Mark Jackson, Tamboerskloof
Thank you for the article regarding the City’s report to outline options to our marine outfalls (Report to outline options for sewage treatment, June 15 2023).
In response to the City official's defence of the existing setup, I'd like to point out:
• When the City of Cape Town (CoCT) says the outfalls are “meeting their design objectives...”, they forget to add ‘’...of the 1970's“ – a time when we also put lead in paint and petrol, and mined asbestos for water pipes, and many other disastrous initiatives, simply because we didn't know any better.
• When CoCT points out these marine outfalls cover only 5% of Cape Town's sewage output, they forget to mention that these are the only systems not actually treating the effluent, but instead dumping it effectively-raw, and directly into our National Marine Park of the Cape Peninsula.
• When CoCT mentions the studies done, they forget to mention their summary of their joint-city-CSIR study failed to include some of very serious concerns expressed in that report. They also fail to mention the fully-independently peer-reviewed studies which, for example used more detailed methodology which resulted in some contradictory findings to the City’s reports...
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!”