Learners and kitchen staff fall sick as sewage surrounds Soshanguve school feeding scheme

Health-e News Learners and kitchen staff fall sick as sewage surrounds Soshanguve school feeding scheme For the past five years, more than 800 learners and staff at Seetsa sa Kgwedi Primary School in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, have been living with recurring sewage spills on the school grounds.

School governing body (SGB) chairperson, Kehwile Ramaru told Health-e News that three learners in Grades R to 3 fell ill during school hours in recent weeks with stomach cramps and nausea.

Parents were called to take them to a local clinic.

Ramaru also confirmed reports that kitchen staff have had to seek treatment at Block X Clinic in recent months after experiencing symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.

Health-e News could not establish whether the illnesses were caused by exposure to the sewage, but staff have expressed their concern about a possible link.

When Health-e News visited the school on 17 August, kitchen staff were busy preparing meals, as part of the National School Nutrition Programme, close to sewage spills, while wastewater pooled around parts of the school and close to a tap used by learners for drinking water.

There was an overwhelming smell from the sewage leakage, with flies visible across the school grounds.

But for staff and learners it was business as usual.

Video footage seen by Health-e News shows young learners jumping over a sewage spill and in a second video, more learners can be seen stepping on a brick placed in sewage water by school staff to prevent them from walking through the wastewater.

At a drinking-water tap, wastewater had pooled nearby and was running around the base of the tap.

Health-e News also observed three main drainage points that were blocked in and around the school grounds.

One is situated about 100 metres from classrooms, another about 10 metres from the foundation phase block, and the third outside the school grounds without a lid. ‘We can’t stop cooking’ A kitchen staff member, who asked not to be named, says the conditions become worse during summer when it rains.

“During summer when it rains, the rocks are slippery, learners also trip over sewage.

The flies and mosquitoes are uncontrollable,” she says.