Some small-town water not safe NEWS24
23/02/2009 Port Elizabeth - The tap water in some South African small towns may not be fit to drink, a senior department of water affairs official said on Monday. Speaking at the Implementing Environmental Water Allocations (IEWA) conference in Port Elizabeth, deputy director-general of national water resources and infrastructure, Cornelius Ruiters, said there was only an 80% chance that small-town tap water was safe. "Some of the places where we have challenges are in the Free State, in Limpopo, and to some extent in the Eastern Cape - and here and there in the North West and Mpumalanga," he said. "I would say that at the moment there's about an 80% chance that most of the water in the small towns is still drinkable. "Obviously it would be advisable to know which smaller towns, and then to find out what is in the smaller towns, and obviously SA Tourism and such people have to provide this sort of information." Names of towns to be revealed Ruiters said his department was looking at posting the names of towns where water quality was sub-standard on its website, but could not say when this might be done. The department monitored water quality in 97% of South Africa's municipalities, he said. Questioned on the issue, Water Research Commission director for water-linked ecosystems, Steve Mitchell, said people had nothing to fear in the country's major metropolitan areas. "South African standards for tap water are among the best in the world. The big city councils are delivering water at that quality because they have the technology and the capacity to manage that technology," he said. Danger of disease "But as you get away from [the major cities] then the quality of drinking tap water that has not been boiled becomes a bit more risky because - particularly [in the region] around the border with Zimbabwe, where we've got the cholera coming in - there is a danger of picking up disease. "Then [also] below sewage works - urban waste water treatment works - which are not being operated effectively, there is also a risk there that there might be diseases in the water. So that water should be boiled before being drunk," Mitchell said. Asked if he would drink the tap water in a small town, Mitchell replied: "I would like to know what's been happening in the river first." The IEWA conference is being held in the city over the next four days. The event has attracted over 300 experts, academics and officials from 30 countries. - SAPA
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