DA calls for inter-ministerial task team to address national water crisis
01 September 2014
Note to Editors: The following remarks were delivered by DA Shadow Minister of Health Dr Wilmot James MP, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Kevin Mileham MP and DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Leon Basson MP, at a press conference in Parliament today.
In the last four months we have been travelling across four provinces - Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape - to investigate the water quality and water supply in municipalities.
We initiated this investigation after news first broke of the outbreak of diarrhoea in Brits in North West. Since that announcement, 500 people have been treated for diarrhoea in Brits. Eleven children were hospitalised and three toddlers died of diarrhoea in the area.
This followed violent water protests in Mothutlung in February this year, where 4 people died in violent clashes with police over the municipality's inability to deliver water to the township.