Sewage and mining ‘poisoning’ KZN river
● Environmental organisations and residents say a major water source on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast is being “poisoned” by sewage spills, illegal sand mining, dumping and pollution from factories while the municipality drags its heels in addressing the problem.
The Green Net not-for-profit company and the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) said that despite complaints to the national department of water & sanitation, pollution of the Umzimkulu River has resulted in an unreliable water supply in the region.
In June, residents reported sewage spilling into the 400km river despite a November directive from water & sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu to set aside R150m to address the Ugu district’s water challenges. But the municipality says that while a major R120m pipeline upgrade is under way the water supply is expected to remain erratic for up to two years.
“The situation is bad, and the municipality is not helpful and is dragging its feet to resolve the constant breakdown of infrastructure in the whole district,” said the Albersville Ratepayers Association’s Sal Musa. “One week we don’t have water, the next sewage spills are on every street. Over the past months sewage has been spilling into the river, and that’s not new, but it’s getting worse,” Musa said. “We did bring this to the attention of the municipality, but nothing has been done.”
But the department said it was aware of issues regarding sewage pollution of the river and the alleged unlawful river sand mining, after a complaint in July. “In addition, a directive was issued in May 2022, which is still active and being monitored. The department met with Ugu on October 17 [over] the issues of sewage pollution in the area. Regular inspections of hotspot areas and investigations of complaints from the public are being conducted.”
Helen Dodge, a founding partner of Green Net, said in addition to the water infrastructure breakdowns, illegal sand mining was taking place, which left the riverbank unrehabilitated. “Because the rest of the river in the district is polluted, we find that we don’t have that healthy estuarine function happening any more,” she said. “A lot of what should be estuaries are now salty lagoons. Also, we all know that there is a water shortage in Ugu and issues with contaminated water and beaches. With the river not being taken care of, there is no doubt a lot of people will be without water. I’m not sure if the department and the district understand how important this is or if they just ignore it.”
The municipality is proposing that a weir be constructed across the river to address water shortages and sea water getting into the reservoir. It is looking to spend more than R3bn on the project, which will be a few metres downstream from the St Helen’s Rock pump station.
The department said sand mining activity was found downstream of the municipal extraction point during inspections of the river in July. It said it was in the process of finalising the administrative notice of enforcement action against the company doing the mining. Dodge said the municipality should instead focus on invasive plants, which eat up to 43% of the surface water in the river.
Wessa regional chair and retired natural scientist Paddy Norman said the pollution had implications for the local economy. “The pollution we see is extreme and not only affects fish life cycles but also leads to the closure of beaches, affecting the tourism industry,” he said.
Brian Lange, 76, who has been fishing in the river since 1970, said over the years the state of the river had deteriorated. Lange, who runs a B&B on the riverbank, said the conditions had affected his business as sewage leaked into the water.
“The issue of unmaintained pump stations around riverbanks is a serious issue. On some days, the smell of the water is unbearable, and when the wind is blowing upwards, water enters the reservoir and we get salt water, which is a big problem,” he said.
Water expert Prof Anthony Turton said the river was ecologically and culturally important and had an estuary with a functional tidal pulse. He said the proposed weir was an inappropriate solution to an inadequately defined problem. “Unregulated sand mining has created the problem of saline intrusion at St Helen’s Rock, and sand mining will become the biggest beneficiary of the project as masses of concrete will be needed, and the weir will become a sand trap as it captures the natural flow of sediment from the mountains to the sea,” he said.
Ugu municipality said the river was within acceptable levels for the municipality to extract raw water from. It did not respond to queries about the sewage leaks and action against illegal sand mining.