Sewage spill in Mbombela’s botanical garden goes unattended
A pump station leak in the Lowveld National Botanical Garden has been ongoing since 2018 and continues to pollute the rivers and soil. The smell is also terribly unpleasant to visitors.
Thousands of litres of poorly treated or possibly untreated sewage have been flowing into the Lowveld National Botanical Garden, being not only unpleasant to look at, but also carrying a considerable stench with it.
According to Mandisa Ndlovu, the garden’s spokesperson, there is a Silulumanzi sewer pump station in the garden that is part of its purification network. “This issue has been ongoing since 2018,” she said. “Someone from Silulumanzi has promised to fix the spillage, but nothing has been done since.”
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Sewage is characterised in terms of semisolid liquids discharged due to manmade or natural activities and may include industrial, commercial, human or other animal excreta and storm water runoff. If untreated, sewage can become a hazardous source of pollutants or contaminants that can infiltrate the human ecosystem and be dangerous to the health and hygiene, but more so, to the environment as well.
The overflow currently runs down a slope into the Crocodile and Nels rivers that cut through the gardens, contaminating the water.
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Ndlovu said there have been some complaints by visitors regarding the sewage spill. The ongoing load-shedding crisis in the country, however, also does not help the cause in the slightest. “The overflow usually occurs during load-shedding and generator power outages,” she said. When there is no power, the pump station is at a standstill, and the suction of the sewage water through the pipes cannot continue.
By the time of publishing this, Silulumanzi had not yet responded to enquiries regarding this problem. It had issued a new job card for the spill in the meantime, however.
