With the recent water cuts that have hit our neighbourhoods and the fear that the natural resource could run dry when it is crucial to saving lives, Robert Mulaudzi, Johannesburg EMS spokesperson appeals to the public not to fear.
The world is currently going through El Nino, which according to the South African Weather Service, is the “warming of water temperature along the equatorial Pacific Ocean which influences atmospheric circulation, and consequently rainfall and temperature in specific areas around the world”.
Our country has seen little to no rain and with the current strain on the natural resource, questions arise if our EMS personnel would be equipped to handle any disaster.
“So far we are managing, we don’t have any hindrances,” said Mulaudzi.
He explained that a normal fire engine is filled with 1 500 to 3 500 litres of water and that the tanker [the vehicle that just carries water] is filled with
10 000 litres, which, he said, is enough for emergencies – even fires at informal settlements.
He also mentioned that water shortage would only be a problem if the specific area in distress had no water.
“We are not reliant on one specific area to get our water, we fill up in different areas,” said Muluadzi. “It’s only if a pump goes dry that there would be a delay as we have to travel to the next pump.”
Mulaudzi also said that through the year they hold public education courses where they teach the community about basic firefighting skills.
“It helps when people know how to manage fires before the firefighters get there,” said Muluadzi. ” We teach community members how to form a line chain with the buckets of water.”
Mulaudzi concluded with the instruction to people to have a standby bucket of water for emergencies. He also added that a bucket of sand should be on standby as some fires do not respond to water.
Details: Johannesburg EMS, joburgconnect@joburg.org.za or 0860 562 874; South African Weather Services, 012 367 6000.
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