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DAM-L Could SA cholera outbreak have been prevented?/LS (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 10:39:15 -0800
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From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: Could SA cholera outbreak have been prevented?/LS
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Could the KZN cholera have been prevented?
There's no excuse for cholera. It's a symptom of radical environmental
mismanagement - wetlands are being trashed, pollution burgeons, and basic
sanitation is severely lacking, argues national co-ordinator of the Rennies
Wetlands Project, David Lindley.
Over 2 500 people have contracted cholera in KwaZulu-Natal so far, and 27
have died. Luckily groundwater has not been contaminated but the bacteria
are alive and kicking in the Epangeni river, Mhlathuze river and Ntufini
river. A well co-ordinated medical response may have nipped the epidemic in
the bud. But we must ask the question, should the disease have broken out in
the first place?
David Lindley, national co-ordinator of the Rennies Wetlands Project (RWP)
believes not. "Apart from poor sanitation, a large part of the problem is
that wetlands in the area are in poor shape. Many of them have been
destroyed. To make matters worse, they are also indundated with human and
animal waste beyond their capacity to purify," he says. "One of the
cornerstones of the Reconstruction and Development Programme was to provide
sanitation and a basic daily 25 litres of potable water for all. Recently
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils, reiterate this
promise."
"However I have also heard him wonder aloud where the resources to tackle
this problem will come from," argues Lindley. "It's my feeling that, for
many years to come, disadvantaged people will be dependent on rivers and
other wetlands for their water needs. To make matters worse, it is estimated
that over 50% of South Africa's wetlands have been destroyed through poor
land management. That's why it is crucial that we do not lose one more
wetland and we also look after those we have."
"It is a well-known scientific fact that wetlands can purify water, even of
pathogens such as the cholera bacterium", Lindley points out. "So if
wetlands continue to be destroyed, sanitation remains poor, and pollution
levels rise the KZN debacle could happen anywhere in South Africa. And it is
not just cholera that we should fear. One of the biggest killers in South
Africa at the moment is diarrhoea. The Water Research Commission estimates
that 650 people die of this each day - mainly children under five. This is
equal to a Jumbo jet crashing daily, with no survivors. In fact, according
to the same report, the short-term direct costs of treating diarrhoea
patients are over R6 billion a year and total annual costs are estimated at
over R17 billion."
We simply have to learn to treat our water sources with more respect.
Wetlands include everything from springs, seeps and marshes to rivers,
floodplains and estuaries. We firstly need to educate people not to
defaecate or build pit latrines next to rivers. What our consultant, Dr
Donovan Kotze of the School of Applied Environmental Sciences, University of
Natal, believes happened in KZN is that the early rains washed faeces into
the rivers and contaminated the water. The second challenge is to protect
and rehabilitate existing wetlands because they play a major role in
purifying water. Unfortunately in the Eshowe area there are localised areas
of high wetland destruction due to the drainage of wetlands for sugarcane
and other crops."
"Wetlands perform a fantastic job of purifying water," confirms Dr Kotze.
"The water in vlei areas is shallow (as opposed to water in rivers and
drainage channels) so bacteria are exposed to sunlight and break down. Also
wetland plants support microorganisms which break down pathogens.
Wetlands are in fact natural filters, helping improve the quality of runoff
water from urban and agricultural lands by trapping pollutants. They can
intercept many pollutants before they enter the river system."
Wetlands are used all over the world for purifying water. An excellent
example in Africa is Uganda, where the National Sewerage and Water
Corporation is supporting the conservation of papyrus swamps and other
wetlands near Kampala because of the important role they play in purifying
water supplies.
By purifying water, wetlands save us a lot of money, Kotze adds. "For
example, in 1990 it was shown that without the Congarei Swamp in South
Carolina in the USA, the area would need a $5 million waste water treatment
plant (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1995). Similarly, in Gotland,
Sweden the restoration of wetlands was found to be substantially more cost
effective in reducing nitrogen levels than expanding sewage treatment
plants."
It is no coincidence that the primary legislation protecting wetlands in the
America is contained within the Clean Water Act. In the USA, wetlands are
considered to be "essential to protecting water quality and health of
aquatic systems" (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1998). In the U.S.
and Europe, considerable resources continue to be dedicated to restoring
wetlands. In fact in the USA approximately 78 000 ha of wetland is restored
annually (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1998).
Wetlands improve water quality by modifying or trapping a wide range of
substances commonly considered to be pollutants. These include suspended
sediment (such as silt and clay), excess nutrients (most importantly
nitrogen and phosphorus), toxicants (e.g. pesticides and excess heavy
metals) and pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
"Toxicants such as bacteria and viruses are a wetlands speciality." Kotze
emphasises. "Agricultural and urban runoff entering wetlands may contain
large quantities of bacteria, particularly coliforms and pathogens such as
Salmonella and Enterococci, all of which pose a potential hazard to human
health. Wetlands have been shown to greatly reduce pathogen counts entering
in effluents. Several factors may be responsible for the depletion of
bacteria and viruses in wetland waters. These include adsorption onto
sediments and subsequent settling, exposure to sun, and the presence of
toxic substances such as root secretions which have been shown to kill
pathogenic bacteria. In addition, one of the most important mechanisms for
bacterial removal by wetlands is simply detention while natural die-back
occurs. Pathogenic micro-organisms found in sewage effluent generally cannot
survive for long periods of time outside the host organisms."
"That's not to say that healthy wetlands can replace the need for sanitation
and potable water supply by government but they will enhance the health of
all South Africans and save billions in clean up costs", says Lindley. "At
the same time we cannot overload our wetlands since every wetland has a
finite capacity to assimilate pollutants. Overloading it will reduce its
ability to perform this and other functions. Nevertheless, wetlands have a
key role to play in integrated catchment-based strategies to address water
quality issues."
For further information, please contact David Lindley of the Rennies
Wetlands Project on 083 - 222 9155 or e-mail on wetfix@icon.co.za
If you visit the website on www.wetland.org.za you will find valuable
resources which provide more detailed information on all aspects of managing
wetlands.
Morne Lizamore
Dept Water Affairs & Forestry
Nelspruit; South Africa
e-mail: lizamorem@dwaf.mpu.gov.za
cell: 083 628 7622
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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