‘Swim in sea at your peril’ – Durban mayor challenged

In spite of Durban’s eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda assuring residents and visitors the city’s beaches are safe for swimming, experts and civil organisations have said unless a miracle has occurred in the last couple of days, they are still not ready for holidaymakers.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse chief executive Wayne Duvenage dared Kaunda to go for a swim in one of the reopened beaches after noting there was inconsistency in the story behind the allegedly high levels of E. coli in the sea water suddenly being non-existent, and beaches being declared safe.

ALSO READ: ’20 beaches are safe for swimming,’ says KZN premier ahead of festive season

He said the reopening came too quickly because “unless they fixed the water treatment plants, Has the city attended to all the sewage coming onto beaches? It’s quite concerning that we are reopening based on the effects on tourism and not actually the safety of these beaches”.

“They’re angry because it’s having an impact on the tourism in eThekwini. “It’s just sad because it’s a serious problem. If they’re just saying that and don’t mean it because the E. coli count has gone down a little bit, that might just be due to current changes and weather patterns,” Duvenage said.

He said holidaymakers could find themselves in a difficult situation in a week or two’s time.

“The city needs to tell us if they’ve resolved the problem; what have they done to the waste-water treatment plants to make it better? Have they suddenly fixed them? Have they suddenly attended to all the sewage that’s coming out of those into the rivers and onto the beaches?

ALSO READ: N3 Toll Concession warns holiday makers to brace for busy traffic conditions

“Until they can tell the public what they’ve physically done and did inspections of those treatment plants that are causing the pollution of the rivers, there’s no proof that it’s been fixed.”

According to Kaunda, the positive results came from water quality testing, conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology at the Durban University of Technology.

“The city’s results sampled on 12 December as part of its weekly routine testing have also revealed that of the 23 bathing beaches, 20 are E. coli compliant with acceptable standards for swimming and other water recreational use,” Kaunda said.

“The safety of residents and visitors remains a priority and with constant testing, we want to assure holidaymakers and residents of their safety. These results confirm an improvement in our beach water quality.

“Most are compliant with excellent and acceptable standards for swimming and other recreational use.”

Open beaches include uShaka, Addington, Point, North and Bay of Plenty beaches, while those closed include Pipeline, Winklespruit and Anstey’s beaches.

READ MORE: Code Red: Swimming in sea along Cape Town’s coastline ‘like playing Russian Roulette’

Additionally, 34 swimming pools, including the recently reopened Laguna paddling pool, contribute to the city’s recreational offerings.

However, Duvenage said this would only be a temporary situation related to weather patterns. “It would certainly not be a situation relating to any work done, and it’s very concerning,” he said.

Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa national spokesperson Rosemary Anderson said Durban’s roller-coaster of the beaches being opened and closed was the opposite of what tourism needed to thrive.

“The municipality has single-handedly caused immense financial and reputational damage to tourism and hospitality in Durban,” she added.

“Durban’s municipality has for many years discharged inadequately treated waste-water into the sea – this is well documented.

“The floods were not the cause of their sewerage infrastructure problems, they just exacerbated this. “It is a municipality’s mandate to provide bulk services so that businesses can function safely.

ALSO READ: Travelling to Durban by car is cheaper this year than last Christmas

“Unfortunately Durban’s municipality is doing exactly the opposite – they, in fact, are damaging business and tourism.

“There should be a retribution penalty imposed on a municipality which damages businesses, as they are currently doing.”

Environmental activist Penny Hlavasa agreed with Duvenage and said E. coli bacteria were known to cause a range of health issues, including gastrointestinal infections and other waterborne illnesses.

“There are no precautionary measures they should take, apart from urging the public to avoid direct contact with the contaminated water,” she said.