Wrangling with wastewater woes
Pauline Lourens
A Denneoord couple that was besieged by sewage for over two weeks earlier this month are hoping that the municipality's efforts to address the problem will soon have permanent results. For about a week early in May, raw sewage streamed unabated into the Kat / Mitchell river from a manhole on the property of Verne and David Rabinowitz in Denneoord. The manhole is situated at the bottom of their property on Eleventh Avenue.
The George Municipality has been working at the site on and off for the last fortnight, trying to sort out recurring problems. On Friday 11 May, the municipality sent digger graders into 11th Avenue and 8th Avenue to replace sections of the main sewer line pipes.
The Kat / Mitchell river has taken the brunt of sewage spills over a number of years, which caused great concern about the resulting health implications. A sample taken from the river on Tuesday 8 May revealed that the river, which had turned bluish grey, had an abnormally high E. coli bacteria count. It showed a 42 000 per 100ml reading, which far exceeds guidelines for recreational use. Further downstream, at the property of Dawn Whitehead in Madeliefie Street, there was a 50 000 per 100ml reading.
Over the past years, residents in 11th Avenue have been quietly accepting of the regular occurrences of sewage pushing back into their gardens due to chronic blockages in their ageing main sewer system. Residents living further downstream in Eden are more vocal in their criticism of ongoing issues with water pollution.
On Monday 14 May, concerned residents held another meeting on the banks of the Kat river in Eden to discuss the situation. Ken Gie of the Friends of the Kat river said, "There cannot be anything more important than to ensure that our rivers and dam are not constantly polluted by sewage.
“If the local authorities say that the upgrading of our infrastructure and the prevention of pollution due to leaking sewer pipes is not a priority, then I do not know what, in their view, is a priority."
Children kept away
Emile Kaselowski said he has forbidden his children to play on the banks or in the Kat river for fear of them coming into direct contact with raw sewage. Commenting on the river water sample results, local water scientist Dr Jackie Dabrowski said, "E. coli does not survive for very long outside of the gastrointestinal tract of vertebrates, to which they're adapted. They are strongly out-competed by bacteria in the 'natural environment'. However, their presence in the water is a very strong indicator of the recent sewage discharge. In water quality monitoring they are used as an indicator organism to detect the presence of sewage."