27 January 2005

MEDICAL tests showed that the Zwelitsha Sewerage Treatment Works was not pumping raw sewage into the Buffalo River and was not to blame for cases of Hepatitis A in the municipal district.

And, according to the medical tests, there was only a one in 1 000 chance of Hepatitus A causing death.

The research was undertaken at the insistence of Buffalo City mayor Sindisile Maclean, concerned over newspaper reports of the virus causing a death in East London.

A local newspaper claimed that negligent municipal sanitation management at Zwelitsha caused the death downstream of a 12-year-old Buffalo Flats boy.

The young boy, Luciandre Mildenhall, had reportedly contracted the viral infection from a Buffalo River stream near his Vergenoeg home in East London - about 50 kilometers from Zwelitsha, in King William's Town.

"The research proved that death by the Hepatitis A virus was a one in 1000 likely occurrence," the mayor said.

The investigation also exonerated the sewerage treatment plant. "It showed that the Zwelitsha Sewerage treatment works was not dumping raw sewerage into the Buffalo River," said Maclean.

According to hospital records, a total of 50 cases of Hepatitis A virus were positively identified by medical authorities in East London from November to December - many from outside the municipal area, from as far afield as Alice and Mnquma.

After meetings with the engineering services' scientific monitoring branch, the sewerage treatment branch and the sanitation task team chaired by the Integrated Environmental Management Programme general manager, Shirley Fergus, it was clear the outbreak was not linked to the Zwelitsha works, Maclean said.

"The hospital reports call for a comprehensive provincial and national strategy beyond city-wide boundaries to fight water-born viruses," Maclean said. "But such a strategy must be backed with adequate infrastructure and monitoring mechanisms beyond all borders to prevent migration of the virus."

Buffalo City's water and sanitation management, furthermore, was not 100 percent satisfactory, the mayor said.

The ageing infrastructure and the millions of rands for infrastructure investment needed to meet the rising expectations created by government's commitment of sanitation for all by 2008 "is placing a severe burden on the city's budget formulation".

The projected R1,8-billion budget is under pressure in the face of growing poverty and rural migration into the city.

"Our infrastructure is ageing and we need R518-million to enable the City's 12 overburdened sewerage treatment works to cope," Maclean said.

At this stage R142,5-million had been allocated for the engineering services capital vote from the 2005-2006 budget to provide a safe, efficient, economic and environmentally acceptable road, electricity, water and sanitation network.

"The treatment works are saddled with major hydraulic and biological overloading which is bound to produce unacceptable effluent."

The situation was aggravated by Buffalo City's failure to attract professional staff for the sewerage treatment works, which must be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Maclean added.

Hundreds of thousands of rands in damage were also caused by vandals and by those who blocked sewers to irrigate land. "I am told that sewers are blocked by the most unlikely objects such as bricks. Even a car's dashboard was found in one sewer and the overstretched staff have their hands full with blockages throughout the city," Maclean said.

The reports will be tabled at the next Council meeting.