Mayoral committee member for water Xanthea Limberg said tests were carried out. Mayoral committee member for water Xanthea Limberg said tests were carried out.
A YEAR after experiencing water contamination, the city’s new multimillion-rand Water and Sanitation building in Bellville has found itself facing the same problem.
This time authorities suspect that it’s due to chemical residue possibly in the “fire hydrant” water system or in sediment at the bottom of the water storage tanks on the roof.
Acquired at a cost of more than R300million when the city faced the possibility of Day Zero due to the drought, the building has been hit by a series of water contamination incidents - the first one recorded in June last year, shortly after staff moved in.
Mayoral committee member for water Xanthea Limberg said tests were carried out and the results showed that the water complied with national drinking quality standards and did not pose a health risk.
However, previous investigations indicated that it was likely that fuel might have leaked from the underground tanks at a nearby petrol station and seeped into the old asbestos pipe on the property.
But Limberg emphasised that the water coming into the property from the city’s bulk water supply was clean and safe for human consumption, although staff were supplied with bottled drinking water.
But some staff questioned whether the city could be trusted to provide good-quality water.
Limberg said: “The city’s water complies with the SANS 241 standard. This is a very small, isolated case of a taste issue inside one property, which has nothing to do with the quality of the bulk water supply to residents across Cape Town.”
Last year staff at the new offices in Bellville launched a grievance procedure against the city following the contamination of drinking water.
They also demanded health-screening tests to be done, claiming that some of their colleagues had reported sick due to the contamination.
A report prepared after an analysis of sampled water concluded that potable water at the building was “aesthetically” unacceptable and might pose chronic health risks.
But officials denied this, saying there was no acute health risk associated with the taste and odour of the water, but the problem was just confined to the “aesthetic” aspect.
A similar problem was encountered in 2015 and samples of water were taken at various sites including two floors at Water City, the nearby TOC building and Louis Leipoldt Hospital, Bellville Library and Parow Health Resource Centre for water quality analysis.
The analysis found the presence of some hydrocarbon compounds including benzene, toluene and xylene and found xylene to be the predominant one. It also showed that the concentration of xylene was the highest at the site where Louis Leipoldt Hospital is situated, followed by the TOC building and the Water and Sanitation building.
However, it is not clear how much the compounds were present as the analysis was only qualitative.