A scene from a Gauteng river in March 2023 when WaterCan were conducting earlier testing. Picture: Neil McCartney A recent snap survey of South Africa’s water resources indicates that E. coli is present in up to two-thirds of the country’s water supply.
In September, the Water Community Action Network (WaterCan) sent 500 test kits to random locations nationwide, and the results revealed an alarming trend. WaterCan last week released its report on the tests, laying the blame on poor sewerage and wastewater treatment systems. Tests were not limited to natural water sources; WaterCan found E.
coli in taps and jojo tanks. “These are direct household exposure points, not just polluted rivers downstream. These findings show that the risk has already moved into people’s homes and schools via taps and tanks,” WaterCan stated.
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The presence of E. coli in water supply systems is caused by contamination from human and animal faeces. In Gauteng, 39 of the 59(66%)samples classified the water as unsafe for human consumption.
Dams and rivers accounted for 28 of those samples, with 75% of the tests showing high levels of bacterial contamination. In the Western Cape, 70% of samples showed high bacterial contamination, including 100% of the five river samples collected. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), also showed high levels of bacterial contamination in its natural water sources, with all 15 river samples returning unsafe levels of E.coli. Across the remaining provinces, the aggregate results of their tests showed that 59% of samples tested unsafe levels of E.
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