Municipality allays water quality concerns

At a site meeting in Tergniet this past week the Mossel Bay Municipality undertook to request the Eden District Municipality (DM) to take samples from the tidal pool and beach. This followed complaints from residents about water quality and particularly about the foul smell of the water.

The municipality asked the Eden DM specifically for assistance with the testing of the water from a public health perspective on the tidal pools along Kusweg, Tergniet and Reebok, the beaches adjacent to the tidal pools in Tergniet and Reebok, the Hartenbos estuary at the normal locations, and the Great Brak estuary at the normal locations.

As the Eden DM did not respond to the municipality's request, the municipal environmental officer took a sample on Wednesday which will be tested for e-coli by an independent laboratory. The results should be available next week.

Based on what was seen during the site visit there is no reason to believe that there has been a spill of sewerage or any other hazardous chemicals.

In a press release, the municipality said there was no foul smelling sludge or thick foam, only sea foam which one expects along the coast. The rock pools were not devoid of life as was suggested, and there were no signs of large scale deaths of marine organisms.

There has not been large scale pollution along the greater Mossel Bay coastline from October until now, as has been suggested by some of the complainants. During the holiday period, Mossel Bay's beaches are packed with lifesavers, extra cleaning staff and scores of visitors and there were no reports of any pollution.

In addition, extensive water quality monitoring was done at Santos, De Bakke, Glentana and Hartenbos beaches and these results do not indicate any pollution.

The only environmental health-related issues that arose since October 2017 were the nurdles (plastic balls) that washed up on beaches and the deaths of marine birds, attributed to avian influenza.