We have become accustomed to stories about sewage spills, burst pipes and failing infrastructure.
That, perhaps, is the most troubling part of this latest incident at Kings Beach.
It no longer shocks.
It confirms what residents have been saying for years. When basic infrastructure is neglected, we pay the price.
The pictures from Kings Beach this week should embarrass every level of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
A parking area transformed into a sewage dam. Faeces and toilet paper floating through one of the city’s premier beachfront destinations.
Children playing nearby. Learner drivers splashing through contaminated water. The stench hanging over an area meant for recreation, tourism and family outings.
What a public health hazard this is.
Kings Beach will host the World Lifesaving Championships later this year. An event that will place the city under an international spotlight.
Visitors should remember the sea and sand. Not the smell of raw sewage.
The municipality says the cause of this week’s spill was a pump station malfunction, that repair teams responded quickly and that the fault has been fixed.
It also says work is under way to replace the problematic sewer line before the championships.
But it does not answer the bigger question. Why has this become a recurring problem?
According to the ward councillor, intermittent spills have plagued the area for months, if not longer.
He says he proposed a temporary engineering solution more than a year ago, costing about R50,000, yet never even received a response.
Whether his proposal was the right answer is beside the point. Good governance demands that practical suggestions be assessed, accepted or rejected with reasons.
The problem is that promises by the metro are beginning to carry less weight.
Nelson Mandela Bay deserves better than becoming a city where sewage spills are treated as routine.
We deserve clean public spaces. Businesses deserve a beachfront that attracts visitors rather than drives them away.
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