THE city’s water worries are yesterday’s news.
The uMhlathuze Municipality on Wednesday afternoon confirmed that the city’s tap water is again safe for human consumption after the system was flushed.
‘The city would like to apologise for the inconvenience and appreciates the public’s understanding,’ said communications manager Mdu Ncalane.
Water quality tests conducted by Mhlathuze Water this week detected high levels of manganese, elevated to 3.7 parts per million at the Mhlathuze weir which was almost ten times higher than the accepted level.
The maximum acceptable threshold is 0.4 parts per million.
The utility is still scouring the water system to pinpoint the source that provoked the chemical levels to soar, fouling the town’s tap water and reportedly causing scores of residents and schoolchildren to fall ill.
On Tuesday morning the community was advised by the municipality to refrain from drinking tap water as a precaution until the matter had been resolved.
By late Wednesday morning, several grocery stores and bottled water providers were sold out of mineral water.
Councillor Christo Botha has requested a full written report from Mhlathuze Water on the findings of its investigation. ‘I have asked for answers to specific questions to be reflected in this report.
‘We need to know how the water got contaminated without Mhlathuze Water picking it up, especially considering the high levels of manganese.
‘It should not take this long to establish the source causing the problem taking into account that it has already been found to be in the weir area – a small enough region to investigate.’
Read the full story in the ZO Weekender edition.
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