Letter: Filthy beaches will cost us Blue Flag status

DA Cllr Geoff Pullan writes an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa:

The leadership void in eThekwini is affecting our city, KZN Province and South Africa.

The Durban area is the prime tourist beach and sea bathing area of the country. A senior provincial official has warned me that eThekwini is likely to lose one of its two Blue Flag beaches. This is because our sea water quality does not meet international standards.

Our rivers and watercourses are polluted, often with concentrations of sewerage. Caused by poor maintenance at our sewer works, lack of supervision of ablution facilities at our informal settlements and little control over building additions/alterations which are connected up to stormwater (by mistake or deliberately).

All this is happening because our city leadership is more concerned with serving themselves, rather than service delivery to the public.

I’m furious. So many people have come together to promote and look after our beaches. Tourism is our lifeblood. It creates so many jobs in eThekwini and beyond. Most people have care of our beaches. They keep their dogs away from the designated areas. They don’t braai, and they don’t fish there either. Because they know that eColi will upset our water quality.

What does our city leadership do? They seem to be more worried about keeping their jobs than looking after this natural asset, our beaches.

Mr President, please fix eThekwini. There is not much point in trying to attract foreign investment to SA, if our main tourism city is not functioning. Fix SA first, and start with eThekwini. Thank you.