eThekwini Municipality has closed Umhlanga beaches due to poor water quality and contamination from the raw sewage crisis engulfing the city. Picture:supplied
Durban — ActionSA has expressed concerns that the recent closure of all the beaches in uMhlanga before the school holidays will further affect tourism, not only in uMhlanga, but in all of eThekwini.
This comes after eThekwini Municipality once again closed beaches in uMhlanga due to poor water quality and contamination from the raw sewage crisis engulfing the city.
ActionSA eThekwini councillor Alan Beesley said tourism in eThekwini was on the back foot and beach closures before school holidays were extremely worrying, especially for those who depended on an influx of tourists during these times to make a living.
“Last December’s festive period tourism was down 22%, and there is little doubt that tourism in this June/ July school holidays will be similar or further down.
“Besides the sewage causing the beach closure, the smell of sewage on several parts of the uMhlanga Promenade is unbearable.
“Umhlanga is meant to be a prime tourist destination not only for eThekwini but for the entire province. Sadly the experiences of those tourists who visit uMhlanga are far from encouraging,” said Beesley.
He said what was becoming patently clear was that eThekwini Municipality did not have fresh ideas on how to fix the sewage crisis.
“The eThekwini Water and Sanitation Action Plan, which the municipality prepared following ActionSA’s court action, is not credible and will not solve the crisis. The plan has tried to impress the court and others with quantity as opposed to quality and is clearly copy and paste with some documents going back to 2013.
“One of the claims made in the action plan is that 98% of pump stations and 100% of wastewater treatment plants are operational. This is certainly not the case as evidenced by the high E coli levels in the city’s rivers and the recent beach closures in uMhlanga and other beaches,” said Beesley.
EThekwini Municipality spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the City was aware of the beach closures.
“The City can confirm that uMhlanga Main and Bronze beaches are closed following the failure of two pumps at Portland pump station. We have since sourced another pump and the pump station is now operational.
“The overflow to the beach has stopped and the water should clear soon and we will continue to keep residents and visitors abreast of water test results,” said Khuzwayo.
She said for beach water quality results, residents could access the City’s website www.durban.gov.za
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