'No cholera in Joburg tap water'

2009-01-13 14:24

Verashni Pillay

Johannesburg - An e-mail claiming cholera found in the Vaal River was contaminating Gauteng tap water was slammed by authorities on Tuesday.

"We can categorically state, because we do the testing, that there is no cholera present at this stage in the upper catchment of the Vaal River and the Vaal Dam," said Karl Lubout, Rand Water's water quality specialist.

All tap water in Gauteng was safe, he told News24.

The rumours began after Sasol found an irregularity in its internal water supplies, and carried out tests.

Staff at the Sasol One factory site were told not to drink the tap water because of a bacteria contaminant.

An internal e-mail was leaked to the public, causing a flurry of panicked e-mails.

"We have just found out that the Vaal River, which supplies most of JHB with water, has been infected with cholera," said one e-mail. "If the rumours are correct then Sasol has already sent a warning out to its employees."

Sasol's problem

But Sasol has slammed the "urban legend".

"It is a Sasol-specific problem, it doesn't affect anyone," Sasol spokesperson Jacqui O'Sullivan told News24. "The water comes to us and it goes into an internal reticulation system and obviously our system has a problem.

"So we're flushing our system and it should probably be clear within a day or so. But it has absolutely no impact on anyone else."

The results for the tests on Sasol's water supply system came back on Tuesday morning and indicated that all sites except one were fine, according to O'Sullivan.

Lubout said even if there were any cholera traces in the Vaal River, it would have been found at the treatment stages.

"But the important thing here is that there is no cause for concern because not even the source water is contaminated."

'Best in the world'

Sapa reported that the City of Johannesburg also condemned the false e-mails.

"The quality of Johannesburg's tap water continues to be rated as among the best in the world. Our scientists routinely monitor over 500 drinking water samples per month," said Johannesburg Water spokesperson Tebatso Baldwin Matsimela.

He said rigorous testing and monitoring processes were in place to ensure that the "quality of every drop of the million litres of water that passes through our network daily is well within the SABS standard of class one drinking water".

- News24