2 min | 1:05 PM CAT

In most urban areas of South Africa, tap water is safe to drink, but raw water sources, like streams, rivers, and dams, have high levels of E.Coli and coliform bacteria, posing severe health risks.

Last month, a week of nationwide water testing by more than 100 citizen science activists for the Water Community Action Network, or WaterCAN – an Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse project found that tap water is safe to drink in most urban areas.

These tests were carried out in response to an assessment report from the Blue Drop and Green Zone, which was made public for the first time in nine years and revealed that 52% of water supply systems are at medium to high risk.

The findings were presented by Dr Ferrial Adam, manager of WaterCAN, on Radio Islam International.

Most experiments were conducted in metropolitan and small-town settings in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape. Rural areas had few people.

Adam claims that 40 tests were conducted on sources of raw water, while 37 sources of drinking water or tap water had their results analysed. She underlined that one of the contaminated streams was at Durban’s Blue Lagoon Beach.

Adam claims that after the municipality was immediately alerted that there were bacteria, it warned the locals to boil their water to eradicate it.

The report states that the municipality should not be responsible for contaminating raw water sources. But the fines are passed onto ratepayers who have already paid for sewage to be cleaned.

The report noted how, in some municipalities, a lack of maintenance at water-treatment facilities, a lack of laboratory facilities to test the water following regulatory requirements routinely, and a lack of proper treatment of highly contaminated raw water worsen the risk of a contaminated drinking water supply.

This occurs when South Africa lacks access to water, and its resources are seriously compromised, according to the research.

[LISTEN] to the podcast here

By Nokwanda Dlangamandla
kzn@radioislam.org.za