Durban — Opposition parties in eThekwini Municipality have questioned the city’s decision to reopen uMhlanga Main and uMhlanga Bronze beaches while their water quality was still under investigation.
The DA councillor in eThekwini, Thabani Mthethwa, said the reopening of the beaches would have been a step in the right direction if the water quality was not under investigation.
He said: “The water quality was said to be poor due to perceived high E coli levels caused by the uncontrollable raw sewage that continues spilling into the sea.”
Mthethwa said the municipality failed to guarantee the safety of bathers by not doing proper water tests. He urged beachgoers to exercise extreme caution at the beaches that have been reopened, because they cannot guarantee the legitimacy or accuracy of the “so-called water quality results” from the municipality.
“We will monitor the progress of the pump station repairs in addition to the water quality results to ensure they are accurate,” Mthethwa said.
KZN ActionSA chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said: “As ActionSA we are saying eThekwini Municipality must deal with the cause of the water contamination problem. Apparently, Umhlanga beach was only open for a few days and then closed again because it contains high levels of E coli. only to reopen on December 25.”
Mncwango said the uMngeni River, which flows into the beaches around the area, was loaded with this bacteria.
“Therefore we call on the municipality to fix the problem – and if eThekwini Municipality doesn’t have the capacity, it must ask the national government for funding to help them deal with the cause of the problem.
“Instead of only focussing on making eThekwini ready for tourism, I believe the municipality must prepare it right through the year, and not only during peak times. It must at all times make the safety of its people and that of visitors a priority, and not only focus on economic development,” Mncwango said.
IFP eThekwini regional chairperson Mdu Nkosi said the city management must stop “misleading people” by issuing instructions about situations of which it has no technical knowledge.
He said eThekwini must instead allow technicians to provide tangible information about this matter.
“It’s a known fact that after the April and May floods in and around eThekwini, too much damage was caused to the infrastructure.”
Nkosi said no one was saying anything about the condition of the uMngeni River water, not even Umgeni Water itself.
eThekwini Municipality defended its decision to open uMhlanga Main and uMhlanga Bronze beaches, saying the decision was based on water quality results. The beaches were reopened on Sunday.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the decision to reopen the beaches was taken after results from the latest rounds of water testing confirmed that the water quality was of an acceptable standard.
“The fact that we closed beaches when the water quality was poor is reason enough that we care for the public. The municipality is continuously monitoring water quality at all beaches to ensure the safety of residents and visitors,” Mayisela said.
The uMhlanga Urban Improvement Precinct (UIP) stated that test results may vary week by week largely due to environmental factors such as rainfall, sea currents, strong winds and high seas.
The UIP focuses on the trend over the passing weeks.
The UIP said water sampling tests for uMhlanga Beaches were done on December 19. The sampling was run independently by the uMhlanga UIP and BN Kirk (testing lab). But due to BN Kirk closing over the festive season, testing will resume again on January 4.
Daily News