Carter said meetings have since been held with representatives of the NMB Water Crisis Committee. "We had series of meetings with the office of the then mayor and the management of the metro. We requested and obtained audit reports of the Waste Water Treatment Plans and water tests from the metro. "We also visited and inspected the Nooitgedaght Dam to see and verify the level of water. The investigation is still pending, the change of management of the metro and proposed intervention by national also affects our investigation," said Carter. The NMB Water Crisis Committee said they were "disgusted and fed up, with this municipality's mismanagement of the water system", as they called on the SAHRC to intervene. "We lodged a complaint as the Water Crisis Committee to the Human Rights Commission about the many residents contracting illnesses due to the poor quality of water, measured against the contradictory reports of highperformance in the Blue Drop document. "Until today, there has still been no response from the Human Rights Commissions regarding this matter. We are again calling on the Human Rights Commission to do its job to address this serious human rights issue." Several attempts to get comment from the municipality were unsuccessful. Spokesperson for the national Department of Water and Sanitation, Wisane Mavasa, confirmed heightened levels of bromodichloromethane was found in the municipality's water.

"There has been failures of trihalomethanes THM of which bromodichloromethane is the most prominent. "The water sources on the western side are categorised as soft waters that are low in calcium, therefore have poorer buffering capacity and can have lower pH which results in humicstained waters this is clearly seen as dark humicstained water along the Garden Route. "One risk of the use of chlorine disinfection is the formation of THM as a byproduct of chlorination of soft water that has a humic acid origin. With the challenges of drought and strict restrictions, NMBM has increased chlorination with the concurrent increase in THM formation," said Mavasa. According to Mavasa, NMBM "does not use bromodichloromethane as a treatment chemical at all, but it is formed through the chlorination disinfection of water". Meanwhile, bereaved families of people who died in the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal joined a class action lawsuit against the government. The deceased's relatives met with legal representatives who expressed the intention to institute a medical lawsuit against the implicated spheres of government and departments. One of their legal representatives, advocate Moafrika Wa Maila, said he was part of at least 12 lawyers ready to take up a legal fight on behalf of the bereaved families. One of the grieving families from Kanana said that their daughter, Johanna Phengwa, was survived by her four children.

Source: Cape Times