The supplying of toxic water, without warning, to the citizens of Bronkhorstspruit threatened their fundamental rights to life, health and human dignity.
For three weeks, the taps in Bronkhorstspruit kept running. By the narrow measure South Africa often uses, the system was working. It was not. From 24 September to 14 October, the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works supplied unchlorinated water. The treatment plant draws from the Bronkhorstspruit River, which the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) says is heavily polluted by sewage from a dysfunctional wastewater works upstream in Victor Khanye and from malfunctioning Tshwane pump stations. Pumps and sand filters at the plant itself were not functioning. Whatever was in the river went into homes at Zithobeni, Rethabiseng, Dark City, Sokhulumi and Bronkhorstspruit.
Between 7 and 18 October, 408 people were treated for gastrointestinal illness. By 26 October, the figure was 833, of whom 328 were children aged four and under. Stool samples identified norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella; water samples showed extremely high levels of E. coli.
No cholera bacteria were found in stool samples, and Mayor Nasiphi Moya says the Vibrio cholerae variant detected in water is not the epidemic strain. No deaths have been reported. While that is fortunate, it is not reassuring. Diarrhoeal disease remains a leading cause of death among children...
