River cleans up its act in time for Dusi canoe classic

WATER quality in the rivers in the Pietermaritzburg area that feed the canoe route Dusi paddlers will enter next month is at its worst.

However, an upbeat David Still, chairman of the Dusi uMngeni Conservation Trust (Duct) which works on clearing the course of litter and invasive plants, said: “It’s nothing that it has never been before, as it was in 2012.”

KwaZulu-Natal’s Water and Sanitation Department is the custodian of all raw water, including river water, but could not be reached at the time of going to press. Neither could the Msundusi or Umgungundlovu municipalities.

Still stressed that water specially released from the Henley Dam would, as usual, make the river far cleaner.

“If there haven’t been heavy storms immediately before the Dusi, 70 to 80 percent of the water in which canoeists paddle is clean water out of Henley Dam,” he said.

“If there have been, it’s more like 50 percent.”

Shami Harichunder, spokesman for Umgeni Water, said that for at least 48 hours before the start of the Dusi Canoe Marathon, the utility releases water from the Henley Dam.

“It then makes its way into the Msunduzi River, increasing the level of the river to a point where participating canoeists would be able to make their way through it with ease,” he said.

“The dam is emptied out by half – 50 percent – for the Dusi Marathon.

“On average, about 3 million kilolitres of water are released from Henley Dam for the Dusi Canoe Marathon. A similar amount will be released for the 2015 race.”

Harichunder added that the water that was released into the Msunduzi River finally made its way downstream into Inanda Dam.

Still said that the irony was that rain did not clean the river because it instead encouraged the blocking of stormwater drains, and also caused surface filth to flow into the river.

Duct general manager Doug Band added that teams had worked consistently through the year to rid the Dusi route of litter and water hyacinth, as well as water lettuce.

“This time the problem is not as bad as this time last year. We didn’t let up in the year.”

He said the problem plants in question were “set off ” by sewage pollution, and had also been sprayed with weedkiller herbicides.

Dusi Canoe Marathon spokesman Brett Austen-Smith said that were the race to have been held this weekend, storms would have triggered problems.

“That justified the reasons we moved the race to February. In general, weather patterns are more settled in February. The river systems around KwaZulu- Natal have been flushed out by December and January.”

The marathon takes place on February 19, 20 and 21. Austen-Smith said the responsibility to keep the rivers clean “lies ultimately and jointly with us all, as human beings” adding that industry, the city, government departments and Umgeni Water were all stakeholders.