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