Department of water and sanitation director-general Dr Sean Phillips has announced that Magalies Water will install a potable water treatment plant at its Klipdrift water treatment works plant near cholera-hit Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.
He said this would help produce about 30 to 40 megalitres of treated drinking water per day, which will be fed into the Hammanskraal piped water distribution system.
Phillips said there was already an existing connection between Klipdrift and the piped water distribution system in the area.
He said Magalies Water would do the installation from July until March 2024.
“In the meantime, [the] residents [of Hammanskraal] will continue to be supplied with drinking water from water tankers with strict monitoring and controls.”
Phillips said short-term measures would be taken to reduce the pollution at the Apies River by the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works.
He said the repair and upgrade of Rooiwal would enable the Temba water treatment works to provide drinking water which meets the drinking requirements by June 2026.
Since the cholera outbreak, 25 people have lost their lives – 23 in Gauteng, one in the Free State and one in Mpumalanga.
On Wednesday, health minister Dr Joe Phaahla updated the country on the current cholera outbreak.
The minister said the recent cholera incidents could be traced from the cases of two sisters from Diepsloot, Johannesburg, who had travelled together by bus to Malawi and returned on January 30.
Provincial authorities reported the cases on February 5.
Phaahla said in the recent outbreak in Tshwane, the first reported case was a 56-year-old male originally from Giyani, Limpopo, who resides in Musina.
chabalalalaj@sowetan.co.za
