The Mahikeng Provincial Hospital in the North West had a dry spell over the weekend due to water shortages caused by the local municipality.
The water shortages began on Friday (7 October) evening and continued until Sunday afternoon. The Department of Health spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, said: “To deal with the water crisis, the hospital relied on its two boreholes and water tankers which were supplied by the municipality but it was still not sufficient enough.”
Lekgethwane said the water shortage was caused by technicalities due to system upgrades by the municipality. The Department of Health expects that the situation will be resolved before Wednesday this week.
The spokesperson also added that while patients may have requested to go home to be bathed by their families, they did not discharge any patients who did not need to be discharged due to the water crisis.
He also added that water shortages are a common problem in the area, which is problematic for the hospital as its boreholes do not have enough reserves.
Pulane Choane/CourantNews
pulane@centralmediagroup.co.za
