Department of Water Affairs and Forestry

In August 2000 South Africa was xperiencing one of the worst cholera epidemics in the countrys recent history. Initial reports of the cholera outbreak came from the largely rural and impoverished communities on the outskirts of the Ngwelezane Township, near the Empangeni town. The source of the epidemic was traced to the uMhlathuze River, also in the northern part of the KwaZulu-Natal Province. However by the end of the year 2000, the northern Kwa Zulu-Natal cholera outbreak had replicated itself in eight of South Africas nine provinces.