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dam-l Mozambique river pollution/LS



Mozambique

                               Maputo Probes Report of Chemical Waste In Incomati River 

                               Panafrican News Agency 
                               August 8, 1999 

                               Maputo, Mozambique (AIM) - Mozambican health authorities are still trying to determine the seriousness of the
                               alleged contamination by chemical wastes of the Incomati river in the south of the country, the Mozambican News
                               Agency (AIM) reported Saturday. 

                               According to the agency, a Mozambican delegation flew to South Africa Friday in search of reliable data on the
                               pollution. 

                               Several days earlier, the Mozambican authorities had been alerted by their South African counterparts that a paper
                               factory in the South African town of Nelspruit had allowed wastes to escape into the river, it added. 

                               The local authorities in the town of Moamba, some 60 kilometres northwest of Maputo, immediately stopped
                               pumping water from the river to fill up the tanks from which many local people are supplied. 

                               On Thursday, what was left in the tanks was quickly exhausted, and Moamba residents were urged to seek alternative
                               sources of water, such as wells. 

                               But verbal reports reaching Moamba said that examination of the water undertaken in a South African laboratory
                               showed there was no danger to human health. 

                               The Moamba district health director, Olivia Bucana, cited in Saturday's issue of the Maputo daily 'Noticias', said that
                               no case of poisoning arising from consumption of water from the Incomati river had yet been reported. 

                               Nonetheless, the authorities have not yet withdrawn their appeal to residents not to drink river water. "We haven't yet
                               reached any conclusion as to what really happened with the river," Bucana said. 

                               The head of the environmental Health department of the Ministry, Marcelino Lucas, led an investigating team to
                               Moamba on Friday, and promised to work for a full clarification of the issue. 

                               He said it made no sense for the South Africans first to issue a warning about a serious incident of pollution, and
                               then deny that there was anything to be worried about. 

                               However, in an appearance disregard of the appeals from the ministry, the local people continue to fish and bathe in
                               the river, and collect it for domestic use. 

                               Their cattle also drink from the river. 

                               "We never stopped drinking this water, and we don't even boil it", a Moamba resident, Maria Faquir, told the paper. 

                               "Here in the countryside we're not given to such practices. We bathe here, we drink this water, we fish, we take our
                               livestock to drink at the river - we're used to it. We never felt any difference, even when they told us there was stuff
                               in the water," she said. 

                               Admitting, however, that the warning had cause a fright, she added, "but we'd already drunk the water and nothing
                               happened". 



                               Copyright (c) 1999 Panafrican News Agency. Distributed via Africa News Online (www.africanews.org). For
                               information about the content or for permission to redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact the publisher. 

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program, 
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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