Johannesburg - An investigation has been launched into the cause of the escalating cholera crisis in Hammanskraal, which had claimed 15 lives as of yesterday afternoon.
The Department of Water and Sanitation together with provincial health departments have set up a command centre with the aim of stopping the spread of the infectious water-borne disease in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, after five additional deaths were reported at the Jubilee District Hospital.
Yesterday afternoon, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo announced the number of fatalities had risen to 15.
Mahlobo said that as a result of the escalating crisis, the government had established a coordinated command centre – which would operate at the political and technical level – to find an immediate and effective solution and avoid further deaths.
The deputy minister said the Health Department would lead this initiative, which involved the Department of Social Development and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, as well as the Department of Defence and the SA Police Service, which had been called in to sort out additional issues that might occur.
At the technical level, multi-disciplinary teams reporting to the director-general of health had been established to focus on different aspects, including the health sector's capacity to curb the spread, while at the same time conducting scanning to ensure it was contained in one area.
"We have a team dealing with issues of scanning as there are concerns of mobility with a number of people moving around, so we need to contain the situation so that neighbouring provinces and other urban areas in Tshwane are not affected."
Mahlobo said that in addition to efforts to curb and contain the situation, a formal investigation was already under way establish the cause of the outbreak.
"The formal investigation will determine what caused this problem of water contamination and whether there has been any negligence on the part of any individual or institution.
"A team of experts has already been established, led by two deputy directors-general in the Department of Water and Sanitation who are engineers, so they know their way around."
According to Mahlobo, the investigation would look at all the water sources used by the municipality to supply water to residents, including from Rand Water and the Magalies system.
While the investigations continue, the community would be provided with trucked-in water. Residents would be kept up to date on what was happening.
"We need to be able to arrest this incident, and we are hopeful that working with all the structures and community leaders, we should be able to avoid any further deaths."
The first cases of cholera were reported in early February, from two sisters who had reportedly travelled together from Johannesburg to Malawi to attend a funeral service and had returned by bus on January 30.
Both sisters had developed symptoms on their return to Johannesburg, with one of the sisters reportedly visiting a local clinic.
While Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink was also due to join the leadership at the hospital and outline the city’s plans for assisting, he was turned away by disgruntled and angry residents.
Despite the refusal by residents to allow the municipality head to join the visit to the hospital, Tshwane MMC for Health Rina Marx, however, said a unit had been dispatched by the city to assist with the screening at the hospital, with peer educators already out and about going door-to-door to help advise residents on how to keep their water safe and clean.
Meanwhile, the City of Tshwane added that the results from sampling testing taken from multiple sites around Temba and Hammanskraal indicated zero cholera from the piped water supply.
The municipality said that although there was no cholera detected, this did not make the water safe to drink as it was heavily treated with chlorine.
In light of this finding, the city said it had also widened its scope of testing and had been interviewing various patients to assist in tracing the source of contamination.
The Star