Pretoria residents scared to drink water again after tap water turned brownish on the weekend

Some residents of Pretoria are still scared to drink the tap water after it turned brownish over the weekend.

The City of Tshwane said this was due to sediment at the bottom of a reservoir.

“The reservoir levels ran critically low after the loss of pressure from the Rand Water supply. The problem has since been resolved,” said city spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

Noluthando Ngobeni from Sunnyside is still frightened after drinking the brownish water unknowingly in the early hours of Saturday in the dark as she was being load-shed.

“I didn’t see the colour when I drank, my daughter and I drank the water. I noticed the colour at about 7am, but I had already drank the water at about 6am in the dark. At about 8am, someone also notified me about the brownish colour in the water but it didn’t smell foul,” she said.

Ngobeni said she bathed with the water after boiling it.

“It’s the same colour after boiling it, I just felt that to be on the safe side let me boil it but not for drinking, for drinking I had to go buy water from the shop. I read one article which said we must boil the water but I felt that it is not safe even if we boil it for cooking and drinking it’s risky — I felt that it is not safe because the colour remains the same,” Ngobeni said.

She said the water was now getting better.

“I am still scared I won’t drink the water, even when I go back home and find the water clear I won’t drink it. I am afraid of the Hammanskraal situation.”

“I don’t know the health implications but so far I am still OK, I haven’t had any reactions. We drank the water when this thing started but so far we haven’t got sick but I don’t trust the water any more, even at work, since it’s the areas surrounding Pretoria Central. I work at central, I won’t even drink the work water, so far I don’t trust Pretoria water, I am not going to risk, it’s scary,” she said.

On Saturday, the city issued a notice urging consumers to filter and boil the water before drinking.

It said the affected areas were Sunnyside, Clydesdale, Arcadia, Trevena and parts of Pretoria Central and Muckleneuk and a small part of Hatfield.

Mbofho Maranda from Pretoria Central said she noticed the brownish water on Saturday morning.

I was surprised until they [flat management] sent a message that we should not use the water or drink it.

“You cannot wash clothes or drink, we are just forced to bath with it,” she said.

Maranda said since the incident and the recent Hammanskraal cholera outbreak, she does not feel safe drinking the tap water.

“I just feel like maybe what is in Hammanskraal is now here in Pretoria CBD as we all fall under Tshwane. We are not safe, we can just wake up and hear that there is cholera,” Maranda said.

She said since the notice on the weekend, they haven’t been notified if the water is safe to drink yet.

“We are not cooking but we buy water for drinking, the water is undrinkable. Even though they say you must boil it — boiling water cannot be trusted in such a situation,” said Maranda.

Another resident in Pretoria Central, Muvhusi Munenyiwa, said she first noticed that the water colour had changed when she was running a bath.

“It wasn’t that hard to notice because the bathtub is white and by that time I had already drank tea but I just consoled myself that at least the water was boiled I’m still scared to drink or even boil it,” she said.

Mashigo said there are no health effects associated with the water that residents received on the weekend.

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