First it was raw sewage in our water last week – now we hear about this!!  And it’s been going on since February - see below: 

The Plankenbrug River in Stellenbosch has become so polluted with human excreta that "rat-tailed maggots", found in toilet pits, have colonised the water.  If the river water is swallowed by humans, the maggot causes myiasis, characterised by severe diarrhoea. This can be serious for young children or people who have tuberculosis or HIV. 

The E. coli content of the river, measured two weeks ago, was an enormous nine million organisms in every 100ml of water. The safe limit in South Africa is 2 000 in 100ml.  (HELP – there is actually a SAFE LIMIT to this gunk…. ugh) 

The Plankenbrug flows into the Eerste River, from which farmers draw water to irrigate crops. The polluted river flows into the sea at Macassar.  Jo Barnes, of the department of community health at the University of Stellenbosch, who discovered the rat-tailed maggot in the Plankenbrug River, said she had taken water samples "just to see if the measures Stellenbosch municipality had put in were working". 

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"The municipality had told us the problem of the polluted river was solved because it had put in a system to divert the stormwater into the sewerage system instead of going into the river. "But rat-tailed maggots and nine million E.coli organisms in 100ml don't sound like a problem solved."  Barnes said she had been taking samples from the Plankenbrug River about six times a year since 1998 and had not before found a rat-tailed maggot. "This is not something found in any respectable river.  

"These are the little goggas you would expect in a sewage dump or in a badly managed manure lagoon, which is what Americans call the place in which they store the manure from cattle on farms.  "We've got so much infection around already, we don't need this.  "If it is swallowed it will give you a horrible bout of diarrhea. People with TB, HIV or who are malnourished will become far sicker." 

This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on February 09, 2006 by Melanie Gosling – but was once again on National TV NEWS on 9 April.