“We read the articles in WITBANK NEWS about the water of Witbank and how it isn’t safe to drink, but didn’t think it would be this bad,” said Ms Leah-Ann Lewis, a resident of Ben Fleur.
When Lewis goes to open her taps, not only does water come out but along with it a stream of fresh algae, similar to the kind you get in your pond.
“It only comes out of the cold taps, the hot taps don’t have this problem since the algae doesn’t survive the geyser,” added Lewis.
The issue first started a few weeks ago and the flow of the algae was little, but lately the situation has degraded and large amounts of the algae spew forward from the taps.
“The kitchen taps shake from the pressure build up, clean water is our right, we pay for it and it should be delivered,” continued Lewis.
Lewis added that their family of four has to resort to using a disinfectant every time they bath and that the anti germ product doesn’t exactly come cheap.
“We also buy bottled water for everything, I have to use the bottled water to even wash our dishes,” she added.
“You never know what’s in the water and can never be too careful,” she added.
Lewis was contacted by Mr Theo van Vuuren, the administrator of Emalahleni, who informed her that a team would be sent out to their address to tackle the situation.
Mr Theo van Vuuren released a statement regarding the algae in the water:
“On April 24 a concern was received from a fellow Facebook user below reporting algae in her tap water. The biochemist was sent out on the same day to collect samples from the address as well as samples from the neighbours.
“Water samples were taken from the shopping complex and two different points in the house at Ben Fleur. The shopping complex is served by the same water reticulation line as the address who filed the complaint.
“The results from the complex comply with all parameters tested set by SANS 241-1-2011 for potable water. No algae was reported.
“Results taken from the house at the kitchen tap also comply except for NTU, the turbidity at this sampling point could be effected by the internal water system and also contamination by the work done on the household pipe work. No algae was reported from this point.”
The suspect tap in the bathroom, where the supply pipe was recently replaced, was dormant for three weeks and shows a NTU value of 1.48 which is the result of algae in the pipes.
It must also noted that this supply pipe was installed on top of the roof. The rest of the parameters comply with limits set.
Algae may grow in about any environment, especially when exposed to direct sunlight. It would not be possible to arrive at any scientific reason for the growth of the algae since the specific type of algae was not identified and there were not enough tests conducted to be able come to a conclusion.
