The Murchison Hospital in the Ugu district in KwaZulu-Natal was incapacitated after its water supply was disrupted again at the weekend, in another in a long series of chronic water-system failures, interrupting the provision of critical services at district healthcare facility. Frequent water-supply disruptions to the hospital have meant that doctors and nurses have been unable to wash their hands before or after treating patients, and that toilet facilities are inoperable and floors are difficult to keep clean. On Friday and Saturday last week, water supplies failed for the second time in a month, said a source at the hospital. Close to one-million people live in the Ugu district. The latest water outages come despite assurances from the district municipality in 2017 that labour disputes, given as the cause of the problems, have been settled. The situation posed a serious health risk to patients and medical staff, said the source who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of repri...
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