Aggressive cleaning of harbour spillage continues
An assessment of the scale of pollution following the loss of cargo into the water in Durban Harbour is underway.
THE South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) has issued a directive to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to conduct an assessment of the scale of pollution following the loss of cargo into the water in Durban Harbour during the fierce storm which took place earlier this month.
On the day of the storm, SAMSA and TNPA had to prioritize the re-floating and re-mooring of five drifting vessels, three of which had grounded in the port due to extraordinary weather conditions.
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Recently, a mixture of high and low density plastic cargo has been found in some parts of the ocean. SAMSA’s Chief Operating Officer Sobantu Tilayi said MSC had cooperated with the authorities for the clean-up operation which started this week.
SAMSA conducted surveillance and assessed the extent of the pollution in Durban harbour and the affected coastal areas.
“SAMSA will undertake the monitoring and oversight role of the process. MSC will consult with the cargo owners for the technical details of the pollutant plastic. An area survey of beaches up to Umhlanga on North Coast and Umkomaas on the South Coast beaches was conducted by a service provider accompanied by SAMSA. Minuscule presence of plastic pellets was observed at the high water mark only. Aggressive cleaning approach with a defined search pattern has been agreed upon by the joint response team as a way forward.”
On the 11 October TNPA conducted underwater surveys in search of the lost containers. The search was unsuccessful as there was a lot of debris and the water was muddy. On 12 October the search continued and the first container was retrieved.
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The container, which was suspected to have been carrying plastic cargo, was severely damaged (twisted and squashed) and it had spilled into the harbour. The second container which had a cargo of Energy drinks was retrieved on the 13 October and was still intact with all its cargo.
The port has carried out multi-beam surveys to scan the suspected area for the missing containers. On October 26, the two containers that were missing were located and will be retrieved as soon as weather conditions allow.
“Local municipalities will be kept informed to enable surveillance team to access beaches,” he said.
On the direction of SAMSA, Drizit Environmental, is leading the clean-up operation. Drizit has a central collection point at Durban Ski Boat Club (79 Browns Rd, Point, Durban) where the plastic pellets may be dropped off. Drizit can be contacted on their 24- hour toll free line 0800 202 202.
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