Cape Town - Another sewage spill has forced the temporary closure of a portion of Zeekoevlei for public recreational use, this time from Pelican Lodge to Pelican View.
The closure comes after water sampling confirmed high levels of E. coli as a result of the sewage spill in the Big Lotus River.
False Bay Nature Reserve biodiversity area co-ordinator Bongani Zungu said: “The purpose of this partial closure is as a precautionary approach to protect water users, as the recent pollution events in the Big Lotus River has deposited significant untreated effluent into the system and E. coli results for the affected area exceed the acceptable limits for recreation.”
Zungu said this closure affected fishing and water sports activities, including boating, rowing and wind surfing. City officials will conduct regular sampling over the coming weeks, and will reopen the water body once quality results return to acceptable limits.
Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei (FOZR) vice-chairperson Tom Schwerdtfeger said the E. coli count was 60 times over the safe recreational level at the mouth of the Big Lotus River, which meant massive spill(s) had taken place over the past few weeks.
Schwerdtfeger said: “With the extremely high levels of nitrates and phosphates in the water body we are experiencing unprecedented blooms of toxic blue/green algae, which will most likely lead to fish die-offs in the warmer summer months.”
Schwerdtfeger said the City was discussing implementing bio-remediation to mitigate the effects of these latest spills, but nitrates and phosphates will still remain in the system.
FOZR chairperson Sidney Jacobs added that the worst of all was that the City has still not been able to identify the source of the sewage.
Jacobs said: “The City needs to be clear if they are able to manage the situation of sewage destroying our environment via the Big Lotus River, and if not, they need to seriously consider our proposal to bypass the vlei with a separate canal for it.”
The City has committed to dredge and rehabilitate Zeekoevlei and to the rehabilitation of other water-bodies in Cape Town.
Schwerdtfeger added FOZR said was encouraged by the will and determination of the current administration to tackle these challenges that were a direct result of decades of inadequate maintenance and effective planning.