A viral video showing the raw sewerage flowing freely into the uMgeni River, sent the residents of Ward 36 into a frenzy of concern, recently. In light of the series of distressing footage depicting traces of faeces and toilet paper in the river, shot by Durban North resident and provincial executive of ActionSA, Pete Graham, residents together with Ward 36 Councillor, Shontel de Boer and Democratic Alliance Executive Councillors, Thabani Mthethwa, Yogis Govender and Dean Macpherson gathered at the uMgeni Bird Park with city officials to demand answers.
Cllr de Boer said the residents were up in arms about the incident after the video was widely circulated on social media platforms. She said: “The sewage that was overflowing into the river, was not something new at the Riverside Sewer Pump Station. It has been happening for years, even before I was the ward councillor. The sewer under the bridge has been an ongoing issue, since before the floods which exacerbated the situation, and the municipality has simply not done anything about it. The degradation of the environment is a serious matter. It’s for this reason that we have had several DA MP’s down here and dozens of oversights to assess and investigate all of the sewage leaks. This overflow is one of many in eThekwini. The ones in Pinetown are horrific and flow directly into the uMgeni River. There they will need about R80 million to fix the pipes,” said Cllr de Boer.
According to the Ward 36 councillor, while the issue “is being looked into by the City”, the disastrous effects of the spillage is being felt by ratepayers who are paying the municipality for poor and failed services. She said local businesses owners who run guest houses have seen a decline in bookings ahead of the festive season. Cllr de Boer added that in terms of legal action, the province has issued eThekwini with more than 25 contravention notices in the terms of NEMA and Water Act. She said at provincial level there has been strong calls for money to be unlocked to assist eThekwini in fixing these issues. “The problem is municipalities cannot fix what they don’t have money to fix because the reality is that eThekwini continues to mismanage its funds, spending money on everything other than fixing this mess. It’s a vicious and complicated situation citizens find themselves in. All the rivers are broken, from the North to the South Coast. I’m very open to suggestions. Ultimately a lot of money is needed to fix the network from top to bottom,” said Cllr de Boer.
Last week, the DA had announced that they will be taking legal action against eThekwini for the sewage crisis. DA Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen said the party is through with talking and will be taking a stand on the crisis. The problem is municipalities cannot fix what they don’t have money to fix because the reality is that eThekwini continues to mismanage its funds, spending money on everything other than fixing this mess.
He said: “We will now be proceeding to court where we will demonstrate that we have exhausted all internal processes to try and get this municipality working. The only thing that will get this municipality to listen is a court order compelling them to get to grips with dealing with the sewage crisis.” According to Graham, who has been chronicling the sewage crises throughout the greater Durban area, ActionSA will also be taking the City to court for a serious transgression broadly relating to their failure to deliver on their mandate as enshrined in Section 152 of the Constitution. “The infrastructure renewal and maintenance of our sewer system is a fundamental function of a metro municipality, and the historic failure of this function is directly to blame for the malfunction of sewerage pump stations in various locations in eThekwini since the floods in April. This is not merely a tragedy for the people of eThekwini or KwaZulu-Natal but for the whole of South Africa with our Durban coastline being a national treasure to be enjoyed by all South Africans,” said Graham. “Our city faces a festive season where its hospitality industry and broader economy will be severely damaged by our beaches remaining closed over the busy holiday season which is traditionally a vital source of job-sustaining economic activity for eThekwini. This, alongside the inability of eThekwini residents to use their natural environment for economic, recreational, social and religious purposes necessitates our intervention,” he added.
After an oversight visit to the Blackburn Pump station, in uMhlanga, ActionSA Caucus Leader, Cllr Alan Beesley said that a liable source has advised that there is an estimated 28 million litres of raw sewage being pumped onto Durban beaches on a daily basis. This evidently lends to the excessively high E-coli readings taken in uMhlanga and nearby beaches which has obviated the need to close them. “Urgent action is needed not only to repair the sewage system but to prevent the entire collapse of the system,” said Beesley. Aside from the sewerage crisis, the uMgeni River has also been faced with a tragic dumping catastrophe. Recently, Reefer Cold Storage, a business based near the uMgeni River, together with NPO Adopt a River, spearheaded a clean up that saw a whopping 326 320kgs of waste cleared from the area. Janet Simpkins of Adopt a River said that they have only scratched the surface of pollution that the River endures. “This area had obviously been a favourite dumping ground for years, with much of the litter hidden by alien invasives. As we literally scratched the surface, the true extent of the dumping became evident. Tonnes of waste have since been removed. We still have small pockets of waste which we will manage over the next few weeks,” said Simpkins.
Stamatis ‘Kapsi’ Kapsimalis, CEO and owner of Reefer Cold Storage, said the extent of illegal dumping was a massive cause for concern for everyone who relies on this river. “The uMgeni River is the lifeblood for so many communities in the area, an important part of the delicate ecosystem, and a base for many recreational activities,” he explained. “We could not sit by, as local businesses and residents, and let this illegal dumping continue unabated. The extent of the littering indicates the scale of our pollution problem, but we truly believe it’s something we can address through collaboration such as this,” said Kapsimalis. EThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela said that work is underway to repair sanitation infrastructure that was damaged by floods. “We are doing everything in our power to get all beaches opened soon. We are therefore appealing for patience because it is not true that the city is not doing anything about this state of affairs. And we are apologising profusely to the public for the inconvenience caused,” he said.
