The plight of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa around the border town of Musina has become ”desperate”, said government spokesperson Themba Maseko.
About R21-million has been spent on controlling the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and a further R80-million will be allocated to affected areas.
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/ 4 December 2008
Cabinet has approved plans to embark on R7,3-billion project to augment the Vaal river system, it was reported on Thursday.
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/ 5 September 2008
Connie Nel and Lee Cahill explain the history and uses of a week that celebrates a life-giving natural object.
Poor hygiene may have caused the diarrhoea outbreaks that killed nine babies in the Ndlambe municipal area in the Eastern Cape over the past three months, government departments said on Friday. The Water Affairs Department said although there had been poor water quality, this was neither ”excessive” nor ”severe enough” to cause diarrhoea outbreaks.
After a contamination scare on Friday morning, residents of northern Johannesburg can now safely drink their tap water again, Johannesburg Water said. During routine water testing, a "possible compromise" of the quality of drinking water in several suburbs had been detected.
Residents in northern Johannesburg areas were on Friday warned not to drink tap water as the quality was not up to standard, Johannesburg Water said. Spokesperson Baldwin Matsimela said during routine sampling on Thursday, it was found that the water supply was not up to standard.
The Gauteng provincial government is ”well on course” to supply all households in the province with clean water by the end of this year. The local government department said in a statement: ”We are working closely with all municipalities in the province to ensure that all households have access to clean water.”
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks is guilty of ”denialism” when she says South Africa is not facing a water crisis, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. The country faces serious problems stemming from polluted water sources and the poor management of dams, sewage works and treatment plants, the DA said.
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/ 14 February 2008
Lindiwe Hendricks, the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, on Thursday denied that South Africa is facing a water crisis. "I can categorically say that we are not facing a water crisis, or a water-contamination crisis," she told a media briefing in Parliament. "The water that comes out of our taps is among the best in the world."
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/ 6 February 2008
The power-supply crisis and looming fresh-water shortage are early warning signs that South Africa needs to curb use of natural resources, global wildlife fund WWF said on Wednesday. ”South Africa has a narrowing time window in which to act decisively to prevent critical resource shortages,” said South African WWF chief executive Dr Morné du Plessis.
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/ 4 February 2008
South Africa is not facing a water crisis, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Monday. The department was responding to media reports on the weekend, citing a National Nuclear Regulator report that suggested serious problems with the country’s water supply, including radioactive contamination, unsafe dams and waste spills.
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/ 5 December 2007
What does President Thabo Mbeki like to do in his spare time? Ballroom dancing? Playing the piano? No, the man likes to work during leisure hours, says his spokesperson. As the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane approaches members of the South African Cabinet certainly need ways to unwind.
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/ 21 November 2007
Failure by authorities to properly treat drinking water supplied to residents of Delmas may have triggered the recent mass outbreak of diarrhoea in the Mpumalanga town. Tests by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry have shown ”insufficient levels” of chlorine were added to the water supply between September 11 and October 14, MPs heard on Wednesday.
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/ 20 November 2007
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.
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/ 20 November 2007
Residents of Botleng township near Delmas have resorted to buying water from local shops following the outbreak of diarrhoea in the area. Maria Sisiphuma, a mother of five children, said she buys water for R8,50 per five litres because she does not want her children to get sick.