CAUTION: Grahamstown Water

[Syndyre]

Hi, not sure how many people this affects on the forum but thought it was better to post in case anyway, just got the following email:

Dear Oppidans

THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE
TO ALL STAFF AND STUDENTS

Please be aware that serious concerns have been voiced over
the toxicity levels of the municipal water supply. According to
Martin Davies of the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries
Science, over 35 000 fish at the University's Experimental Fish
Farm have died over the last few days as a result. He says that
trout fingerlings are seen as an accepted early warning system of
polluted water. The deaths of these fish together with behavioural
abnormalities which has been observed are indicative of the
presence of heavy metal pollutants in the water.

The particles are extremely toxic to human beings and cannot be
removed through cooking or boiling water. Samples of water are
currently being tested in the University's Biotechnology
Department but results of these tests will only be available by
tomorrow.

In the meantime you are requested NOT to drink water from any
taps on campus (or at home) and not to cook with this water if
your home or residence was affected by the recent water outage.

The University is making plans to bring further supplies of bottled
drinking water to Grahamstown for distribution to residences.

Please also note that all food served in the residences has been
prepared with 'safe water'. The University has been forced to
adjust menus and serving timetables as a result of the current
problems and regrets any inconvenience.

Those affected as asked to be patient as we attempt to manage
the situation.

 

[Paul Hjul]

It seems to be the top of every Grahamstonians field of discussion, MSN and gtalk member titles reading "woot we have water" and such. At this rate it may become more famous than the weather. Its quite sad actually though that the municipality hasn't sorted something sensible out.

 

[Syndyre]

True, having water doesn't help much though when its dark brown and apparently contains heavy metals. The municipality seems to be almost universally useless though so its not too surprising unfortunately. Was enough to make me drive back home to PE, hopefully when I come back in a few days everything'll be sorted!

 

[vespax]

Syndre,

Could you give a bit more detail on where the water comes from and what/who is putting heavy metals into the watershed/reseviour? Is it just deglect from city officials or is it a larger problem with pollution control in the EC with the watersheds? Anything to do with the mandela house on the hill above town? Where is the resevour located in relation to the town?

Sorry to be so spatial and EIAish. Just wondering.

 

[Syndyre]

Syndre,

Could you give a bit more detail on where the water comes from and what/who is putting heavy metals into the watershed/reseviour? Is it just deglect from city officials or is it a larger problem with pollution control in the EC with the watersheds? Anything to do with the mandela house on the hill above town? Where is the resevour located in relation to the town?

Sorry to be so spatial and EIAish. Just wondering.

I don't know all the details to be honest, that email that I posted is about the sum of my knowledge at the moment, I know over the weekend the power lines to the Waainek pump station were down along with power to a lot of Grahamstown and that took out the municipal water supply for most of Saturday. The problems seem to have started then, from what I've heard the lab tests that'll conclusively determine whether its heavy metals or not will only be out tomorrow but obviously you don't want to keep drinking it in the meantime. Remember reading before that the Americans use fish to monitor their water supply for terrorist threats now because they react faster than a lot of sensors so it does seem to be recognised practice, even if it wasn't their intended purpose. The power in a lot of areas in Grahamstown has been surging every 10 or 15 mins, enough to make your computer reset. They seem to have had continual problems with power since the main substation at Sugar Loaf Hill burned down last year, don't think it was every properly replaced but I'm not sure. So I'm totally guessing but maybe there's some problem with power to the treatment plant. The municipality there can certainly rival any for incompetence, its shocking even by SA standards so nothing would surprise me.

There is a small reservoir quite close to town, I'm not sure of its exact location, but I think water is just pumped there from a larger reservoir and I'm not quite sure where that is. I know PE's fed by what used to be called the Paul Sauer dam, can't remember the new name, not sure if Grahamstown is as well. There have been problems with the water supply there before, but its never been anything dangerous healthwise, so the problem could be anywhere I suppose but it seems to be localised to the municipality, at least that's the impression I got. Apparently the municipality knew nothing about the issue until the university detected it, which is what I find most scary, so they're probably still figuring out what's going on. Which Mandela house do you mean?

 

[Debbie]

Sounds really serious. The thing about ingesting heavy metals, I believe, is that they accumulate and are never expelled by the body.... ...??

 

[Syndyre]

That's why I decided to come to PE for a while. Otherwise I would've been living off bottled water anyway, doesn't seem worth taking a chance with that sort of thing.

 

[Debbie]

Yeah, it probably isn't worth it to take a chance.

I wonder if SA uses a notion like that found in parts of the US (I think): 'acceptable levels of heavy metals' in drinking water supply

 

[vespax]

Mandela Houses = That township above town. Isn't that what they call them? Or atleast that is what the tour guide said in PE 6 years ago when I first came to SA.

Heavy metals have to come from somewhere. Where would these come from? Upstream mine, groundwater contamination, dumping..... or could they be natural in that area?

 

[Debbie]

What are the town's principle industries (ie that use heavy industrial processes - if you know what I mean by this)? Wouldn't this be the most likely cause?

 

[vespax]

Does Grahamstown have industry, other than Rhodes I mean?

 

[Debbie]

It must have industry of some sort....

 

[dominic]

my memories from living in grahamstown - small dorp with a university, monument and cathedral and with a distinct lack of industry (amongst the students too)

 

[Skeptik]

Farming, game ranches, arts festivals, tourism and .... er..have I mentioned farming already

 

[Skeptik]

and I forgot all the museums ...
"visit the Observatory Museum which houses one of only two Victorian Cameras Obscura in the world - the other is in Bath, England - with a magical mirror that reflects the town onto a large circular table."

 

[dominic]

and, as i remember, the highest per capita beer consumption in SA (if not the planet) when the uni is in session + it is a pretty depressing place in the winter


...maybe too many drunk students on lithium have been p1ssing in the reservoir?

 

[Syndyre]

It must have industry of some sort....

Not really I don't think.

 

[Syndyre]

I still find that Camera Obscura pretty impressive, especially when you consider when it was built

 

[Debbie]

No automated, mass (in the context), production at all? Even just a newspaper printer.....?

 

[Debbie]

I went through Grahamstown once on a bus.....can't wait til I can go back and actually look around. When the water's clean for sure, of course.