THE Democratic Alliance (DA) has raised the plight of municipal pools in the city, following an oversight meeting at the Alex Bulley Pool in Durban on Monday.
Addressing the media at the meeting, Councillor Mmabatho Tembe, DA Community Services Whip, said the party understood that the Covid-19 pandemic had brought many challenges to the city, of which was that there had been no staff to maintain the pools during the hard lockdown.
However, she said, there was more to the problem than staff issues.
“Pools were closed until lockdown ended. The president then announced a phased approach to easing the lockdown regulations, which meant slowly municipal entities were to start preparing for the level in which they were to open. As the community services committee, we looked at asking the relevant officials about the maintenance plan and update of the pools as there is evidence of pools that have turned green and been neglected,” she said.
She said the committee started with questions in May and were told this would be finalised by the end of the month, but this was not the case.
“The Parks, Recreation and Culture Unit responded on 5 June and it was ascertained that the chlorine cylinders account needed to be resolved as finance had to catch up with outstanding payments. The department doesn’t have a contract for chlorine for the municipal pools,” she said.
Tembe said the department explained that due to contractual issues, a decision would be made as to whether it would be more cost effective to drain the pools, clean tiles and then refill or wait till the chemical contract is in place.
“The Democratic Alliance is shocked that there is no contract for chlorine in place at all, this is something that is needed on a continual basis regardless of the pandemic or the season. It will cost the residents of this city a lot of money as some pools such as the Tesoriere pool in Umbilo, are already being drained,” she said.
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Tembe said the DA felt the city needed to revert to the original chlorine contract.
Committee member and ward 27 councillor Ernest Smith, said the initial contract used chlorine which was finer than the ‘chip type’ which had recently been used.
“This took longer to dissolve and had adverse affects on the pools. This lapse in contract renewal comes down to pre-planning and service delivery and is indicative of whether the municipality is performing or not. If they cannot take care of basic facilities like pools and parks, what about more important issues in the city?” he asked.
His opinion was supported by ward 64 councillor Gavin Hegter, who said the City should know there was the need to sort out a contract beforehand.
“Millions of litres of potable water will be wasted if all these pools are emptied,” he said.
Committee member and ward 35 councillor Nicole Bollman said the pools could suffer damage as a result of this neglect.
“The tiles are supposed to be submerged in water. By draining the pools, they are exposed to the elements. Tiles pop and then pose a danger to swimmers,” she said.
Tembe said she felt the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department had managed city pools maintenance poorly.
“Sports for competitive reasons is opening and we need the facilities to be available. If the pools are drained, these won’t be available for people wanting to swim. We also don’t want local pools to be like Rachel Finlayson Pool, which was an eyesore for years. We would like this to be finalised as soon as possible before more money has to be used, as the City is already in a financial crisis,” she said.
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