The City of Cape Town (CoCT) says misinformation has been spreading on social media regarding the quality and safety of water for public consumption.
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A broadcast message supposedly composed by Ward Councillor Mark Kleinschmidt has been making its rounds across WhatsApp groups and neighbourhood group chats.
The message read:
‘Friends and Family, our tap water is highly contaminated with a soup of bacteria and viruses including multi drug resistant E Coli … Reason being that loadshedding is messsing with the decontamination and chlorinating process.
There is an epidemic of gastro in the Western Cape. The MEC for health is aware but while trying to sort the problem out, the public is not being informed. Know that the presence of these organisms has been confirmed by our private infectious diseases doctors.
So don’t drink tap water, it is bottled or boiled water only. Spray your hands. Stay well.’
In a response on Twitter, CoCT said it was aware of the spread of the misinformed message and wanted to let the public know that the issue of water quality is taken very seriously and is in compliance with strict checks from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The City of Cape Town is aware of misinformation spreading on WhatsApp and wants to let the public know that we take water quality seriously and comply with strict checks from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) March 28, 2023
We measure our compliance with the South African National Standards and consistently exceed our targets.
Know your water quality:
• Visit and see the video: https://t.co/rl5yNd0JnC
• See: https://t.co/xqcEHl7DLW— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) March 28, 2023
Acting water and sanitation mayco member Siseko Mbandezi said that CoCT was looking into the source of the misinformed message and urged the public not to continue spreading the fake news.
Joe Barnes, a senior lecturer on health systems and public health at Stellenbosch University, told IOL that ‘the standard of drinking water in Cape Town on the whole is good to excellent. There are few places at the ends of the various distribution lines or where there is a lot of infrastructure damage that the quality varies from time to time.’
Barnes expressed that claiming the water is ‘highly contaminated with a soup of bacteria and viruses including multi drug resistant E. coli, is a malicious exaggeration to attract attention and sow fear’.
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