Gweta water safe for consumption-WUC
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday April 13, 2017 14:12
The contamination and its daring effects left villagers in the lurch. Chairperson of Gweta Disaster Committee Ledule Baraki explained that though the WUC provided water through bowsers, it was not enough as some villagers could go up to two days without accessing water.
“They were only using two bowsers though this is a huge village of more than 8,000. They were bowsing 80 killometres away in Phuduhudu village, so the distance caused the inconvenience,” Ledule said. Though advice was put out to people not to drink the water, we assume there is a possibility some drank because there was water scarcity.
The problem started February 28 when the floods were at their peak, Department of Environment of the Tutume Sub District said the water samples were contaminated. Last week Tuesday WUC team addressed a kgotla meeting assuring the village that the water was clean.
Yesterday, water resources director within WUC Gaselemogwe Senai attributed the water pollution in Gweta to flood water going into the borehole that serves the village.
“Microbiological contamination then occurred, and we immediately cautioned the villagers and provided clean water for them,” he said.
Moreover, just recently Senai said the Corporation successfully chlorinated the water thus making it fit for human consumption.
However, what remains is that the water turbidity is intense; hence they have resolved to flush the borehole sometimes this month.
Turbidity is explained as the measure of relative clarity of a liquid. It is an optical characteristic of water and is an expression of the amount of light that is scattered by material in the water when a light is shined through the water sample. Material that causes water to be turbid includes clay, silt, finely divided inorganic and organic matter, algae, soluble coloured organic compounds, other microscopic organisms inter alia. “We can safely say the water is good to be consumed. We will further flush the source to control turbidity,” he said.