DA smells foul play in FS

2004-08-20 13:15

Johannesburg - The Free State government and some of its local municipalities were accused on Thursday by the Democratic Alliance of keeping essential tests results on the safety of drinking water in the province under wraps.

DA spokesperson Peter Frewen said: "It's absolutely shocking that these results were not being used to implement drastic measures to improve the quality of drinking water and the treatment of waste water."

However, the local government department has dismissed his claims as unfounded, saying that water in the province was safe to drink.

Frewen on Thursday said the report by Environmentek and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) indicated that at Jagersfontein in the southern Free State cases of skin lesions had been reported by members of the community as a result of high levels of arsenic in the water.

According to the report, which was given to the media, water with these arsenic concentrations had been consumed for a period in excess of one year.

Frewen said the report was compiled for the "Free State water quality management programme" for the period April 2003 to March 2004.

He said it indicated that a meeting was held with the Kopanong Municipality on May 26 about the situation.

"It is almost three months later and nothing has been done about the situation.

"Council members and even medical personnel have been kept in the dark about the danger."

Frewen said he phoned various doctors in the affected areas and they had not known about the danger.

Free State head of the department for local government Makhosini Msibi on Thursday however denied that any drinking water in the province was dangerous to drink.

Public in the dark?

"There is nothing dangerous in the water."

Msibi said the water in the province was tested by the CSIR on a monthly basis and that there were even areas of improvement.

"We are striving with the CSIR to get all the water in the province to the same quality."

Msibi also refuted the DA claim that people were kept dark about the report.

"We go a road show to all municipalities every quarter, the last one in June, and the CSIR represents themselves at these meetings."

However Frewen, who was councillor in the Kopanong municipality for four years before he became a member in the Free State legislator this year, insisted he never knew about such a report."

The report does state that the drinking water quality across the Free State was "generally acceptable", but nevertheless problems areas did exits.

Of these were towns with a total coliform failure of greater than 20% for the year. They were Boshof, Dealesville, Edenville, Fauresmith, Hertzogville, Jagersfontein, Kroonstad, Parys and Senekal.

Boshof, Dealesville and Jagersfontein also showed a faecal coliform failure greater that 20 percent.

The report also said that the arsenic concentration at Jagersfontein failed the SABS 241-2001 Class 1 (acceptable) limits but satisfied the SABS 241-2001 Class 11 (maximum allowable) limit.

The report indicates that the most common problems that led to these situations were lack of monitoring, poor maintenance and poor plant operation due to lack of skills.

- SAPA