HARARE’S privileged class, living in leafy suburbs and
cruising around in luxury cars, has for a long time shunned municipal tap
water, in a city notorious for its dirty water.
But if they thought they had found refuge away from sewage
water in bottled or borehole water, they better think again: these fancy and
sparkling sources of water are turning out to be equally contaminated.
The Environmental Management Agency (Ema) has exposed a
potentially huge scandal in which producers and suppliers are selling bottled
water with high levels of heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), which are above
Standards Association of Zimbabwe (Saz)-acceptable drinking water limit of agar
plate count per millilitre of 100.
Ema also carried out tests on water from 31 boreholes in
Harare for the quarter ending August 2018, which confirmed the presence of
harmful coliform bacteria in 26% of the sampled boreholes in both low and
high-density suburbs.
The development comes at a time the country is struggling
to control a deadly cholera epidemic, the worst in 10 years. As of yesterday,
the official death toll had risen to 49.
Many people have resorted to bottled water to escape the
medieval disease — caused by the water-borne vibrio cholerae bacterium which
triggers ceaseless watery diarrhoea and kills within hours if left untreated.
According to results of laboratory tests which Ema
conducted at the request of government for the quarter ending August 2018, 11
out of 17 bottled water brands contained bacteria.
The levels of bacteria in some brands were four times the
acceptable levels stipulated by Saz.
In the report to government, which was obtained by the
Zimbabwe Independent this week, Ema said although all 17 samples tested
negative to faecal matter, the majority of brands of bottled water had high
levels of bacteria.
According to the laboratory tests, water being sold under
prestigious trade names such as Tingamira, bottled by Chipinge-based Tanganda;
Aqualite produced by Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited and Oasis Still Purified and
Spadmile Waters had higher-than-accepted levels.
Other bottled water brands with high levels are Exotican,
Nature’s Paradise, Crystal Purelife, Still Purified, Spar Purified, Setzer,
Manna Brook and Water Sparkling.
Of the 17 brands, Tingamira had agar plate count of 392 at
22 degrees Celsius and 266 at 37 degrees Celsius, followed by Spar Purified
with 368 at 22 degrees Celsius and 102 at 37 degrees Celsius.
But water from Schweppes, Hydro Boost, Aqua Vita, ZLG,
Vivon and Bonaqua registered a zero plate read.
“A total of 17 bottled water brands were analysed and these
were Aqualite, Spar Purified, Schweppes, Hydro Boost, Aqua Vita, ZLG, Vivon,
Tingamira, Bonaqua, Oasis Still Purified, Crystal Purelife, Spadmile Waters,
Manna brook, Nature’s Paradise, Setzer, Exotican and Oasis Sparkling. The
results did not show any faecal contamination in all the bottled water brands.
“However, some of the results showed the presence of total
HPC which are above the Saz-recommended drinking water limits in the following
brands: Spadmile waters, Exotican, Nature’s Paradise, Aqualite, Crystal
Purelife, Tingamira, Oasis Still Purified and Spar Purified water,” reads a
report accompanying the test results.
Spadmile has an agar plate count of 130 at 22 degrees
Celsius and 128 at 37 degrees Celsius, Oasis (274 and 110), Crystal Purelife
(290 and 67), Manna Brook (40 and 24), Nature’s Paradise (112 and 97), Setzer
(13 and 3), Exotican (122 and 116), Oasis Sparkling (5 and 0) and Aqualite (208
and 132).
Agar plate count is the recommended test to determine plate
counts of micro-organisms in food and water.
Total plate count is a measure of the biological activity
in a sample. It is a count of all heterotrophic bacteria, fungi (moulds) and
yeasts that will grow in aerobic conditions.
“This may be due to the fact that the finished product will
often be exposed to elevated (ambient) temperatures over a period of days to
weeks before consumption. This therefore presents ideal environmental
conditions for the growth of heterotrophic bacteria,” the report reads.
According to a World Health Organisation 2002 report, high
HPC counts indicate ideal conditions for bacterial regrowth and should be
corrected.
A senior Ema official said: “What this means is that the
presence of bacteria in the water is so high that it promotes perfect
conditions for them to multiply and when this happens, the water could become
harmful to humans. If you check the test results, you will realise that some
brands have counts which far exceed the accepted levels and this is a cause for
concern.”
Laboratory tests for the borehole water for the same period
also indicated that water from many boreholes in Harare is unsafe for human
consumption as tests have shown it is contaminated with the Escherichia coli
(E. coli) bacteria. The pathogen can cause water-borne diseases and other
health challenges like renal failure.
E. coli is a bacterium associated with faecal matter.
“In the year 2018, a total of 31 boreholes were sampled
from Mbare, Southlea Park, Ushewokunze, Hopley, Southlands, Whitecliff,
Kuwadzana, Warren Park, Kambuzuma, Budiriro, Glen View, Glen Norah, Highfield,
Epworth, Mabvuku, Eastview, Mt Pleasant, Borrowdale, Hatfield, Belvedere and Hatcliffe.
“Out of the 31 points sampled, eight points showed presence
of faecal contamination, that is about 26% of the sampled boreholes. The
contaminated boreholes were Whitecliff, Kambuzuma 1, Mufakose 2, Mbare Stodart
Hall, Hopley 2, Hatfield, Southlands 1 and Southlands 2. The number of
boreholes being sampled reduced due to the fact that some of the boreholes in
the different areas are no longer functional,” reads the report.
Ema recommended that government and local authorities
install chlorinators alongside contaminated boreholes to prevent the spread of
water-borne diseases. Zimbabwe Independent
0 comments:
Post a Comment