The Department of Health has dismissed claims that Gauteng’s tap water is unsafe to drink, with spokesperson Motalatale Modiba saying messages circulating on social media discouraging residents from drinking the water were “false and malicious”.
“This information …shared from unknown sources has no scientific evidence, and it is not even official communication from any government entity.”
Modiba urged residents to continue practising proper hand hygiene and to avoid drinking water from unclean environmental sources like rivers, drains, boreholes, or dams, saying one of the main ways in which cholera transmission “is through contaminated or polluted water sources and also when people handle food without maintaining proper hand hygiene”.
There have been five confirmed cholera cases in South Africa, including one death – a 24-year-old man from Wattville, Benoni, who died a few days after being admitted to hospital with profuse, watery diarrhoea.
Gauteng health dept dismisses 'malicious' rumours of unsafe tap water (Open access)
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