Experts have warned that continued water outages could have serious consequences for public health in the Makana area.
Experts have warned that continued water outages could have serious consequences for public health in the Makana area.
Grocott’s Mail has confirmed that both Temba TB Hospital and the Day Hospital have experienced intermittent water outages over the past week.
It is could not be confirmed whether Settlers Hospital had any outages.
“We are dealing with lives. The staff need water to provide their services,” chairperson of the Themba hospital board, Xolani Simakuhle, said.
“We need water for laundry, cooking, drinking and cleaning – and to water our vegetable garden at the hospital.”
Local healthcare worker Kurai Chikumba said that in the past two weeks, he had seen an increase in cases of diarrhoea which he attributed to the water shortages.
“There has also been increase in [demand for]de-worming tablets. If there is no water for children to wash their hands at school, they can get worms,” Chikumba said.
At a stakeholders’ meeting at the CIty Hall on Wednesday afternoon a representative from Temba emphasised the importance of water at the hospital.
“The impact will be the spread of infections,” the representative said.
The municipality promised to deliver water to the hospitals by yesterday.
A doctor from Nelspruit, who declined to be named because of contractual obligations, explained that water is essential for any hospital.
“You need it to wash hands in-between patients, to scrub for theatre. It is especially important in the paediatrics and post-natal care units,” he said in a telephone interview.
