Umdloti residents plead for reopening of town’s beaches

Repeated beach closures along the eThekwini seaboard have put further stress on Umdloti’s reputation as a sunny holiday destination.

This despite private testing of the water at Umdloti’s beaches indicating that E.coli levels have been within acceptable limits for at least the past month.

It has been yet another issue in a torrid year for residents of the town who have been forced to deal with widespread infrastructure damage following the April and May floods.

Umdloti’s main sewerage works in the centre of the town were left damaged for months, raising legitimate concerns about the safety of swimming, but the works have since been fixed.

Umdloti Smart Village, who raised funds from residents for independent testing of the water, has called on the municipality to reopen the beaches to prevent any further holiday booking impact.

“The results once again confirm that our bathing beaches are clean and safe. We need the municipality to act swiftly to promote our town for the destination it is,” said Smart Village precinct manager, Vicky Schnetler.

Although bookings for the busiest two-week period over Christmas and New Year are almost at normal levels, the impact has been felt throughout the year, said David Downes of Umdloti Letting and Sales.

“We have definitely seen less of a pickup outside of the peak period than usual. But what is also worrying is that through these last few months, there have been heavily reduced weekend bookings. It’s hard to sell a beach destination where you can’t use the beach,” said Downes.

He indicated that since the private results have circulated, booking inquiries have picked up, but letting stakeholders were put in a difficult position without a municipal timeframe on reopening.

Beaches in Umdloti and across the eThekwini seaboard have been closed on-and-off since the floods, with a sustained period of closure since August.

eThekwini metro spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, indicated that the decision is made by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environment Affairs (EDTEA).

EDTEA had not responded to the Courier’s queries at the time of print.

It is understood the municipality is waiting until issues at Umhlanga are fixed before opening the northern section of beaches.

Private testing has been undertaken every Tuesday since October 18 at the areas of GreenFire, Tidal Pool, Southern Car Park, Peace Cottage and Mount Moreland.

Only Mount Moreland, which is outside of the main swimming area, has delivered results outside of ‘ideal’ since testing has begun.

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