Photo by [Daily Maverick]
The Chair of the Health Committee of the South African United Business Confederation, Angelique Coetzee, said governing officials were forewarned of the consequences and effects of the lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation in some parts of the country. She continued to state that alerts of the water challenges in Hammanskraal were issued more than ten years before the cholera outbreak in Tshwane.
“We have alerted the government many times during Covid about drinking water, sanitation and access to clean water, and it feels like we’re just talking and talking … No one is hearing what we are trying to say … Hammanskraal [was] warned more than ten years ago. If they then started to fix the problem, they would have still had people with technical skills, and it would cost them less.”
The cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal claimed the lives of nearly two dozen people, with many more being treated in various health facilities. Coetzee said the sad thing about cholera is that it is a preventable disease, and though the primary source is yet undetermined, reports suggest the outbreak is due to sewage pollution and dysfunctional water treatment facilities in the area.
Dysfunctional and Neglected Infrastructure
The cholera outbreak is the latest ongoing water problem in the country. The decaying infrastructure exacerbated by natural causes such as flooding in some provinces and neglect has caused sewage pollution, affecting not only dams, rivers and streams essential for drinking water but also the oceans.
As a result, many communities in the country have battled with water supply, with some receiving less or none.
Coetzee said locating and containing the primary source of the outbreak would be challenging. Instead, national and local authorities should focus on things they can control, such as repairing dysfunctional and decaying water treatment Infrastructures.
“You want to try and see where the source is, but you can’t fix the source anymore. You need to fix the problem, and the problem is infrastructure. We can understand if it’s a natural disaster … We know then water and sanitation would be affected. We expect that … But in a country like South Africa, we should not have this problem.”
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The Vulnerability of Underprivileged and Impoverished Communities
Cholera is a bacterial disease that spreads through an infected person’s faeces. When there is no proper sanitation of the wastes, the bacteria can come into contact with water and food.
Therefore, people who pose the most risk of contracting the disease live in informal settlements, urban and rural areas and do not have access to clean and pure drinking water and sanitation. However, this does not exempt people who live in more privileged areas.
Not everyone will have severe symptoms of the disease. The majority will be asymptomatic. They, in turn, become potential carriers of the disease to their communities.
Coetzee said if the powers that be addressed the issues of access to underprivileged communities and provided them with sanitation resources, we would not be dealing with a cholera outbreak. She believes it is a disease South Africa should not be dealing with.
“If the politicians or the government of the day decide that they are going to uplift the majority of the people living in rural areas and give them access to good clean water and sanitation, the problem will stop … The people themselves can’t fix the problem. They [depend] on the structure or government of the day … They are dependent on them to do something.”
Therefore, the Health Department urged citizens to maintain essential hygiene practices and not to drink water from unreliable sources such as dams and rivers. If citizens show any symptoms, they should seek medical assistance immediately.
