Durban - Raw sewage has been pouring into the Palmiet River for nearly 18 months and the eThekwini Municipality has been unable to halt discharges from some manholes along its course.
According to one resident, he was passed from one municipal official to another when he complained about the sewage seepage into the river.
The Sunday Tribune has seen emails sent by Hugh Bowman to various officials about his concerns after he had traced the source of the pollution, at his own volition, to an overflowing manhole on the trunk main on the north bank of the river, between the M32 and the M19 highways in the New Germany area, outside Durban.
The 22km-long river snakes from its starting point near St Mary’s School in Kloof, through parts of Pinetown and Westville before connecting with the umngeni River, near Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course in Reservoir Hills.
With the Palmiet running through his Westville property, Bowman, a civil engineer, noticed the water had become blue-green in colour and decided to investigate.
After his field trip, Bowman sought answers from the municipality and also sent pictures and videos of a manhole discharging sewage.
One official told Bowman that a bank slippage occurred when Durban experienced heavy downpours in April 2019, which caused the sewerage pipeline to become permanently blocked.
As a result, sewage overflows from upstream manholes.
Bowman said officials from the City’s water and sanitation department told him they were unable to unblock the trunk main, and the work required to fix the problem was beyond their repair mandate.
“It seems a major contract needs to be awarded to replace the entire line.
At different points on the river, you can see the offending manholes discharging sewage into the river.”
After making his grim discovery, Bowman said he was passed from municipal official to another but battled to get responses.
“I’ve lived on the Palmiet since 1984. Previously there were plenty of fish, eels and crabs … but they all have been completely decimated.
No municipality should knowingly discharge sewage into a watercourse; it is illegal,” said Bowman.
Lee D’eathe of the Palmiet River Valley Conservancy joined Bowman and Sunday Tribune on a site visit this week. After witnessing sewage seeping from a manhole, D’eathe described the previously functional and beautiful Palmiet as “an open sewer”.
“There is a very serious situation that needs urgent attention.”
He said the river had an historical
Even the iconic plant the river was named after no longer exists here Lee D’eathe PALMIET RIVER VALLEY CONSERVANCY
pollution problem, and ever since 2015, his organisation had registered more than 100 serious water pollution events with the municipality.
In apportioning blame, D’eathe said some factors included ageing infrastructure, poor enforcement, development and densification, land misuse, industry and corruption.
“While they all contribute to a greater or lesser degree, a major problem is people disposing of anything other than toilet paper into sewer systems which caused an assortment of problems thereafter.”
D’eathe said pollution was a problem throughout the Palmiet and at other water sources in the municipality’s care, for several interrelated reasons, and this had a devastating impact on the environment.
As a way forward, D’eathe called on the municipality to lead by example by being legally compliant and holding every land and business owner accountable for infringements of building, environmental and water legislation.
He bemoaned that long stretches of the river were devoid of almost all the aquatic creatures that naturally existed there.
“The community can rightly claim that ongoing river water pollution has caused the fish, crabs, legavaans and birds to disappear.
“Even the iconic plant the river was named after, the “Palmiet” ( Prionium serratum), no longer exists here!”
In response, Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-ncube issued a joint statement on behalf of her department and ethekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
“We are aware of the challenges you have been highlighting over the past few months from affected communities. Mayor Kaunda and I have resolved to work hands-on in resolving sewage spillages, river and air pollution in general.
“We are assembling a crack and roving team of environmentalists and technical experts across all spheres of government and the private sector to attend to these matters with urgency.
“We are also contemplating using some experts who handled the oil spillage in the Umbilo River and Durban Canal Harbour.
This, to bridge the gap between ourselves, affected communities and ratepayers associations.”
Dube-ncube said in responding to the sewage situation in La Mercy in last weekend’s edition of the Tribune, they confirmed their commitment to using the Council on Climate Change to ensure the cleaning of the coastline and the riverbanks.
“We will also use community leaders, non-governmental organisations and academics for this purpose and use this plan, with communities, to address all these challenges,” she said.