PRETORIA, South Africa — Residents of communities east of Pretoria have been told not to drink or cook with tap water after 408 people, most of them children under 4, fell ill with stomach cramps and diarrhoea, South African officials said, BBC News reported.
The cases were reported between Oct. 7 and 18 in Zithobeni, Bronkhorstspruit, Dark City, Rethabiseng and Sokhulumi, in the City of Tshwane’s Region 7, areas largely supplied by the city’s Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works, according to a joint statement from the national health and water ministries, Gauteng province and the city. No deaths have been reported. New cases peaked at 72 on Oct. 13, with 16 reported on Oct. 18.
Tests by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases detected norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella in three of four stool specimens analysed, and no cholera. Water tests on Oct. 14 found “extremely high levels of E. coli and total coliforms” in water from the plant and two reservoirs, the statement said.
A Department of Water and Sanitation investigation found that the city had difficulties with its chlorine supplier, so water from the plant was not chlorinated between Sept. 24 and Oct. 14. The plant draws from the Bronkhorstspruit River, which the joint statement said is “badly contaminated with sewage pollution” from dysfunctional upstream wastewater works and city sewage pump stations. It said the city had failed to warn residents that the water should not be drunk or used for cooking, washing or bathing, even after boiling.
The city closed the plant on Oct. 14 and reopened it on Oct. 16 after chlorine supplies were restored, but told residents the water was not yet safe to drink. Tankers carrying water from the Cullinan treatment works are supplying the area, with the fleet being increased to 36. “At this stage, it is not possible to give a timeframe for when residents will again be able to drink water emanating from the BWTW,” the statement said.
Tshwane has faced numerous outbreaks of waterborne disease in recent years. In 2023, a cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal, a township just outside Pretoria, killed 29 people, and in 2025 officials confirmed 48 cases of typhoid in the same area, the BBC reported.
Sources: BBC News, South African Government
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