Water contamination blamed for Mwengere school food poisoning

Investigations into the Maria Mwengere Secondary School food poisoning incident at Rundu have concluded that the hostel’s water was contaminated.

This was announced by education minister Sanet Steenkamp in the National Assembly yesterday.

“The contaminated water in the water tank is possibly a primary contributor to the outbreak which indicated to the ministry what happened,” she said.

The investigations were conducted by the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture, along with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health and Social Services, after 33 pupils at the school were rushed to the hospital, with two being admitted into the intensive care unit, after consuming food.

She said all pupils have since been discharged and have resumed classes.

There are about 680 pupils at Maria Mwengere Secondary School. The investigations, Steenkamp said, revealed that the water quality in the hostel’s water storage tank had chlorine levels of 2.2 milligrammes per litre, which is above the safe standards for human consumption.

The water, she added, also showed some visible discoloration indicating contamination.

Since the school was not formally instructed to stop the use of water from the contaminated water storage tanks, pupils continued to consume the water, exacerbating the situation. Investigations revealed that the kitchen had not undergone any hygiene tests since 2014. Wastelines were also found inside the kitchen and access control was very poor, according to the minister.

“Again, this has also been ruled out as a possible cause of the situation. However, relevant precautionary measures have now been instituted to curb this from happening in future,” she said.

She did not divulge why this was ruled out.

Steenkamp said the region’s education directorate have initiated short- to long-term measures, and ongoing repairs and procurement for the maintenance of the cool room storage is already underway.

She said the ministry has approved the urgent replacement of the contaminated water tank with two 10 000 litre elevated tanks, along with waste management guidelines to be reinforced.

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