Durban - Residents of Wentworth and surrounding areas are looking for answers to a mystery smell that has left some nauseous and others with breathing problems.
Environmental activist, Desmond D’sa, said he received a call from a church in Wentworth on Wednesday evening, complaining about the stench that made services unbearable for parishioners.
“As we drove down Quality Street the smell was bad,” D’sa said. He called an eThekwini environmental health officer, and they went to try to track the source.
D’sa said they found the source of the smell at a depot where trucks were collecting chemicals.
“This one truck was smelling. It gave me a headache.”
They complained at the depot about the smell and how it was affecting residents.
He said the smell affected about 100 000 people in Wentworth, Bluff and Merebank.
D’sa said they asked those at the depot who was responsible for the chemicals and the smell, but the people there refused to name the company responsible.
Wentworth resident, Romany Roberts, said she initially thought the smell came from her house. “All the windows were closed but the smell was still terrible… It is everywhere and you can’t go outside as it is stronger.”
It was only when she went on to Facebook that she realised others had the same problem.
On Thursday night, Roberts said she was still having problems breathing and had to use a nebuliser.
Another affected resident was Merle Scott of the Bluff: “I got up at 5.30am and as I opened the windows, the smell came in. It makes you nauseous.”
She said she was worried because her grandchild she lived with had asthma.