uMbilo river oil spill: Community encouraged to report vandalism to pipeline
The ongoing clean-up of the oil spill in the uMbilo river and harbour is certainly not a quick fix, ongoing community help is also essential according to Transnet Pipelines.
Mangroves
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D’Sa, said while he was shocked at the extent of the leak in the uMbilo River, he also couldn’t claim to be surprised by it.
The environmental activist said he believed it would take weeks for the spill to be contained and even then, damage would remain to the ecosystem.
Greenpeace Africa volunteer, Desiree Laverne, the organisation’s spokesperson for Durban who visited the heritage site with the Queensburgh News said that she feared the ecosystem would never fully recover from the damage caused by the thick, unrefined crude oil.
“It will take decades for the last bits of the oil to finally break down, and by then there will so so much damage, I fear this area will never fully recover,” she said.
Transnet
In a statement TPL’s Acting Chief Executive, Tanuja Naidoo, said: “Thus far, in the current financial year, Transnet Pipelines has had over 80 incidents of fuel theft, including incidents of attempted theft, i.e. tampering with pipeline infrastructure with the intention to steal fuel.”
Naidoo said the parastatal operates and maintains a network of 3800 km of high-pressure petroleum and gas pipelines from Durban to Gauteng across five provinces adding that the pipeline is classified as essential infrastructure. For this reason, she explained, tampering, or colluding to tamper, is a Schedule 5 offence in terms of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act, Act 18 of 2015.
Communities
The MEC also highlighted the need for communities to help law enforcement investigate the incident and any future incidents.
“Critically, we are calling upon communities to work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that those who are responsible for vandalising Transnet pipelines are brought to book. We have a responsibility as the people of this province to ensure that we protect this valuable infrastructure which is critical for our economy,” said Dube-Ncube.
Spilltech
When the Queensburgh News first visited the Bellair Road site of the mop up operations on Tuesday, 20 October, Ackshay Moonilall, Spilltech GM for KZN was at the site along with the Sibusiso Blose, Safety, Health, Environment and Community Systems (SHEC) officer for the operation.
Spilltech workers and experts in industrial accidents and mop up operations were seen at all the sites where the thick crude oil had spread, from the original site of where the pipe had been broken, underground, to the heritage site where the spring tide at the time of the spill had taken the oil up to almost a meter from the ground.
Blose explained that the teams had been working constantly since the evening before and confirmed that Spilltech had been tasked with making sure the site also complied with all necessary Covid-19 precautions necessary because of the ongoing pandemic and National State of Disaster.
“We have to keep a register of all people who visit the site for contact tracing as well as our usual need to ensure all people are safe on site,” he explained to SDCEA representatives and the Queensburgh News.
Greenpeace
With a banner announcing its displeasure of what activists are calling the ‘ecocide’ of uMbilo and other rivers Laverne’s was a lone voice next to the Bellair Road site of the river mop-up which has now been fenced off by the Spilltech crew who are working around the clock.“
This is what fossil fuels and our reliance on them has caused and will continue to cause,” said Laverne.
“We need to wake up and begin to change the way we as humans treat this planet which is our home,” she said wiping the tears which she lost when she saw state of the river, which continued to sting her face as the wind whipped the banner she was holding.
ALSO READ: Report on oil spill in uMbilo River highlights existing pollution and ‘ecocide’
”This type of risk is always present when dealing with fossil fuels, We need to learn from past mistakes and break our dependence on fossil fuels,” she added.
Security
Naidoo said a series of measures are being rolled out to ensure that the area where the pipeline runs remains safe, including technology which will be operational within the next few months.
“Obviously I can’t reveal what those measures with entail as that would defeat the object of being able to catch anyone who tries to do such things, but we are confident that despite there being a very long distance of pipelines to cover, we have the right plan to secure it.”
However, Naidoo said the need for the community’s help is essential. “We therefore appeal to residents or any persons living near the pipelines or driving past, especially at night, to report any suspicious activities e.g. bakkies, fuel tankers in the area of the block valve chambers or near our pipeline markers etc. The toll free number is 0800 203 843.”
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
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