“My wife and children can’t even look at the taps in our house, because they literally saw faeces coming out of our taps. That’s how traumatised they are by what has happened.” These are the words of Clare Estate resident, Prashan Sookdeo one of the residents on O’Flaherty Road who allegedly experienced sewage water coming through their taps.
It is alleged that on the 6th and 7th of April contaminated water “mixed” into the water system, leading to the sewage water flowing out of the taps of the Sookdeo’s home.
Sookdeo said four people in his family fell ill following the incident. “My-66-year-old father, my four and eight-year-old sons and I, fell sick after drinking the water. We had fever, terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea. When we went to our local doctor, we were told that we had a bacterial infection, probably due to us consuming the contaminated water.”
“I am absolutely furious about what has happened. A lot of information was withheld from us. It was not until the councillor escalated the matter that we started getting some answers,” said Sookdeo
Extremely concerned about the situation, Ward 23 Councillor, DA’s Alicia Kissoon said, “Following an investigation, subsequent tests revealed that the freshwater lines were indeed contaminated with sewage. The incident occurred while repairs were being undertaken to the water infrastructure in the area, and the freshwater pipeline became exposed to a sewage overflow. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the situation, the municipality failed to inform the community of the potential hazards. Instead, they continued to downplay the situation and insisted that the water quality was suitable for human consumption.”
According to Councillor Kissoon, the results from a water quality test requested by her revealed that the e-coli levels were in excess of 200% above the normal acceptable levels. “This is yet another example highlighting the sanitation crisis the municipality is facing. Daily, across the city, there are scores of sewer leaks and overflows on the streets and in our rivers. The eThekwini Municipality must take full responsibility for this situation.”
In a media statement, the eThekwini Municipality assured residents that results of tap water samples taken on 6 and 7 April in O’Flaherty Road Road, Clare Estate were compliant with potable water standards as per the South African National Standard 241 for drinking water.
“The false narrative emanates from the City’s Water and Sanitation team repairing a burst water main last month. Water pipelines were isolated during the repairs. Unfortunately, during the repairs, a TLB accidentally damaged both the water and sewer pipeline. Following the incident, the City took samples to assess the possibility of water being compromised. The first batch of results indicated that the sample did not comply, and teams immediately flushed out and disinfected the line to ensure compromised water is removed out of the network and would not reach the taps of residents. More samples were taken while repairs were being undertaken and further flushing of water pipelines was done to clear the supply of any contamination. The repairs on the damaged pipes have been completed and further tests were done to ascertain water quality. These tests have shown that water is safe to drink.,” the statement read.
However, Councillor Kissoon said tests taken two days after the repair, were only released 16 days later, and showed 200% e-coli levels and no chlorine. “It would be obvious that new tests taken three weeks later would be clear as residents have themselves flushed it out the system by usage. This issue has not been resolved at all.”
“We still don’t know if the water is safe to drink. We need to know when we can use the water. At the moment, in addition to buying drinking water, we make use of the local taps to collect water. It has become my daily task to fill four big barrels with water. We can’t live like this,” said Sookdeo.
