Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
16 October 1997
The Gauteng Health Department would like to urge the public to observe certain precautions to avoid infection from our contaminated rivers.
Residents of Gauteng need to be aware that all rivers in this area are polluted to the extent that we cannot use water directly from any of them for drinking or for the purposes of preparing food. Wherever possible people should use only tap water for drinking and rinsing food.
In circumstances where tap water is totally unavailable, there are two simple methods of purifying river water:
There has not been any confirmed case of cholera in recent months and the incidence of typhoid has not risen above the very small number of cases which are usually experienced. In Gauteng, we are slightly more protected from these forms of infection because even people living in informal settlements usually have access to tap water.
For those who don't have this facility, it is absolutely vital that they purify their drinking water. The Department is identifying communities at risk because of a low availability of tapped water and will be stepping up its educational activities in these communities during the next week.
We would advise people to take the additional precautions of:
There are some sections of river in Gauteng that are highly contaminated, notably parts of the Klip River. It would be unwise to swim in such water. And people should remember that there is a risk of swallowing water whenever swimming or playing in rivers.
While cholera is a serious illness, recovery levels are very high - provided that quick action is taken to prevent dehydration.
The symptoms are severe watery diarrhoea and vomiting, resulting in a rapid loss of fluids and salts from the body. This may cause cramps in the arms and legs. When there is severe dehydration the skin becomes cold and wrinkled.
Anybody with these symptoms should seek medical help immediately and use a simple mixture to get fluids back into the body.
The mixture comprises clean water, sugar and salt in the following proportions: Eight level teaspoons of sugar and half a level teaspoon of salt added to one litre of clean water. It is important to remember that this mixture must be administered after every incident of diarrhoea and that you should continue with this process even en route to a doctor or clinic.
Cholera and typhoid will remain a real threat in Gauteng for as long as we have large sections of our society living in informal settlements without adequate sanitation and without the very basic facility of clean, piped water.
Dr Liz Floyd Director for AIDS and Communicable Diseases
Released by the Directorate for Health Promotion & Communications Inquiries: Jo-Anne Collinge (082 574 5510) or Liz Floyd (082 372 0552)