Southmead residents living with stench
Cold store given final warning to clean up blood and rotten smell.
THE eThekwini Municipalty water quality officers were called out on Friday, 5 February, to investigate the stench and what seemed to be blood flowing into stormwater drains which feed into a nearby river.
Constance Ndlela, a Mariannridge resident, said, “We were driving pass the factories going towards Nazareth bridge, and on the side of the road there was water running into a drain and it was smelling bad.”
Ndlela said the smell was so bad, it was like there was was rotten meat dumped somewhere, and when they drove past again towards Southmead, they were met with a raw, ‘oily’ smell.
According to the water quality officers on site, members of the community in Southmead had made numerous complaints to the municipality about the bad smell they were getting from the a cold storage facility nearby.
The stormwater was tested and confirmed to have blood in it. When the company was asked by the municipality’s water quality officers to explain the bad smell and blood in the stormwater drains, they said a wall in the coldrooms had collapsed, causing the meat to spoil. The company had to dispose of all the products, and in doing so, the blood was washed into the drains.The company was ordered by the municipality to get rid of smell and the rotten meat as soon as possible.
According to a water quality officer, the company was given a final warning to clean up their premises, block their drains so blood did not enter the stormwater drains and to get rid of the smell. The company has made an effort to comply.
