The ongoing discharge of raw sewage at three Gqeberha beaches is endangering marine life and risks driving away tourists unless the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality urgently addresses its failing infrastructure.
This is the concern raised by residents and businesses in the tourism hotspots, who expressed that the long-standing sanitation issues gave the metro a bad name.
Cape Recife and Brighton beaches have been closed for months on end due to sewage streaming into the sea.
Kings Beach has been closed twice due to a broken section of a 600mm pipe that runs through South End.
It was reopened on Thursday.
The city announced the second closure of Kings Beach on Wednesday.
An alert to the public attributed the new spill to last weekend’s heavy rains.
“This was despite ongoing flow control measures via bypass pumping in the harbour,” the alert posted in the metro’s media WhatsApp group reads.
“The spill has since ceased as of July 31, the affected area is now undergoing cleaning and treatment [dosing] to reduce E. coli levels and eliminate unpleasant odours. Urgent work will be done on rectification.”
According to the alert, a newly appointed contractor has confirmed that the required pipes are available, and work is expected to be completed in about three weeks, provided no additional collapses occur during excavation.
Eastern Cape Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (Wessa) chair Gary Koekemoer described the spillages to the sea as toxic.
“It impacts the birds and marine life big time, it’s toxic,” Koekemoer said.
“It’s not just the bacteria but also the chemicals found in what we use in our daily lives, the heavy metals and the plastics.
“It impacts their health, birds digest the stuff, and if they eat so much plastic, they’ll die from it, and generally, shellfish will absorb the sewage onto their muscles and flesh, which is a real disaster.”
Koekemoer said during the last spill at Kings Beach in July, some fish died.
“There’s a small lake at Kings Beach, and all the fish that were there died during the previous sewage spill.
“We have been working closely with the municipality, and we know where the challenges are.
“Work has been done in the last three years to fix the system, but it’s old and broken, hence these repeated spills.
“The long-term effects of these spills are that the toxicity will create a dead zone [in the sea].
Ward 2 councillor Sean Tappan said a section of the 600mm underground burst pipe has been identified in the harbour.
“This is why the sewage spill occurred in the parking lot of Kings Beach.
“If there’s a power failure in the Roedolf pump station, it goes off because there is a backup generator but no automatic system to switch it back on when the power comes back on.”
The sewage spill in the Cape Recife nature reserve, which flows to the beach, also covers a section of the road in the conservancy where tourists and locals walk, run and hike.
However, this experience has been lessened by the stench from the sewage, which also affects businesses in the area.
Pine Lodge operations manager Warren Wakeford said at times it was significantly worse.
“When the wind blows in a certain direction, the whole lodge would smell.
“It can be quite brutal, and guests would call asking about what’s going on.
“Others think it’s an in-house problem and we always have to clarify,” Wakeford said.
“From a tourist point of view, it’s difficult to quantify what we could be potentially losing and how many people don’t visit because of this issue, but I’m pretty sure there’s an impact.
Ziggy’s Rock & Reggae Bar manager Jaco Rossouw said the smell resulted in bad reviews online.
“They are talking about how bad their experience was with us because of the smell.
“The landlord has spoken to the councillor before, and he’s helped over the years, but it always seems to be a temporary repair because it’s been more than two years of the same thing, from what I can remember.
“Locals who walk and hike in this area always complain about the stench and having to jump over the pool of smelly water, which isn’t always safe.
“This is a huge tourism issue, coupled with the fact that there’s no street light from the beacon up to here.
“This is where all the holidaymakers stay, and the sewage spills are not a great image of our city. And with the summer season coming, the smell will get worse.”
For the Love of Nature, an organisation that has planned a fun run to raise funds for the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) in Cape Recife on Sunday, also raised concerns about the issue.
For the Love of Nature founder Mario Sophocleous said it was a family event that would be affected.
“We expect people with babies in prams and possibly people in wheelchairs who won’t be able to pass the sewage puddle, because it’s quite big.
“Driving through is one thing, but people usually come here to walk.
“If I were a father to a baby in a pram, I would not participate.”
Sanccob centre manager Carl Havemann said the sewage smell affected the public’s enjoyment when visiting the centre.
“Especially when the winds come from the treatment plant side and impact any beach events we organise.
“All our penguins are released back onto Bird Island, so they are not affected by the spill.”
Effluent, believed to be from a nearby settling pond, flows towards the beach, with a wide stretch along the sewage stream overgrown by reeds and invasive vegetation.
It comes from the wastewater treatment plant located in the Cape Recife Conservancy.
In mid-December, Brighton Beach had to be closed after test results revealed alarmingly high contamination levels due to discharges from the plant.
In June, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said the time frame for reopening was the end of the month.
He failed to respond to questions on Thursday.
The Herald
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