Over R2 billion was spent on water waste management in the City of Johannesburg this financial year but councillors are still concerned about the high E. coli count in the City’s water resources.
E. coli is a bacteria found in the intestines of humans and other animals. During the 24 November council sitting, the Section 79 committee’s report for the Environmental and Infrastructure Services Department, including municipal-owned entities, such as City Parks, Johannesburg Water and Pikitup, revealed that most of the departments’ capital expenditure was on network upgrades and service delivery improvement.
Ward 117 councillor, Tim Truluck said last year, that there is a dangerously high E. coli count in the rivers due to leaking sewers. This concern is still held by Ward 101 councillor, David Potter, who reiterated the high count of the bacteria.
A Democratic Alliance committee member, Lori Coogan, said the E. coli count is mainly caused by grey water and run-off from informal settlements. Coogan added that the high-density development close to rivers increased their natural flow by 300 per cent.
Johannesburg Water’s sewer system is not designed to collect garbage, which has become the case. Human waste and toilet tissue are the only products the wastewater system was designed to handle.
“As our customers, this affects you, because continued use of our sewer system as a trash-can contributes to system failures, adds stress and wear, and increased operation and maintenance costs,” the entity said on its website.
But likely human waste is recorded in the City’s rivers. This is a problem that would need urgent attention.
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ Phillimon Maponyane said, however, the section 79 committee’s report did not indicate how the issue can be resolved or how the City would deploy its resources to fix it. For this reason, the EFF was the only party that abstained from tabling the report in council.
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