Durban - Beachgoers need to apply common sense when choosing which of Durban’s open beaches to use.
Janet Simpkins of Adopt-a-River, which conducts regular testing, often jointly with the city, advised people to stick to the beaches that have the best results over time or appear to have improving results.
“Things change all the time.
“This week’s tests will only be available today (SAT) at the earliest but more likely only on Monday,” she said.
The following beaches have been open since Thursday, according to the city: Point, uShaka, Addington, South, Wedge, North, Bay of Plenty, Anstey’s, Toti and Pipeline beaches. Beaches that are closed are Battery, Country Club, Thekwini, Laguna, Brighton beach, uMhlanga Main, uMhlanga Bronze, Westbrook, Umdloti, Réunion, Warner and Winklespruit.
Bathing at Umgababa Beach was banned, pending further sampling.
The city said in addition to beaches, 25 swimming pools across the city were open, including South Beach paddling pool.
“Repairs to the Rachel Finlayson pool have started and repairs to the (nearby) Children Amusement Centre’s pools are imminent,” Msawakhe Mayisela, spokesman for Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, said this week.
Sewage leaks and spillages continue in and around Durban.
Four pharmacists told the Independent on Saturday that over the past four months there had been a sharp increase in demand for medication for diseases linked to poor water, such as diarrhoea and gastro-enteritis.
They said it was probably more related to drinking tap water than swimming in the sea.
“The majority are not drinking bottled water,” said central Durban pharmacist Andresan Naidu, adding that there appeared to be no other explanation for the trend than the city’s sewerage infrastructure problems.
The city said the April floods were the root cause of its infrastructural woes.
“It is public knowledge that eThekwini Municipality’s infrastructure was severely affected by the floods,” said Mayisela.
“This challenge was compounded by unavailability of funds to repair and restore the infrastructure speedily.
“It was only in September that the City received funding of R184 million for the rehabilitation of roads and water and sanitation infrastructure. While R110 million of this funding was allocated for water and sanitation, R70 million has been allocated for road repairs,” he said.
Mayisela said that before this funding was made available, the city re-prioritised its budget to accelerate the repairs of critical infrastructure such as the oThongathi Water Treatment Works which was commissioned last month.
“Significant progress has also been made in the repairs of coastal sewer pump stations which have been affecting water quality at beaches. These include Kingsway 2, Athlone and Laguna which were impacting the Isipingo and eManzimtoti beaches.
“A few weeks ago, we commissioned the Ohlange pump station which was responsible for affecting the Ohlange River and uMhlanga beaches.
“Where repairs are not yet complete, teams are doing final touch-ups which include carrying out housekeeping, sump cleaning and fencing repairs,” he said.
Mayisela said repairs were also in progress on sewer pipelines and trunk mains in uMhlanga where teams were working around the clock to clear overflowing manholes.
“Work is also progressing well at the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works which has been largely responsible for impacting the Mngeni River and nearby beaches,” he said.
South Coast-based environmental and intelligence expert Professor Anthony Turton said Durban’s disaster-proofing had become eroded, with last year’s riots having “fundamentally altered the supply chain in South Africa”.
“We are starting to see supply chain bottlenecks in many things, including spare parts, pumps and engineering equipment,” he said.
Turton said the root cause of Durban’s water problems and the country’s infrastructure problems, generally, was “unqualified people making decisions on matters for which they have no technical knowledge or insight”.
Turton called eThekwini’s mayor naive to believe that the sewage problem would go away.
“He is disconnected to the reality of the complete degradation (for reasons ranging from lack of maintenance to vandalism and theft) of the entire municipal infrastructure that is no longer fit for purpose,” Turton said.
Two people who live close to its effects are waste recyclers Zodwa Gumede and Zandi Mseleni who spend their days in the stench around Connaught Bridge over the Mngeni River at the top end of Blue Lagoon where sewage pours into the river.
“It is worst early in the morning and in the evening,” said Gumede. “We battle to breathe.”
She said it was not as bad before the floods.
“People (they presumed to be from the municipality) come here and check it, then they come back and check it again but the problem remains,” she said.
Nxumalo Zulu, who is from Nongoma and sleeps rough in Durban, sells seawater on the beachfront and said the water quality had deteriorated since the floods.
“There are fewer customers than in the past,” he said standing with a load of empty bottles near the Laguna Beach pools that stood empty, but staffed by municipal workers.
On the other side of town, at the Bluff Golf Club, manager Nicolette Day said water pollution in canals had plagued the golf course for two years and led to problems such as greens being irrigated with smelly water.
“It’s also heartbreaking to see fish being burnt by the pollution and trying to breath,” she said, adding that many community efforts had taken place to restock the waters.
Also on the Bluff, a resident whose Marine Drive house overlooks the sea, who asked not to be named, said he had decided to sell and move out of Durban because the stench was unbearable.
“You can smell the raw sewage off the sea. Some mornings when it hasn’t rained overnight, the water is brown right up to the back-line,” he said.
He questioned how Anstey’s Beach could be open while Brighton Beach, which was adjacent and had the same stench, was closed.
In Morningside, Jack Barth said he was considering legal action against the municipality because of the overflow of sewage from a manhole in their driveway which has flooded their property almost every day since January.
Barth, who lives in Springfield Road, said they woke up to the stench and sight of sewage every day and had spent tens of thousand of rands cleaning up and sanitising their property.
Although the municipality regularly sends contractors to solve the problem they have not been able to find a solution.
The bottom level of his house is regularly flooded with human excrement, sanitary pads, gloves and toilet paper and they can’t open their windows because of the smell and flies.
Mayisela said: “The city is working unceasingly to repair the infrastructure damaged by floods. We are also doing everything in our power to attend to faults that have been brought to our attention.
“There is huge progress that we are making in a very short space of time and under very difficult circumstances. We therefore appeal to all our clients to bear with us and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN) acting chief executive officer Nhlanhla Khumalo said KZN beaches were safe and ready to welcome visitors to the ocean and beach activities on offer across the 600km KZN coastline.
KZN has several Blue Flag beaches, including three on the north coast ‒ Thompson’s Bay, Willard and Blythedale ‒ and six on the south coast ‒ Marina, Trafalgar, Southport, Umzumbe, Ramsgate and Hibberdene.