Raw sewage pours into Umvoti feeder stream at Greytown

Masses of raw sewage has been spilling into the Greytown stream seemingly on an ongoing basis. The spillage is of grave concern to the iLembe district as the Greytown stream is one of the feeder streams for the Umvoti river which supplies water to the iLembe District. Game farmers in Greytown have been forced to pump drinking water from boreholes for their animals to drink.

Residents have to hold their breath because of the stench when passing the stream or being caught down wind. Children play and walk home from school along the stream and this poses a serious health risk to the community of Greytown. Hepatitis A and Cholera are two of the serious diseases that are spread through contact with water contaminated with sewage.

The Courier visited Greytown on Thursday, August 28, and found the water purification system to be dysfunctional. The maturation pond was empty and what looked like dried out faeces was left to pile up next to the drying beds. A Greytown resident pointed out that some of the dried out faeces falls is falling down the back of the drying beds and into the Greytown stream. He says the purification plant cannot cope. The man explained that a drying bed is where sludge is allowed to dry and form a crust on top. Here water filters through to the bottom and flows into the maturation pond. In the maturation pond any remaining solids sink to the bottom. From there the almost clean water flows to the clarifiers where purification chemicals are added.

Umzinyathi district spokesperson, Nomonde Nzimakwe said their Water department visited the plant on Wednesday September 3 “and it is functioning as well as it was designed to do”. She said on investigation, all her team found was scum from the clarifiers that was being scraped and dropped on the grass. She believed “the scum was emanating from a local effluent being discharged into the treatment plant”. Nzimakwe said the plant operators have been instructed to dispose of the scum on the drying beds where it will be rendered harmless and disposed of with the dried sludge.

Nzimakwe further said the Water Service Authority will investigate the company disposing of the effluent that is generating the scum. She added that there is no accumulation of faeces and “the maturation pond was recently cleaned out and is being brought back into use”. Nzimakwe did not respond to the Courier’s questions on the massive amounts of sewage and green algae in the Greytown stream.

The Umvoti Municipality confirmed plans for a new low income housing scheme for the area and Nzimakwe assured the Courier that the municipality will upgrade the plant to accommodate future developments in the area.

The Courier alerted the iLembe District Municipality to the possibility that there might be sewerage in the uMvoti river and they promptly tested the water. Ilembe district municipality released a statement saying sewage had not been detected in the Umvoti river.

“As iLembe district municipality we have alerted our partners Umgeni Water regarding this matter and they have assured us that they will increase chlorine dosing should they detect signs of sewage.”

It concluded by saying that the iLembe municipality’s river monitoring programme is done monthly and results will be made available to ensure they capture any possible effect of the spillage in the Umvoti river.