Phalaborwa can now drink safe water
Upon investigation, it was established that a water pipeline supplying the affected area runs through a sewage manhole on the corner of Park and Hans Pirow streets and had been damaged sometime earlier.
The water in Phalaborwa is now clean and safe to drink. This is according to Mopani District Municipality (MDM) spokesperson, Odas Ngobeni. He told the Herald that MDM conducted a variety of tests to ensure that the residents have clean water again. This is after Let’s Change BaPhalaborwa (LCBP), a civil organisation, received a flood of reports from residents of foul-smelling, nasty-tasting tap water in certain sections of town.
Residents were also falling ill from what appeared to have been raw sewage-contaminated municipal water. The affected areas include an old-age home, residential properties, numerous tourism accommodation establishments, supermarkets, and places making and handling food.
This resulted in raw sewage flowing into the municipal water supply system. Following a complaint from a tourism accommodation establishment, Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), the bulk water supplier, was requested to conduct water tests in Phalaborwa town.
Also read: SIES!: Phalaborwa community drinks contaminated water
These tests confirmed that the municipal water supply was compromised. However, Lepelle did not disclose the test outcome, it referred the results to MDM, the water services authority, but still community members were not informed of the test results. Ngobeni confirmed to the Herald that they were alerted of suspected water contamination and that they attended to the issue together with LNW. “We dispatched a team which did the initial sampling on August 22.
The results revealed non-compliance at one of the tourist establishments, while the other three sampling points were compliant. In response to this finding, a second site visit was conducted on August 26. During this visit, the water line at the tourist establishment was flushed for two hours to remove any contaminants. A followup sample collected after the flushing indicated compliance with water quality standards,” he said.
Also read: Phalaborwa residents fed up with sewage in backyard
“To ensure the issue was fully resolved, an additional sample was collected on August 28. The analysis of this sample also showed compliance, suggesting that the issue had been effectively addressed. To provide further assurance, we have taken additional samples and submitted them to an independent laboratory for verification and the results came back negative,” he explained. Meanwhile, Ward 11 councillor Lonika Booysen, confirmed to the Herald that the pipe has been fixed and is back to normal.
However, she indicated that sewage is still flowing at the same spot. Booysen has also written to the municipal manager of Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, Dr Lucas Pilusa, to conduct a thorough review of all water and sewage infrastructure to prevent water contamination. At the time of going to press she had not received any response from Pilusa.
