Municipalities alerted after E. coli found in school drinking water

 By Thapelo Molefe

A number of municipalities are under scrutiny after E. coli contamination was detected in drinking water at schools within their jurisdictions, raising concerns about compliance with basic water quality standards.

The affected municipalities include Chief Albert Luthuli in Mpumalanga; Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Enoch Mgijima, Makana, Sundays River Valley and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the Eastern Cape; Matjhabeng and Nketoana in the Free State; Mpofana and Umvoti in KwaZulu-Natal; and the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape.

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The findings come from the WaterCAN Schools Water Testing Project, which identified 20 schools with dangerously high levels of E. coli in their drinking water, out of 72 schools that submitted test results.

WaterCAN said the contamination points to possible faecal pollution and raised concerns about the safety of water supplied to public institutions, particularly schools.

The organisation said it has written to the affected municipalities, calling for urgent action, including confirmatory testing, an investigation into the source of contamination, and immediate corrective measures.

WaterCAN Citizen Science and Training Coordinator Nomsa Daele said the findings are particularly concerning given existing compliance issues in some of the municipalities.

“Of deep concern is that in some of the municipalities where biological elements were found in school drinking water, they were also flagged for failing to meet basic compliance requirements in the Blue Drop Report released in 2023,” Daele said.

Makana, Chief Albert Luthuli, Sundays River Valley and Nketoana were previously identified as not meeting the required South African National Standards for drinking water quality.

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According to the 2025 Green Drop Report, the proportion of wastewater systems in a critical state has increased from 39% (334