Possible faecal contamination found in school water across SA, report reveals

Possible faecal contamination has been flagged in school water supplies across South Africa after tests revealed unsafe samples in five provinces.

Civil organisation WaterCAN tested water at 72 schools in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape, and found that 20 had “dangerously unsafe” water.

Nomsa Daele, citizen science coordinator and trainer at WaterCAN, said the issue is not limited to one area or one type of school, but is a widespread problem that affects many communities.

She attributed the contamination to poor infrastructure maintenance and the lack of maintenance of Jojo tanks

"With Jojo tanks, they are not being maintained. Most of the time they're standing in the sun or they don't have legs, so that water will definitely get contaminated," she says.

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Daele added although WaterCAN conducts its water testing campaign annually and shares the findings with the municipalities where the schools are located, there is often a lack of follow up, intervention or consequences for repeat offenders.

"There is not a world where we should be okay with municipalities effectively defaulting on their responsibility to ensure that the water that comes out of a tap, be it from a Jojo tank or from a built infrastructure, has E. coli contained in it.”

She warned that the consequences of drinking contaminated water can be severe.

"You can’t drink water that is contaminated. As it is, we have 800,000 people that are dying from drinking water contaminated from sewerage.”

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To listen to Daele in conversation with CapeTalk and 702’s Africa Melane, click the audio player below: