The municipality will do planned maintenance on the inlet pump station to the uMhlatuzana Waste Waterworks Treatment Centre, from 9am to 6pm. As it is a large station, sewage will be spilling into the Umhlatuzana River, which works its way through various communities, the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve and down into the Durban Harbour.
Affected communities have started an email riot aimed at Chris Fennemore, eThekwini Municipality Water Department’s pollution and environment manager. They claim the department needs to find an environmentally friendly way of moving the sewage. They have raised concerns about the health risks and the smell.
“We suggested they use honeysuckers and truck the sewage out, but they have ignored this idea as it is not cost effective. This is a feeble excuse. This spill will kill fish and other marine life, plants and pose a great threat to people living alongside the river. According to Chris Fennemore, there is absolutely nothing they can do as the plant needs maintenance and this will be allow them fix and replace ailing infrastructure. We are consulting with lawyers on this issue,” said South Durban Environmental Alliance co-ordinator, Desmond D’Sa.
The municipality said they are implementing this programme as part of its preventive maintenance to improve the quality of stations and reduce future spills. The department said this kind of thing happens all over the world and is not as big an issue as people are making it. They are trying to minimise the effect in the long term, which will be beneficial to the environment, with less spills in the future.
Users of the Durban Harbour, who have suffered repeatedly over the years from oil spills and other refuse coming down from inland are concerned about the resultant impact on the harbour.
“It will affect us severely as we use that section of the water regularly. We are in direct contact with the water and have no protection other than life jackets,” said Neels Meyer, chairman of Stella Canoe Club.
“It’s unacceptable. We as a leisure club have to work around the water. We are used to having litter, condoms and the odd foetus wash down after heavy rains. The municipality always cleans up when we call them, but it doesn’t make it right. But this planned sewerage dumping is unacceptable. You can’t go into the water with an open cut, otherwise you will land up in hospital. We have had incidents in the past. The powers-that-be are reactive instead of pro-active. They must have known for a long time that this was going to happen,” said Commodore of Bluff Yacht Club, Graham Coleman.
Residents and community stakeholders will be watching to see if the sewage spill is as harmless as the city claims, or if it will have a devastating and lasting effect on the water and surrounding communities and wildlife.
“I think it’s horrendous that Chris Fennemore said they are doing it to prevent sewage spills. The last time they did it, it had disastrous results with thousands of tons of fish dying. The bay is a nursery for breeding fish, they will die out. It’s like a generation of people being wiped out. People rely on those fish. I will lodge an interdict against council. Tanks can be used. This comes as a result of lack of planning and management,” said ward 64 councillor, Billie Prinsloo.
– erinh@dbn.caxton.co.za and mbalim@dbn.caxton.co.za
