Silence as pollution goes on
Municipality won’t comment on sewer crisis
THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has gone to ground over a toxic industrial effluent spill into the Markman stormwater canal.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki again ignored a request for comment and did not even confirm whether a high-level meeting to discuss the crisis was held yesterday.
The municipality was first informed of the spill in Markman Industria on June 3.
But nothing has been done, despite three people needing medical help for serious respiratory distress and two litters of puppies dying after drinking the contaminated water.
The spill, at first, caused huge clouds of foam at various points along the Markman canal.
Early investigations have indicated that a blocked sewer pipe is causing an overflow into the stormwater canal system in the industrial section, but other nearby waterways are also affected.
Zwartkops Conservancy environmental officer Jenny Rump said she had never seen anything like it – a foamy, grey, fatty substance settled on the water.
“Nothing has been done from the metro’s side,” she said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the municipality filed court papers on May 30 to fight an application by the Zwartkops Conservancy to force it to spend money allocated to fix and upgrade the sewer system.
In the conservancy’s court papers filed on February 29, chairman Frank Collier said that by its calculations the total [amended] budget allocated to the upgrade and repair of the sewer system around the river amounted to R199-million.
The total amount the municipality had actually spent was R66.7-million – only 33.9% – and on some programmes, it had not spent anything.
In only two out of 19 sewer upgrade projects had it spent more than 50% of allocated funds.
The allocations were made, budget documents state, for replacing and relining sewers, improvements to the municipal sewerage system, improvements and maintenance of waste water treatment works, and stormwater drainage improvement.
Collier said in the court papers there was no doubt in his mind that if the municipality had spent the money as it should have, the spillage of pollutants could be entirely prevented.
“The waters of the river are polluted to an unacceptable degree, and indeed to a degree clearly dangerous to the health of persons utilising the river,” he said.
“While the municipality, through its officials, has in the past been extremely coy about the steps taken and to be taken to remedy the unacceptable situation, it nevertheless seems clear that the municipality [including the council] is aware of and accepts its constitutional duty.”
In response to the conservancy’s court papers, acting city manager Johann Mettler denied that the municipality was behind in spending its capital budget.
He said R2-billion would be needed to upgrade and modernise the sewer system.
After receiving a directive in 2012 from the Department of Water Affairs to clean up its act, the municipality did commit itself to better monitoring of the Markman canal – a plan that included holding ponds for effluent and dedicated testing.
However, it claimed it did not have enough funds to carry on.