Water contamination alert at Letsholathebe Hospital
Boniface Keakabetse | Friday August 7, 2015 16:54
Ngamiland District Health Team head Dr. Christopher Chembe told a press conference on Wednesday that at least 12 wards at the hospital are affected as their water is polluted with faecal streptococci. He said only five wards have safe water for drinking by patients and the hospital staff.
Chembe said the bacteria was discovered during routine tests by the infections control unit of the hospital, this week. Chembe further explained that the hospital management has resolved to stop patients in all the affected wards from drinking the water as it poses a health risk. According to Chembe the bacteria found in the water can potentially cause diarrhoea.
He said all patients in the wards are now supplied with bottled water until the situation gets better.
Chembe further explained that the source of the contamination is not yet known adding that they have not yet established whether it comes from the hospital water distribution system or from outside the hospital.He said they are supplied with all their water by the Water Utilities Corporation(WUC).
According to Chembe they have engaged the Department of Water Affairs to do further sampling and to clean the hospital water distribution system.
“We are considering cleaning and flashing the water pipe network and reservoirs to get rid of the contamination,” he said.
According to the hospital authorities, it is not the first time the hospital has experienced the contamination as last year the water storage had also been found to be contaminated.
It is not just at the hospital but water contamination is said to be rampant in Maun in general. Residents have for a long time been drinking water with a strange colour that many complained was not safe to drink.
North West District Council Chairperson Reaboka Mbulawa in June told a full council meeting that that there is no proven evidence that the colour of the water in Maun pose health risks before adding that authorities were however monitoring the situation. He said the strange colour was from the vegetation and organisms in the river water where the Maun water is sourced.
Mbulawa had also informed that WUC was struggling to get rid of the colour during treatment.
In 2012, 17 children died from cases of diarrhoea which was blamed on poor water quality in Maun.A further six young children further died due to the same disease again in 2014.
Efforts to get a comment from the WUC and Department of Water Affairs were not successful at the time of going to press.