By REGINALD KANYANE
27 October 2024- Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Sello Seitlholo has fervently called on municipalities that are discharging raw sewage into water courses to take a decisive action and tackle their municipal waste water infrastructure challenges in order to address the widespread problem of pollution in rivers and streams.
Seitlholo met with different stakeholders and the Executive Mayors of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati in North West and Francis Baard and Pixley ka Seme District Municipalities in Northern Cape, whose waste water systems discharge effluent into the rivers, where the recent cholera bacteria were detected in raw water.
He further said the department recently issued a warning about the presence of cholera bacteria in raw water along Harts and Vaal rivers following a routine raw water sampling at five monitoring sites, Wentzel Dam, Schweizer Reneke, Christiana, Barkley West Caravan Park, and Douglas Weir in September 2024.
Seitlholo added that municipalities along the Lower Vaal catchment in North West and Northern Cape, discharge raw sewage into the river, with Gauteng being the main culprit with a discharge of about 160 million litres daily into the water courses in the Middle Vaal catchment.
“We have released the latest results on the follow-up tests, which were taken after the previous warning was issued. The results of the second tests have revealed that the cholera bacteria (Vibrio Cholerae) were still present in the raw water, however it was a non-toxic strain.
“There are two types of strains of cholera. One that occurs in the environment (non-toxic) and the other known as an enterotoxigenic strain that produces cholera toxin that can cause gastrointestinal illness,” he said.
Seitlholo said the strain detected is not responsible for causing gastrointestinal illness. He said, however, urged water users to continue to be cautious around the raw water and the affected municipalities to also continue taking extra care in the water treatment process, disinfection and chlorination of the water in their water supply systems.
He reiterated the importance of ensuring that effluent that is being discharged into rivers by municipalities and industries should be that of required standards in line with the National Water Act.
“Municipalities are at the forefront of representing the interests of South Africans in their area of jurisdiction. Together, we need to change the mindset of normalising discharging raw sewage into our rivers and get back to basics of not allowing sewer to get into dams, river systems or any water resource.
“That is the standard that all of us should strive towards,” he said.
The Guardian 