JOHANNESBURG - The Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston has had to cancel operations and divert patients because of a failure of water supply from the City of Ekurhuleni municipality, the Democratic Alliance in Gauteng said on Sunday.
"I visited the hospital last week on Friday after receiving reports that the hospital ran out of water the day before. It appears that the problem is due to a faulty water valve, and water tankers have been sent to fill the hospital's reservoirs," DA Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom said in a statement on Sunday.
The reservoirs could hold 140,000 litres of water, but the pumps could only work when it was half full and not enough water tankers were sent on Friday - each tanker held 18,000 litres.
"I am concerned by the slow response of the municipality which is putting great strain on the hospital as it tries to cope with a minimal amount of water," he said.
The water supply problems needed to be resolved as soon as possible before, otherwise infection risk would rise and surgery backlogs would lengthen. Meanwhile, maternity and casualty patients were being diverted to other hospitals, Bloom said.