Water restrictions imposed by Rand Water affect healthcare facilities

Rand Water has been fingered for violating the basic human rights of patients at the Sebokeng Hospital‚ after they instituted water restrictions without prior notification.

This claim was made against Rand Water by the hospital's chief executive officer‚ Dr Zolela Ngcwabe‚ who accused the water supplier of acting in bad faith just days after the entity imposed a restriction on the municipality.

“Formally‚ we were not informed that they [were] closing our water supply‚ so that we [could] have contingency plans. Water is a basic human right‚ and the rights of our patients and the community were deprived‚” Ngcwabe told TimesLIVE.

She said the water cut-off had an effect on “the patients’ personal hygiene and hand washing. For us it is core‚ because both of them have an effect in terms of infection control‚ before and after eating”.

Her remarks follow the Emfuleni local municipality's failure to settle a debt of more than R400-million owed to Rand Water for a period of two years‚ which is now resulting in health facilities beginning to feel the pinch.

The water supplier officially announced its decision to implement a 60% water restriction on Friday – even though the hospital was without water for the whole of last week – which not only affected the community of Sebokeng and surrounding areas‚ but also schools and clinics.

The municipality‚ according to Rand Water‚ has failed to honour agreements – made in several meetings between national treasury and the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs – to settle the outstanding amount with the service provider.

“It was agreed that the municipality [would] resubmit a revised payment plan and honour its current account by the last day of the month‚ while negotiations on the settlement of the overdue amount were ongoing‚” said Rand Water media relations manager Justice Mohale.

“Rand Water has reduced by 60% its supply of bulk potable water to the Emfuleni local municipality. This decision is a credit-control action‚ to compel the municipality to meet its obligations to settle amounts due to Rand Water for water services rendered‚” Mohale added.

However‚ Ngcwabe accused the entity of not considering the well-being of vulnerable community members who needed quality primary healthcare.

“Unavailability of water has had severe negative impact on the delivery of quality healthcare services‚ and also has a huge potential risk of spreading diseases. Patients’ care was compromised in all aspects‚ including the workers – if all of us can’t go to the toilet‚ all of us are affected‚” she added.

To date‚ the municipality owes the entity R431‚789‚101.

According to the hospital's deputy director‚ Makibiti Madolo‚ the implications of these water restrictions is that patients would in the long run be diagnosed with diseases they initially didn’t have.

“We are put in a compromised situation‚ where we may not know the effect of the closure of the water now‚ but we will see it maybe in the immediate future – that patients acquire diseases that they didn't come with to the hospital. We are basically working against our own policy as a government‚ so we cannot as government set these priorities‚ then [allow] another parastatal [to] set objectives that negate the national mandate for public institutions‚" said Madolo.

She said that the way forward for the hospital would be to increase the number of boreholes‚ coupling them with Jojo tanks‚ and install an electronic monitoring system in the main tanks to check the water levels. The hospital would also put filters in the critical areas‚ such as the intensive care units‚ operating theatres and maternity wards.

The hospital has 800 beds and accommodates about 60‚000 patients every month.

The municipality was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.