Another senior Grahamstown health professional has warned that the city could be on the brink of a health catastrophe, unless large sewage spills affecting several areas of the city are brought under control.
Another senior Grahamstown health professional has warned that the city could be on the brink of a health catastrophe, unless large sewage spills affecting several areas of the city are brought under control.
Senior nurse at the Joza clinic Nomsa Titi says a diarrhoea and cholera epidemic would be almost impossible for the cash-strapped provincial health department to control.
Local clinics now fall under the governance of the Eastern Cape Department of Health.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail yesterday, Titi said sewage was spilling into the homes of many of the clinic's Joza patients.
Titi came out of retirement to lead a team of six community caregivers visiting TB and HIV patients in the Joza area.
"The areas we cover have contaminated swamps running with raw sewage in front of people's houses," Titi said.
She said once waterborne diseases broke out, health workers would struggle to control infection because of scant resources in the clinics.
"For example, tuberculosis is raging in the Joza area. The work that we do giving treatment to the bed-ridden patients is wasted because thanks to the contaminated water, they don't get better," Titi said.
She said she and her team do extra, such as fetching treatment for the patients from the clinics.
"As nurses we are exposed and vulnerable to diseases because of the areas we visit," she said.
"We go door to door to try identify health and social problems. Social problems are refered to the social development department," she said.
The team aims not only to cater for the frail and bedridden, but also to curb overcrowding in clinics.
Earlier this month, Dr Roger Walsh, CEO of Fort England Psychiatric Hospital, warned that Grahamstown was sitting on an environmental health time bomb, with sewage pouring into its river systems.
Meanwhile Fort England has received a welcome boost to its own infrastructure problems, with a commitment from provincial health superintendent Dr Thobile Mbengashe to help get its sewage systems fixed.
"A contractor has now been appointed to do emergency work at the hospital to filter and trap all material leaving the hospital premises and ensure Fort England is not contributing to the Municipality's woes," Walsh told Grocott's Mail this week.
Sewage pours from a hole below the hospital, joining more sewage spills into the stream that runs through Belmont Valley.
According to Walsh, an inspection by Water Affairs this week of the sewage entering Belmont Valley revealed that 90% of sewage bypasses the sewerage plant and goes into rivers.
Walsh warned earlier this month that an outbreak similar to the one in which three children in Bloemhof died last month could happen here.
Three babies died in the North West township after coming into contact with sewage-contaminated water in the Vaal River. The babies were seven months, 13 months and 1 year old.
Hundreds others had diarrhoea as a result of contact with contaminated water.
