METRO MATTERS | Sidwell family fuming over foamy tap water
Image: Eugene Coetzee
Tap water that turns to foam when boiled in a kettle and smells of paraffin when used to cook food.
That is what a Sidwell family has been forced to endure for the past month, leaving many of them with aching stomachs.
Odwa Bazi, 28, said they had complained to the municipality for weeks about the dodgy tap water — eventually contacting Metro Matters.
The water supply went back to normal on Saturday, but this has occurred in the past.
“Some days the water is terrible and then it goes back to normal. This has been happening for more than a month,” he said.
“We have been complaining about our water supply for weeks. The only response we got from the municipality was that they would look into this,” he said.
When The Herald visited the family on Friday the water coming from the tap smelt of paraffin.
Questions were then sent to municipal spokesperson Mamela Ndamase, who said the municipality’s water supply was treated to ensure it met the strict quality standards of SANS 241.
“We have testing points in the distribution system, samples are taken regularly and quality standards are checked and complied with,” she said
Ndamase said she could not comment on the household’s water as it could be contaminated from another source.
Bazi said: “Our water is polluted. We can’t do anything about it. We all pay water bills. The least we expect from a municipality is proper water.”
Noluntu Bazi, 62, said she had to spend her last bit of money buying bottled water.
She said her son had complained of stomachaches.
“It is a worry because we use water every day, and we don’t know how harmful this water can be.
“Some days when we open the taps the whole kitchen smells like paraffin,” she said.
“I don’t know how many times we have called the municipality, and they’ve informed us that a nearby house had a similar problem.
“They said they would take samples of the water, but today we are still drinking this kind of water,” she said.