Where the River Flows
An impoverished community and a determined Stellenbosch epidemiologist are on a collision course with local authorities about a river so polluted it'€™s potentially life threatening. By Anso Thom.
Determinants Of Health
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Stellenbosch Municipality Town Engineer, denies river pollution
This is a 2nd part of 3 part series on Khayamandi Environment. Stellenbosh Municipality Town Engineer, Eddie Delport, denies there is an influx of people to Khayamandi and insists that the sewage system is perfectly adequate for the needs of the settlement. In this audio he explains what the municipality is doing to address the problem of the river pollution.
A fight for a clean environment
Khayamandi is situated some 45km away from Cape Town. It is an overcrowded settlement of brick and zink houses with about 22 thousand inhabitants. Not far from the settlement there is the highly polluted Plankenbrug River . Community Health Unit at the Stellenbosch University, has found that the water in the river is unsafe for human consumption and irrigation. Thandeka Teyise talked to a resident Golden Mgudlwa and his family about the problem with the sanitary and water maintenance and the fact that the river is polluted.
All about a river
Mention the Wold Conference on Sustainable Development and possibly the last image that might come to mind is of the fertile valleys in the Western Cape and the splendour of the Stellenbosch vineyards. However, in microcosm, the issues facing a small corner of this community are the issues that the world summit must address - access to clean water, sanitation and a healthy environment for all. In this audio report, the relationship between high faecal pollution levels in the Plankenbrug River and the dense, informal settlement of Kayamandi are explored and the implications of this for everyone down river.
People live here
Multi-million rand developments are being planned for various parts of the eThekwini unicity in a bid to boost tourism and stimulate the local economy, but have the conditions of ordinary residents improved?
Sea View
"We don'€™t have race problems here. We are fortunate because we have very decent neighbours. You can see by the cars they are driving that they are earning good salaries."Chris Botha, 73, has lived in Seaview for the past 60 years. He remembers when the Southway Mall was nothing but a grove of mango trees, and Indian people were removed from Titren Road in the 1960s.
Umlazi G Section
Mbali Mosia was born in Umlazi'€™s G Section, as were her three children. She lives with her parents in a four-room former council house now owned by her mother.Not long ago, Umlazi was characterised by a high level of political violence. Today the township is still clearly demarcated into ANC and Inkatha areas, but acts of violence are now criminally rather than politically motivated.
Inanda Congo
Not a single person in Inanda'€™s Congo area, some 30km from Durban'€™s city centre, lives in a formal house with running water '€“ let alone a flush toilet.
Bayview
Shirley Ebrahim does not know where to turn. She owes the eThekwini council R22 000 in arrears in rent and services for the tiny flat that she occupies with her four children, aged from seven to 17.
Social development restored health in Britain’s 19th century urban ghettos long before the arrival of drugs
Studies show that the main causes of death in 19th century England and Wales were essentially the same infectious diseases that are killing children in underdeveloped countries today: diarrhoea, measles, and respiratory infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and whooping cough.
All is not fair in the Cape
A few kilometres from the centre of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, thousands of people still do not have easy access to basic services such as water, electricity, job opportunities, housing and sanitation. Cape Town is known for it's mansions priced at millions of rands, but a lesser known side are the sprawling informal  settlements where disease is part of life. In an effort to bring about change and ensure the fair distribution of resources, researchers and policy makers in Cape Town have implemented the Equity Gauge. The gauge uses health indicators such as the infant death rate to highlight the inequitable distribution of these basic services and guide future planning and policy.
New staff relieve exhausted cholera health workers
Nurses and environmental health officers from eight provinces have volunteered their services to relieve exhausted health workers in KwaZulu-Natal, who since August have treated over 47 000 cases of cholera.
Cholera plan reaches ‘entire generation’
Each cholera case is costing KwaZulu-Natal an extra R600 per person, but the province believes their anti-cholera plan is effective and that an entire generated is being educated about the disease and basic hygiene. Kerry Cullinan reports.
An epidemic of trauma requires prevention rather than cure.
An epidemic of trauma is killing South Africans and draining public health resources at a rate second only to AIDS. But trauma is yet to become a priority public health issue within the Department of Health. Violence and alcohol are the main culprits causing trauma in our country. Jo Stein reports
Cholera epidemic highlights need for safe water
While the cholera epidemic in KwaZulu-Natal has highlighted the desperate need for communities to have access to clean water, poor households are only likely to taste President Thabo Mbeki'€™s promise of 6 000 litres of free water per month by mid next year. KERRY CULLINAN reports.