further medically.

He confirmed that the Bopape family’s symptoms were consistent with those of people having ingested contaminated water. He explained that gastroenteritis was an infection of the intestinal lining and was caused by either a virus or bacteria in contaminated water. He said that hepatitis E was also caused by contaminated water and that both the illnesses’ symptoms included stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and fever. He added that hepatitis E could also cause jaundice, and in extreme cases, acute failure of the liver, leading to death.

Maake said he had also had his share of illnesses. He said he had often fished at the dam over the past year in order to have something to eat.

He said sometimes he found dead fish floating in the dam and the fish he caught often had a strange taste. “I never really thought of the water being poisoned but after visiting the Rethabile Clinic a while ago I was told that I had food poisoning; the only thing I eat is the fish I catch,” Maake said. On further investigation by Review as to the source of the water flowing into the stream, it was found that the water ran out of a nearby uncovered concrete pipe. The water flowing from the pipe, and the pipe itself was filthy with debris, with what looked like toilet paper floating in it.

This filthy water flows into the stream, which in turn flows into the dam. The same dam that some residents go fishing at and in some cases eat what they have caught.

While Ledwaba said he could not say for certain that the water from the stream and dam were the cause of these people’s illnesses, he did say that the water should be tested.

Several visitors to the park over the past few weeks as well as participants in the Parkrun every Saturday morning have also complained of the putrid smell emanating from the stream.

Municipal spokesperson, Tidimalo Chuene, said the municipality was not aware of the problem. She said there would be an investigation into the allegations.

She said the municipality considered this complaint as an urgent one. “A team from the municipal water sanitation department is on their way to take some samples of the water and have it tested,” she said on Wednesday.

She urged residents not to consume water from streams as such water had not been cleaned like the water flowing from municipal taps had been. Water supplied by the municipality was regularly tested to ensure that it was safe for consumption, Chuene said.

By the time of going to print a municipal team was seen testing the water.

Chuene said a report on the water quality would be made available once the results had been received.

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