-
Water faucet, Water.
Some residents in Polokwane, Limpopo, are reportedly suffering from gastrointestinal infections. The residents say they are experiencing diarrhea, stomach pain and fever among other symptoms.
They say they have been consulting clinics, hospitals and surgeries as well as buying medication over the counter at pharmacies since November last year. Three family members at Seshego Zone One, are among the patients.
Most people blame the problem on the water supplied by the Polokwane Municipality.
The Mokwape family of seven at Seshego Zone One near Polokwane experienced diarrhea and stomach pain in November. Family spokesperson Agnes Mokwape says they have been to clinics. She says the water from the municipal taps has a brownish colour and they suspect contamination as the cause of their ill-health.
“We started getting sick in November, after drinking water we get diarrhea, we sweat even when drinking boiled water. The water that came out of the tap is brownish, we stopped using this water and started using purified water, the baby here at home was affected by excessive diarrhea nonstop, we were afraid one of us will die,” says Mokwape.
Mokwape says nurses at the clinics couldn’t detect the exact cause of the problem.
“When consulting at the clinic, they just said it’s diarrhea to some patients. They told them it could be water, spices, and we concluded it was water because we could see that the water was not looking good, and we stopped using this water,” says Mokwape.
Another resident, Josephine Setati, has also been suffering from diarrhea. Setai says she’s been drinking self-made drinks and vinegar to make the pain go away. She says all her family have sought medical help.
“We were told by the doctor that there is a bacteria-infected water that we are drinking that is causing the diarrhea. They told us to boil water and wash our hands when using the water, we then realized that the problem was caused by the water. My grandchild consulted and her son was admitted in hospital. Some of us cannot afford to buy purified water, we hope it will be better one day,” says Setati.
Meanwhile, the Polokwane Municipality has confirmed that preliminary water quality tests have detected problems at one of its boreholes. The municipality says the technical teams are working to resolve the issue and restore the supply of clean drinking water.
“We have conducted preliminary testing which has identified the water quality issue linked to one of the boreholes supplying part of the area, we can confirm that the issue is isolated to that specific source in response immediate remedial measures were implemented including the cleansing of the system and the continuous flushing to safeguard the network. We are currently processing the incident to establish the root cause and are implementing the necessary corrective actions to prevent a recurrence,” says Municipal spokesperson, Thipa Selala.
Residents say they have been gripped by fear as the source of the health scare is yet to be determined.
