Nelson Mandela Bay is on the verge of a health and environmental disaster due to the municipality not protecting all of its wastewater treatment works from loadshedding.

Millions of litres of raw sewage is flowing into the metro due to several wastewater treatment works not operating during loadshedding. This is happening while the municipality has the ability to protect these facilities from loadshedding.

Loadshedding is currently at Level 4 causing two or three blackouts daily, but of the municipality’s wastewater treatment works, only Fishwater Flats and Kelvin Jones operate during these rolling blackouts.

The DA has now written to the City Manager to request that all treatment works be protected from loadshedding to mitigate this imminent disaster.

The treatment works at Cape Recife, Driftsands, Despatch, KwaNobuhle and Rocklands lose power and treatment ceases. Raw sewage flowing into these works flows out without any purification. There is no way of storing raw sewage in order to treat it once the electricity supply is restored.

On average, the following flows will be measured leaving each of the affected works during any particular two-hour blackout:

• Cape Recife: 580 000 litres
• Driftsands: 750 000 litres
• KwaNobuhle: 250 000 litres
• Despatch: 250 000 litres
• Rocklands: 2500 litres

A total of 1,6 million litres of raw, untreated sewage flows into the environment for every two-hour blackout period, and thus at least 3,2 million litres for each day of Level 4 loadshedding.

The Swartkops River is the victim with respect to KwaNobuhle and Despatch. This river has been rendered toxic for human contact and is fast becoming a potential dead zone for aquatic life.

The Cape Recife works discharges over the rocky shores in the Cape Recife nature reserve, while Driftsands discharges into grasslands along the coast, and ultimately into the sea near Noordhoek. These discharges endanger human and animal life in the area.

If sufficient responses are not received from the City Manager, we will escalate the matter to the national Departments of Environmental Affairs and of Water and Sanitation.

We will not allow this crisis to endanger our people and natural resources.

The DA is fighting for you. Let’s get NMB working again.

 

Issued by Cllr Annette Lovemore - DA NMB Spokesperson for Public Health