From Daily Maverick · Anthony Kaziboni · · 2m
Bronkhorstspruit's toxic water crisis breached constitutional rights
For three weeks, a South African municipality supplied contaminated water without warning, sickening hundreds and violating the constitutional right to life and dignity.
In brief
For three weeks, a South African municipality supplied contaminated water without warning, sickening hundreds and violating the constitutional right to life and dignity. Bronkhorstspruit supplied unchlorinated, sewage-polluted water for three weeks without warning residents, sickening 833 people including 328 children…
Unchlorinated water flowed for three weeks
From 24 September to 14 October, Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works supplied unchlorinated water. Pumps and sand filters at the plant were not functioning. Whatever was in the river went into homes.
The river was heavily polluted with sewage
The treatment plant draws from the Bronkhorstspruit River, which the Department of Water and Sanitation says is heavily polluted by sewage from a dysfunctional wastewater works upstream in Victor Khanye and from malfunctioning Tshwane pump…
Eight hundred thirty-three people fell ill
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Between seven and eighteen October, four hundred eight people were treated for gastrointestinal illness. By twenty-sixth October, the figure was eight hundred thirty-three, of whom three hundred twenty-eight were children aged four and under.
Stool and water samples showed dangerous pathogens
Stool samples identified norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella. Water samples showed extremely high levels of E. coli. No cholera bacteria were found in stool samples.
The municipality failed to warn residents
The Department of Water and Sanitation investigation found that the city failed to warn residents their water was unsafe, even after boiling.
The Constitution demands quality, not just quantity
Section twenty-seven guarantees everyone the right of access to sufficient water. The Water Services Act defines basic water supply in terms of sufficient quantity and acceptable quality. Water that harms people is not water supplied.
“water that harms the people who drink it is not, in any meaningful sense, water supplied”
The state's infrastructure became a threat to life
Supplying sewage-polluted river water without disinfecting it and without warning residents creates a foreseeable risk of serious harm.
Dignity was violated by silence and neglect
Citizens were told water could only flush toilets.Schoolchildren drank from broken pipes.The water minister said children by nature always have diarrhoea.
“children, by nature, always have diarrhoea”
Three reforms are needed to prevent recurrence
Treat water quality as enforceable under Section twenty-seven with routine publication of monitoring results.Make warning residents a binding legal duty with personal consequences for officials who stay silent.
Here's the gist
Bronkhorstspruit supplied unchlorinated, sewage-polluted water for three weeks without warning residents, sickening 833 people including 328 children under four, violating constitutional rights to life, health and dignity.
