Fresh, clean water is available at 14 different points for
Delmas residents as the typhoid outbreak enters another day in the
Mpumalanga town on Wednesday.
Schools have also been supplied with potable water via 20-litre
containers, read a joint statement from the departments of health,
local government, water affairs, and Delmas municipality.
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There have been 287 typhoid cases and 89 of these patients were
currently hospitalised, and 1 406 diarrhoea cases. Signs of the
outbreak began to be noticed on August 22.
At the town's hospital, a 30-bed tent has been erected to cater
for outpatients who need to be rehydrated.
"An additional three nurses have also been deployed to the area
to assist. More nurses and doctors are expected," read the
statement.
Efforts underway to improve sewerage system
Meanwhile, efforts have been underway to improve the sewerage
system in Delmas.
It was hoped the preparations would be completed soon in order
to replace the current bucket system, local government department
spokesman Simphiwe Kunene told Sapa.
He said the work started before the outbreak.
The bucket system is used in several parts of the province.
Buckets containing human waste are disposed of by truck.
Kunene said Delmas was part of a programme started earlier this
year to replace the bucket system. Other municipalities targeted
were Govan Mbeki, Msukaligwa, Albert Luthuli and Ditaleseng.
Sewage overload blamed for outbreak
Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica who visited Delmas on
Monday said a source of the typhoid outbreak - in the light of
past experience -was the overloaded sewage system.
"This causes it to seep into the ground water that people are
using," she said.
"There is a lack of capacity at local government to manage
ground water, and this is an issue that the department needs to
look at."
Cause not yet known
Provincial health spokesman Mpho Gabashane said it was not yet
known what had caused the outbreak. Officials were awaiting the
results from water tests which would hopefully shed some light on
the source.
The outbreak has also been blamed on ground water not being
purified properly.
Gabashane said personnel from the national water affairs
department would be deployed in about 10 days to assist the
municipality's water purification programme.
Negotiations underway for new water supply
Negotiations were also underway for Rand Water to supply the
town with water permanently. Infrastructure would first have to be
built.
Once negotiations were completed, the municipality would make a
submission to the provincial government, Gabashane said. The
provincial cabinet would have to approve the matter as it was
extraordinary and had not been budgeted for.
Safety concerns went unheeded?
Democratic Alliance MP Dan Maluleke said a party councillor
warned the Delmas municipality a few years ago that the
municipality should be connected to Rand Water to allow for safe
water.
"His warning was rejected as the council believed that Rand
Water was too expensive, and they also felt the free underground
water could be a source of easy income for the municipality," he
said.
Maluleke said he would request the chairman of Parliament's
portfolio committee on water affairs and forestry to urgently send
a fact-finding team to Delmas. – (Sapa)
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