[Yep… these blacks… use raw sewage for “irrigation”. Jan]

Johannesburg will crack down on subsistence farmers on the outskirts of the city who by blocking sewage pipes to irrigate their crops are threatening disease outbreaks, the city’s water provider said on Thursday.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Jameel Chand said farmers lift manhole covers, use rubble and boulders to block the pipes and divert raw sewage to maize and vegetable crops, hoping it will provide the crops with much-needed nutrients and water.

“We’re very worried,” he said. “If that gets into a stream, you’re talking cholera. Even without that, with pools of raw sewage you end up with other diseases. We’re talking about whatever people flush down the toilet.”

He said most of the sewer-blocking was in impoverished settlements just north and south of Johannesburg, where small fields of parched maize plants stand in contrast to the vast, well-irrigated fields on South Africa’s commercial farms.

‘We’re talking about whatever people flush down the toilet’
Although both treated sewage products and raw manure can be used as fertiliser, raw sewage contains more dangerous bacteria and can be more of a health hazard. Crops grown in it were also likely to be health risks, Chand said.

Local authorities would launch campaigns aimed at putting people off blocking the pipes in the next few weeks, he said, and new heavier manhole covers would be harder to move.

“We have found that people know who is doing this,” he said. “We need to persuade them to come forward and tell us.”

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>