/ 20 November 2007

Minister: Water not cause of Delmas diarrhoea

The cause of the outbreak of diarrhoea in Delmas was not tainted water, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks said on Tuesday.

”The results from tests conducted on water samples taken from Delmas have proven negative for microbiological contamination,” Hendricks said.

”Indicator organisms were tested for prescribed South African national standards and the result proved negative for the presence of any diarrhoea-causing contamination.”

Hendricks said the analysis was performed at five different laboratories.

The department’s drinking water quality regulation unit joined forces with the University of Johannesburg in conducting the Delmas investigations following the outbreak last month.

”A number of analytical tests were conducted to determine whether the water that is currently being reticulated is safe, as well as to establish whether a link exists between the increasing cases of diarrhoea and the drinking water,” the minister said.

”During the investigations it was established that the resource water in one of the three boreholes during September proved to be contaminated and could have been a trigger for the initial increase in the number of cases of diarrhoea.”

Chlorination was required to deactivate contaminants before water was reticulated and consumed. This had been immediately done and the process was continued with support from the department of water affairs and forestry.

In addition to these measures, the department was urging the Delmas community to continue to boil their water before use.

The number of affected people has risen to 1 006 since the outbreak in October.

The results on samples of food taken for tests will be announced on Wednesday. — Sapa