ActionSA believes Durban beaches are from from ready Photo Pixaby
Durban – ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal believes the eThekwini Mayor is misleading the public on the status of its beaches. While the Mayor has promised all beaches will be reopened by December 1, ActionSA feels the beaches are still a public health hazard and far from being ready to open to the public.
Several beaches were closed in August after high levels of E. coli were detected in the water. Since then Country Club, Winkelespruit and Anstey’s beaches have all been reopened. However, Zwakele Mncwango, party chair, says they have evidence to prove the sewage pump stations are not working as they are supposed to.
“We have evidence to prove that some of the sewage pump stations that they are saying are now fully repaired, they are not really fully repaired. For example, the Ohlange pump station is a big sewage pump station in Durban which has been spilling sewage towards the sea since April during floods. Until today it has not really been resolved. The mayor openly said in public that [Ohlange] sewage pump station has been sorted out. I went there personally on Monday and I managed to see for myself that indeed, it is not really ready.”
Sewage from this pump station has been flowing into the Ohlanga River and into Umhlanga beach which has kept the beach closed for quite some time.
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Falsifying beach water quality tests
What is more disturbing is that the municipality has allegedly falsified the beach water quality tests. According to Mncwango, he visited battery beach and saw the last test for water quality was done in October. He complained about this and instead of doing the tests, the municipality just changed the date of the last done test to November and left the results as the same.
“I went to Battery Beach on Monday. There’s an information board which shows the level of E. coli and when water quality testing was done. What is concerning is when I got there the board information was showing that the last test was done on the 18th of October … What is very unfortunate is that after I raised the concern about the test being done in October, the city, instead of going there and doing a simple test at Battery Beach, they did the most unethical thing I’ve ever imagined. They just went and changed the date of the test. No change on the indicators.”
For Mncwango this shows a lack of care and them being untrustworthy. Many beaches could still be hazardous to the public and there is no way to know for sure if other tests were actually done as they said.
ActionSA intends to take legal action against eThekwini Municipality for their actions. The Mayor has announced he will give an update on the state of the beaches at a press briefing on Thursday.
