Environmentalists met with residents at the Ocean Power Boat Club on Thursday to alert them of the hazards of sewage pollution along the Atlantic coast.
Dr Jo Barnes, senior lecturer emeritus in the faculty of medicine and health sciences at Stellenbosch University; Professor Leslie Petrik, group leader of environmental and nano sciences at UWC; Dr Cleeve Robertson, CEO of the National Sea Rescue Institute; and Jean Tresfon, a marine conservation photographer, all spoke out against Cape Town’s daily sewage discharge into the sea.
The City operates three marine outfalls, Hout Bay, Green Point and Camps Bay, and the Atlantic Sun has reported on the pollution issue (“Camps Bay marine outfall causes a stink,” February 11, 2022; “Sewage matters under spotlight, March 16, 2023; and “Experts question Blue Flag water testing,” June 1, 2023).
“I found documents online, the original permit applications for the outfalls and written in handwriting in column next to alternatives considered, then water and sanitation guy Kevin Sampson’s handwriting says there is no economic viable alternative, no one’s done the numbers, no one’s crunched the data, no ones figured it out, no one’s costed building packed treatment plants next to the outfalls and that’s how it goes,” said Mr Tresfon.
He adds that there is better communication with the City through Dr Zahid Badroodien, the mayoral committee member for water and sanitation, who met with the environmentalists on June 2.
“We have had meetings with him and that’s a great step forward but we haven’t received the minutes of that meeting and studies that have been done we have not received the results, so the promises are not being met,” he said.
Dr. Barnes expressed her concerns about the diseases (respiratory) that can result from contaminated seawater, as well as the faltering municipal infrastructure that is unable to handle this burden.
“Nobody in the sewage treatment department is handing over their budget to assist the hospitals, we already have a crumbling close to collapsed health services for public health in this country, we do not need, potentially avoidable cases, of so many people being infected due to poor treatment from a municipal service,” she said.
Professor Petrik says sewage from marine outfalls has extended further than the City has recorded, as evidenced by a survey that carried them from the Atlantic coast to Rooi Els, examining sea water, sediments, and seaweeds.
“The composition of our sea water has low levels of chemicals in it so if you did test it you would say its such a little bit, why are you fussing about it, the trouble is that this stuff bioaccumulates. We have found contaminants as far as Robben Island and let me tell you that the penguins are contaminated by chemicals, their eggs are full of naproxen, that’s the stuff you rub on your sore muscles, we also sampled snoek out in False Bay and that fish is full of diclofenac and that’s also stuff you rub on your muscles, you can buy that over the counter at a chemist. We have found traces of antibiotics as well. The fish, the mussels, sea urchins, starfish, they have to deal with compounds and they don’t have the metabolic pathways to deal with,” said Professor Petrik.
According to Caroline Marx of NPC RethinkTheStink, the Milnerton lagoon was a spawning place for fish, but this has not occurred in the last three years due to sewage contamination.
“Although South Africa has excellent environmental laws, getting these enforced is not easy. There were complaints made to the Green Scorpions and directives followed in 2020. These directives instructed the City to fix the problems but the progress was slow and by 2021 the ecosystem had completely collapsed with the complete disappearance of all fish, crabs and even the green water weed,” Ms Marx said.
Dr Badroodien said the City will hold a pre-briefing session to present the draft scope of the commissioned research investigating potential improvements to the marine outfalls disposal.
“At the same pre-briefing the public participation process will also be launched with all dates and comment opportunities,” he said.
This pre-briefing was due to take place yesterday, Wednesday September 20, at Camps Bay High School.
