Ethekwini Mayor Cyril Shaba announced on Wednesday during the city's 2024-25 summer election campaign that works to rehabilitate the sewage treatment plant were nearing completion.
Residents and taxpayers in eThekwini metro say they fear a drinking water crisis because the river is polluted and are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa and government agencies to intervene in the city. E. coli From untreated sewage.
This comes after eThekwini Mayor Cyril Shaba announced at the city's 2024-25 summer election campaign on Wednesday that remedial works at the sewage treatment plant were nearing completion.
Xaba said the city expects about 1.3 million tourists to visit during the summer holiday season, with hotel occupancy rates of more than 65 percent.
“We have taken measures to ensure the safety of our visitors and we want to assure you that our beaches and pools are safe for swimming,” he said.
“To prevent untreated sewage from polluting our coasts, significant efforts have been made to repair and improve sanitation infrastructure, especially along the coast. This includes upgrading 10 wastewater treatment plants, which treat 90 percent of the city's sewage.”
Xaba said repair work on seven power plants has been completed and they are awaiting reports on repairs on the remaining three plants.
He added that a programme was underway to ensure that all streetlights and security cameras in the city were “fully operational and there was visible increased security in tourist areas”.
According to the latest data released by the eThekwini metro on September 3, five beaches remain closed due to high levels of E. coli – Battery, Country Club, eThekwini, Laguna and Reunion.
When asked about the closure of these beaches, Shaba said addressing the sewer issue remains a “work in progress.”
Drinking water
Apart from the polluted beach waters, the eThekwini United Taxpayers, Business and Civil Society organisation wrote to President Ramaphosa this week, the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the South African Human Rights Commission warning of a looming drinking water crisis.
This comes after tons of raw sewage was dumped into Umungeni and Msunduzi and into the river, resulting in algae blooms and clogged filters at the sewage treatment plant. The organisation represents 15 taxpayers' associations in the city.
In the letter, the group's president, Alison Showman, warned that residents were concerned about “an imminent risk of severe water shortages” in the capital region.
She highlighted incidents of industrial and sewage pollution in the Umungeni and Msunduzi rivers dating back to 2019, and said the pollution had “reached a tipping point” by August 2024. The water treatment capacity of the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant was “under pressure” due to algae.
“Due to high levels of pollution, including untreated sewage and industrial wastewater.”
She said the plant, which provides about 55 per cent of Durban's drinking water, was now operating under heavy strain as a result.
“With Durban's hot summer approaching, the algae problem will rapidly worsen. High temperatures create ideal conditions for algae blooms. This will exacerbate the current situation and potentially overwhelm the plant's ability to effectively treat the water. Any increased risk of the plant losing its operational capacity would have devastating consequences, threatening the lives and health of millions of residents.”
She warned that if the government did not act urgently, it could lead to “catastrophic public health consequences” and “provoke widespread unrest similar to the violent riots experienced in July 2021.”
In their letter, residents are demanding:
• Immediately investigate the sources of pollution affecting the Umungeni and Msunduzi rivers, particularly the recent spills and ongoing blockages of sewer pipes.
• Disclosure of information regarding the environmental response to the spill into the Msunduzi River from the Willowton plant in 2019.
• A detailed remediation action plan to restore the river system and prevent further pollution.
• Significant consequence management for officials for negligence or failure to act promptly that led to the current situation in the Msunduzi River and the impacts on eThekwini water supply.
• Meetings with Umungeni Water Board, the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Msunduzi, Umungeni, Umgungundlovu and eThekwini municipalities to discuss measures being taken to prevent a bigger water crisis.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday, Mr Showman said he wrote the letter out of a “deep sense of urgency”.
“We live in times of greater risk than ever before and governments and state-owned enterprises do not seem to understand the scale of the challenge,” Showman said.
“The violent upheaval of 2021 still weighs heavily on all of us. Many in our community are grieving the loss of loved ones and the emotional scars from that week have not yet healed. We live every day with a deep sense of fear.”
She said the impact of eThekwini's infrastructure failure over the past three years had been “devastating” and that as a professional who has worked in the property market for 22 years, she had never seen business so bad.
“High interest rates are putting even more strain on the property market, but the problem is even worse in eThekwini. People are no longer willing to invest here, fearing the deterioration of infrastructure and a lack of meaningful solutions.”
“Water is life and once water sources are compromised, the cost of ensuring access to water will be unbearable for most. Already, some people are taking advantage of the water crisis by establishing lucrative sources of income by providing alternative water supplies.
“We are already seeing elderly people in our community being forced to make impossible choices between basic hygiene and the ability to afford food. This is the cost of living in eThekwini today, where many are sacrificing their dignity in order to survive,” Sjoman said.
A spokesperson for eThekwini Metro referred questions about the residents' letter to the Umgeni Uthukela Water Board, which had not responded at the time of publication.
But in a statement last week, Umungeni-Uthukela Water Board said an increase in algae had clogged filters at the Durban Heights Water Board and that work was being done to remove excess algae from the water.
“Water quality monitoring has also been increased to detect and address algae in the raw waters of the Albert Falls-Nagle Dam system. Although the situation has not yet returned to normal, we are seeing signs of a reduction in algae populations.”
Presidential spokesman Vincent Mugwenya said in February that the Presidential eThekwini Working Group, made up of “key stakeholders from all levels of government”, had made some progress “with the support of the new mayor and other leaders who were brought in to support the metro”.
The ministries of Water and Sanitation, Forestry, Fisheries, Environment, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Msunduzi Municipality had not responded to questions at the time of publication.