250 volunteers ill from dirty sand and legacy of poor sanitation

ONE in five volunteers on the Niall Mellon challenge have been struck with diarrhoea, as the effects of the township building frenzy take their toll.

By yesterday evening, 250 builders had been given Immodium sachets, hammering home the very reason they travelled to the southern tip of Africa to help 200 families move from shacks to proper concrete homes.

The builders are suffering stomach upsets because of the dirt in the sand and the legacy of four years without basic sanitation in the shanty-town.