GEORGE NEWS - Reacting to a query regarding the water samples of Amor Venter and Lourens van Niekerk, Municipal Civil Engineering Director Harold Basson said he drinks the rainwater from his two tanks at home without filtering it.
"Should anyone be concerned about the purity of the water, they can treat it with chlorine or boil it.
"The biggest potential pollution can be from the roofs where the water is collected. It can be normal dust particles or bird droppings."
Basson said the watercan be tested for bacteriological pollution such as Total Coliform (from bird droppings) or E Coli (from human waste).
"If E Coli is picked up, the owner should be worried because then there is someone in his household or a neighbour with suspicious hygiene habits."
He said tests can be executed at the municipal laboratories at a tariff, but it can become very expensive, though, when you do not know what you are looking for as there are many substances that the water can be tested for.
He has given instruction that the head of the municipal laboratory visit the premises where the two men had collected their water samples.
Air pollution control
According to Johan Schoeman, head of the air pollution control section of Eden District Municipality in Mossel Bay, the air pollution monitoring station at the Conville public swimming pool shows that the air quality in George is excellent and meets the standards as set out in the Air Pollution Act.
He said all industries are monitored strictly.
"We have quarterly working group meetings with the larger industries such as PG Bison, Lancewood and PetroSA and we have a complete inventory of all the smaller industries which are monitored on a monthly basis."
Schoeman said the large factories have to have an emissions test done yearly by a consultant, which is compared to measurements by the air pollution control section. If a factory’s emissions are found to exceed the minimum standards, its licence can be revoked if it does not take steps to improve its operations.
He said the dirt remaining on the wings of airplanes as referred to by Christ Badenhorst cannot be soot from factories, but are probably dust particles.
ARTICLE: ALIDA DE BEER, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
- George Herald
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