{"id":191656,"date":"2021-06-10T10:32:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T08:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=103467"},"modified":"2021-06-10T10:32:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T08:32:53","slug":"when-will-every-sa-citizen-be-able-to-trust-the-water-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/when-will-every-sa-citizen-be-able-to-trust-the-water-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"When Will Every SA Citizen Be Able To Trust The Water Supply?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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No Water. No Life. No Blue. No Green. \u2013 Marine Biologist Sylvia Earle<\/p>\n

Without regard to whether some place is wealthy or poor, everybody should have the chance at clean air and clean water. \u2013 Barak Obama<\/p>\n

These were not words flippantly spoken to make soundbites. They are truisms of the highest degree. No water \u2013 no life. For most of you reading this you don\u2019t think twice when you wake up in the morning, turn on your shower, fill your kettle for your morning coffee or flush your toilet. You never question the water that flows through your pipes, wondering if any impurities or germs could get through the system. You have trust \u2013 blind trust, but should you have?<\/p>\n

According to world renowned microbiologist and water expert, Professor Eugene Cloete, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Innovation and postgraduate studies at Stellenbosch University, \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at our big cities we probably have one of the best water qualities in the world with utilities like Rand Water being ranked amongst the 10 best in the world.\u201d But sadly you don\u2019t have to travel too far out of these cities to see a very different story,\u201d continues Cloete.<\/p>\n

Rural nightmare<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis story changes in the municipalities in rural areas. Here most people rely on water from a borehole, water tank or often a river. I wouldn\u2019t even trust water that came out of a tap in these areas and there\u2019s a very simple explanation \u2013 a complete lack of technical expertise and a failure in the maintenance of their water and sewage infrastructures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guilt is also shared here by industry, food processing plants or mining industry\u2019s acid drainage. Sewage plus the effluent from these industries is going into our rivers and the sad thing is the technology is there to avoid and improve these situations but it\u2019s not being taken up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like his colleague Professor Cloete, Burt Rodrigues, CEO of Biodx has spent the last 16 years finding ways to counteract these problems. \u201cThere are regulations governing all these issues, but regulatory compliance has been allowed to erode with people obtaining tenders without complying with the strict national frameworks that are in place. Trust is firmly gone in citizen\u2019s minds. Too many people wake up to the reality of wondering if the water they drink will make them sick today,\u201d explains Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

Affecting young lives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Cloete, points out that the number of school children who get sick from water borne infection which stops them attending school is around 15% \u2013 20%. \u201cThe bottom line\u201d, he says, \u201cis essential education isn\u2019t being given, which sees justice being eroded. People are entitled as a human right to clean water, decent sanitation and education. You can\u2019t have one without the other. It\u2019s hard to imagine that this is happening in the 21st century \u2013 it\u2019s a major failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where does the buck lie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It all leads back to state capture and corruption because people were not held accountable, points out Rodrigues. \u201cEven within organisations, whether State Owned Enterprises (SEOs) or not, there\u2019s mistrust right from lower management to the CEO who\u2019s often undermined himself, not always being allowed to make a decision based on what\u2019s best for his consumers. People have lost trust in those who are supposed to protect them,\u201d<\/p>\n

The production of clean water has many similarities to the way blood flows through our veins, passing through our kidneys to take away the \u2018bad stuff\u2019 before the purified blood flows back into our veins. When industry and mines release their effluent into the system without the proper cleaning and chemical processes that should be done, seeing faecal coliform amongst other bacteria, seeping into our rivers and dams, danger is imminent.<\/p>\n

According to Professor Cloete one of the main problems is a lack of capacity. \u201cAt one time these systems, our rivers and dams, were closely monitored, which simply doesn\u2019t happen any longer. This shouldn\u2019t be happening as the technology is there. Today we are training engineers at our Water Institute through the Energy Water SETA which hopefully will help this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the short term however why are more people not standing up and demanding this basic human right? \u201cPeople feel paralysed to do anything about it,\u201d explains Rodrigues. \u201cThey feel they\u2019re powerless to change things. We have the innovation that\u2019s needed so you have to ask the question \u2013 is any of this necessary when we have modern technology to disinfect and extract pollutants from the water as well as accurately monitor biofilms (microorganisms that grow on surfaces) and other infectious components? The answer is an easy no!\u201d<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pages: Page <\/span>1<\/span> Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n

Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Water. No Life. No Blue. No Green. \u2013 Marine Biologist Sylvia Earle Without regard to whether some place is wealthy or poor, everybody should have the chance at clean air and clean water. \u2013 Barak Obama These were not words flippantly spoken to make soundbites. They are truisms of the highest degree. No water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-191656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/when-will-every-sa-citizen-be-able-to-trust-the-water-supply.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}