Cholera stalks SA as death toll rises to 15

A cholera outbreak that has killed 15 people and left scores in hospital or sick appears to be spreading through SA, putting hundreds of thousands at risk and shining a spotlight on the country’s “dysfunctional” sewerage networks.

Health deputy minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo said there had been 41 reported cases of cholera in SA: one in Limpopo, six in Free State and 34 in Tshwane, Gauteng.

Gauteng health department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said that as of Monday, 107 patients were attended to in hospitals. He said 29 people tested positive for Cholera, while 46 were admitted at the Jubilee District Hospital, adding “18 of them were transferred to Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital”.

On the source of the outbreak, Dhlomo said: “We need experts to support us [in determining that]”.

Hardest hit by the outbreak is Hammanskraal, a town north of Pretoria, where residents have protested and demanded clean water for years. In 2019, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) deemed the water at Hammanskraal unfit for human consumption.

The water crisis in Hammanskraal has continued since 2005 when the Rooiwal water treatment plant started malfunctioning due to receiving volumes greater than it could handle. The plant has been discharging untreated or partially treated sewage into the Apies River, which in turn flows into the Leeukraal Dam — the main source of water for the town of about 20,000 people.

Anthony Turton, a water expert at the University of Free State, said the cause of the cholera outbreak was not difficult to pin down: “It’s the 5-billion litres of untreated or partially treated sewage we allow to go to our rivers every day.”

The government needed to look at dysfunctional sewerage networks across the country and “it’s a great pity human beings have to die”.

“We cannot expect a good outcome until the general population holds elected officials accountable,” Turton said.

The cholera deaths come barely a week after water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu addressed a mini-plenary of the National Assembly in his budget speech, where he said that in February municipalities owed water boards R16.7bn, while municipalities and the water boards owed the department (which has its own water trading entity) R17.4bn.

“Many municipalities are in a downward spiral of poor and declining water services, reduced payment rate, increasing debt, and low investment,” he said. “To address this downward spiral, we need to ensure that water services are provided by professionally managed, capable, efficient, and financially viable institutions.”

According to the 2022 Green Drop report by the department of water & sanitation, one-third of SA’s 1,186 water supply networks are at high to critical risk of failure. The report also found that only 40% of systems met the microbiological standards and 23% met the chemical standards for water quality.

Andile Tshona, spokesperson for the department, said it was pursuing legal action against the Tshwane metro in an effort to force it to use its grant allocations to rehabilitate and upgrade the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant.

In 2021 the SAHRC recommended in a report, “Gauteng Provincial Inquiry into the Sewage Pollution of the City of Tshwane’s Rivers and the Roodeplaat Dam”, among others, that the national government should take over the water and sanitation functions of the city.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA has called for an “urgent inquiry” into the water crisis at Hammanskraal, saying it would point out exactly “where the crisis began”. The Cosatu-affiliated union wants those responsible to be held accountable for the disaster.

In an earlier statement, the department of water & sanitation said its technical team would assist with tasks such as water quality investigation and identifying the causes of the outbreak. It said the department had continuously been carrying out water quality tests at the Temba water treatment works and water distribution points in Hammanskraal.

“The latest tests indicate the quality from the Temba water treatment works does not meet minimum standards. The water supplied by Magalies and Rand Water meets the drinking water quality standards. Therefore the water quality challenges are in central Hammanskraal, which is supplied by the city.”

The department said it had directed the city to stop supplying water from the Temba plant to Hammanskraal residents for human consumption.

“The city is providing potable water to affected communities initially supplied by the Temba plant [via] tankers.”

Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the capital city had received the results from samples taken from multiple sites around Temba and Hammanskraal to trace the cholera outbreak.

Contaminants

These included reservoirs, fire hydrants, primary schools, clinics and other locations that received water from the Temba water treatment plant.

“All of these tests have conclusively indicated that there are no microbiological contaminants that point to E. coli or faecal coliforms that can be linked to the cholera outbreak,” he said.

“This means that the water that is being distributed via the city’s bulk water distribution network in the area does not have cholera present in it.”

With Linda Ensor

Update: May 23 2023
This article has been updated with comment from the Gauteng department of health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za