Sunday Times : Millions at risk from rivers of pollution

Henk Hugo · Mar 29, 2009

Scary stuff

Millions at risk from rivers of pollution
Monica Laganparsad Published:Mar 29, 2009

Government in â€˜large-scale denialâ€™ over water pollution.

Rivers and lagoons across South Africa are polluted with dangerous bacteria and, in some cases, raw sew age. But environmental experts claim flawed government testing canâ€™t always detect it, putting millions of people at risk.

Rivers with the highest levels of disease-causing E.coli are Mpumalangaâ€™s Olifants River, Gautengâ€™s Vaal River and KwaZulu-Natalâ€™s Umgeni River.

Others badly affected include the Magalies River, the Jukskei, Plankenburg River in the Cape and scores of lagoons along KwaZulu-Natalâ€™s coast.

Water researchers describe SAâ€™s rivers as â€œdamagedâ€ and accuse the government of â€œwide-scale denialâ€.

Drinking water should contain zero E.coli. Water used for recreational use â€” such as swimming, boating and fishing â€” should ideally not contain levels of above 400 units of E.coli per 100ml.

Anything above 2000 units per 100ml is considered dangerous for human contact.

But the harmful bacteria, often via sew age from ageing and overflowing treatment plants, is finding its way into the water system. Just this month, tests for E.coli have revealed:

# 85000 units of E.coli per 100ml in the Nkobi lagoon at Southbroom on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast;

# 28800 units in the Makamati River near Pennington on the South Coast; and

# 2419 units in the Jukskei River in Gauteng.

Dr Jo Barnes, an epidemiologist and environmental health scientist at the University of Stellenbosch, said the governmentâ€™s monitoring of disease-causing organisms in river water was limited to a few rivers in each province or area.

â€œThey have an approach to regular water sampling for all other rivers, which is to test the water chemistry for chemical substances such as dissolved salts... the problem is that thereâ€™s no correlation between the chemicals in the water and the disease-causing organisms,â€ she said.

Barnes, who runs tests every six weeks on certain rivers in the Western Cape, said that while chemical levels had hardly ever risen high enough to indicate problems, levels of disease-causing organisms were over safe limits 95% of the time during her project.

She said scientific methodology and analysis used by many laboratories were â€œworryingâ€.

A big contributor to the high pollution levels was poorly treated or raw sew age running into rivers.

â€œE.coli (a gut organism indicating sewage pollution) doesnâ€™t occur in water sources alone, it brings with it other disease-causing brothers and sisters.â€

Lagoons were particularly vulnerable, she said, owing to the slow exchange of water and the brackish water. But most at risk were people in informal settlements, who used river water for cooking, bathing and subsistence fishing.

Barnes said failing municipal services, water pollution and climate change would rob SA of more of its water supply. The failure of the government to take swift action amounted to a â€œslow disasterâ€ that could lead to an irreversible problem.

Dr Gunnar Sigge, project manager of the Water Research Commission project researching rivers used to irrigate fresh produce crops, said high levels of E.coli indicated faecal contamination.

â€œThe problem is cropping up more and more around South Africa, and the municipalities are finding it harder to keep up infrastructure, maintenance and capacity,â€ he said.

Controversial water specialist Dr Anthony Turton said research yet to be published had indicated contamination of groundwater. Bruce Mackenzie, chairman of the Southbroom Ratepayersâ€™ Association, called on the local Hibiscus Coast municipality to erect warning signs at affected lagoons.

A spokesman for the Ugu district municipality, Brian Dube, said the high levels of E.coli in the region could be attributed to last yearâ€™s heavy floods, which destroyed infrastructure at sewerage works. A project to upgrade the plant, since repaired, would be completed within a month, he said.

Linda Page, a spokesman for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, said a multimillion-rand infrastructure upgrade programme would be implemented across the country.

Lin Gravelet-Blondin, deputy director of water quality for the department in KZN, said they were â€œworking hardâ€ to resolve the problem of failing infrastructure and pollution. â€” laganparsadm@sundaytimes.co.za
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Sunday Times : Millions at risk from rivers of pollution

Henk Hugo

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