News of fhe South HARARE – Just as most Harare citizens thought the cholera outbbreak which gave them restless days in the past few weeks has been contained, another blow hit them hard in their faces with reports emerging that borehole and bottled water is just as contaminated as city council water that most people have been avoiding.
These reports came from the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) which exposed a scandal of great magnitude involving producers and suppliers are selling harmful water.
The water, reportedly, contains high levels of Heterotrophic Plate Counts (HPC) way above acceptable drinking water limit of Agar Plate Count per millilitre of 100, according to the Standards Association of Zimbabwe SAZ.
Laboratory tests conducted by EMA revealed that 11 out of 17 bottled water brands contained bacteria and in some cases the bacteria levels were four times the acceptable levels stipulated by SAZ.
In a report to Government, EMA said water being sold by prestigious brands such as Tingamira, Aqualite and Oasis had higher than accepted levels of bateria.
“A total of 17 bottled water brands were analysed and these were Aqualite, Spar Purified, Schwepes, 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 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,” read the report.
On the other hand, boreholes were also sampled and results indicated that water from many boreholes in Harare is safe for human consumption because of the presence of Escherichia coli bacteria which can cause water-borne diseases and conditions like renal failure.
“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.
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