Several residents of Hammanskraal in Tshwane, where a cholera outbreak has claimed almost two dozen lives, have raised their suspicions on the quality of the water they received from the tankers that have regularly delivered water in the area.
Peter Mohlasedi is a community leader who lives in the area of the informal settlement that has no running water.
He and other residents have been collecting water from the tankers for the past three years. Trucks carrying water come to the area three times a week. They supply water to the homes with jojo tanks.
But Mohlasedi said the water from the tankers changed colour when stored for a long period.
“On the first and second day, the water from the trucks is good, but from the third day, a green substance like mould begins to build at the base of our buckets. If there is no water in my house, I drink that water because I have no choice,” he said.
Another resident, Maria Moruwe, said she had experienced the same.
“Because of what happens to the water on the third day, I make sure that every second day I collect water so that my water is always fresh. I have not been sick though, because of this water. What worries me now is that there is cholera and I don’t know if it is in the water we drink,” Moruwe said.
They are just some of the residents who are anxious as the death toll from the cholera, whose origins are yet to be established, continues to rise.
After the City of Tshwane confirmed that tests conducted showed no cholera in the water flowing from the taps in Hammanskraal, community members have questioned whether the tanks may not be to blame.
TimesLIVE Premium spent several days in the township, observing how people were living amid the city's direction for them to be extra cautious of the water they used.
Most of Hammanskraal residents rely on water provided by the tankers. Those who can afford to buy bottled water have been doing so.
Mohlasedi, a resident of Stompetse informal settlement in Hammanskraal Ext 3, said almost all the people in his area uses water from the tankers.
He said many in the community cannot afford to buy water and have no choice but to turn to the tankers despite their fears.
“We don’t know if the water we use has cholera or not. We use it because there is no other source of water for our community. We are really scared because we don’t know whether this water is clean or not. No one in authority has come to tell us what the status of the water is [that] we are drinking. It is really a difficult situation for us,” Mohlasedi said.
“I don’t want to lie, we are scared. There is anxiety among residents about the water crisis in Hammanskraal,” he said.
Another resident in Stompetse, Dineo Mohlala, said she uses the water from the tankers but has become cautious after learning about the outbreak. Mohlala has two children aged five and 11.
“I have started boiling the water that we drink to protect my children. There is no other water source we have here. I cannot buy water from the shops as it is too expensive.
“I am also scared because I have heard about cholera and I don’t know if the water we are drinking is 100% safe,” Mohlala said.
Abiner Ratsatsi, who lives in the Stompetse section that has municipal pipes running on the ground, said he does not trust the quality of the water from the tanks. Ratsatsi has a jojo tank in his yard and has to pay R200 for it to be filled. It lasts him and his family one month and two weeks.
“Me and my wife now and again experience stomach problems, which we suspect is from the water. I pour Jik [bleach] into my tank just to improve the quality of the water,” Ratsatsi said.
Ratsatsi described the stomach problems as just pain that they now and again develop with no diarrhoea.
For his six-month-old daughter, Ratsatsi buys five litres of water for her to drink and make milk formula. They have been buying water for her since she was born.
Another resident from the same area, who only wanted to be identified as Betty, complained of having similar stomach problems.
“Me and my husband experience little diarrhoea once or twice every six months. We don’t take it serious because it does not last more than two days,” Betty said.
However, Betty conceded that she sometimes uses the water from the pipes when she has run out of water from the tankers.
Francinah Losabi, whose home is in the formalised (brick and mortar) part of Hammanskraal, said there is water running on the taps, but the Tshwane metro has instructed residents not to use it.
She uses water from the taps to flush toilets, clean, do laundry and bathe.
For drinking and cooking, Losabi uses water delivered by the trucks.
“I have a three-year-old granddaughter who has been drinking that water since she was born. She has never had problems,” Losabi said.
Trucks come to Losabi’s area every Monday morning to supply water.
Meanwhile, several Hammanskraal residents told the Sunday Times this week they had contracted cholera after drinking water from tankers. However, truck drivers said they only collect water from stipulated sources and wash their trucks weekly.
The source of the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal has not yet been determined.
City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the city had done tests on half of the water tankers providing water in Hammanskraal.
Confirmatory test results from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, which will pinpoint the actual source of contamination, are yet to be received.
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