Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Gauteng Department of Health has dismissed claims the province’s tap water is unsafe to drink.
Department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said messages circulating on social media discouraging residents from drinking tap water were false and malicious.
“The Gauteng Department of Health would like to categorically distance itself and dismiss the malicious information that has been circulating on social media platforms that a communication was issued that people should not drink tap water,” Modiba added.
“This information is far from the truth. The information shared from these unknown sources has no scientific evidence, and it is not even official communication from any government entity. We want to assure the public that tap water remains safe for drinking.”
Modiba urged residents to continue practising proper hand hygiene and warned against drinking water from unclean environmental sources such as rivers, drains, boreholes, or dams.
“We are advising the public to be extra cautious given that one of the main ways in which cholera gets transmitted is mainly through contaminated or polluted water sources and also when people handle food without maintaining proper hand hygiene.”
There have been five confirmed cholera cases in South Africa, including one death.
Last week, Health Minister Joe Phaahla announced a 24-year-old man from Emandleni in Wattville, Benoni, died a few days after he presented with profuse watery diarrhoea.
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