- There is no need for Milnerton residents to be alarmed by the low levels of Milnerton Lagoon water at low tide.
- The City of Cape Town has confirmed the lagoon’s emptiness is a result of rain and flooding which happened in September.
- The City said that in the coming years, it aimed to restore the lagoon environment through multi-billion-rand sewerage and stormwater infrastructure upgrades, coupled with on-the-ground pollution-mitigation measures.
The Milnerton Central Residents’ Association has informed residents there is no need to be alarmed by the low levels of Milnerton Lagoon water at low tide.
The City of Cape Town has confirmed the lagoon’s emptiness is a result of rain and flooding which happened in September. The heavy flooding affected many parts of Cape Town (including the lagoon) and washed the sandbank at the mouth of the lagoon away completely.
Caroline Marx of the residents’ association, who heads the area’s environmental portfolio and lobbies to keep the lagoon clean, says low water levels are a good sign.
Cleaner water
She says during low tide there’s little-to-no water in the lagoon and during high tide water flushes through it with birds, seals and fish visiting it too.
“So encouraging to see fish and birds and sealife returning to Milnerton Lagoon now that the water is cleaner,” she said in a public post on Facebook.
“The erosion of the sandbank at the Lagoon Mouth means the water level at low tide is lower, but that far cleaner seawater is flooding into the Lagoon at high tide. Nature has a wonderful ability to recover if the pollution is stopped at its source.”
Resident Bernadine Jansen said she thought something was wrong with the water quality when she saw the low water levels.
“Yet again, I have to say I thought our lagoon was totally lost due to the pollution,” she said.
Restoring quality
Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation Zahid Badroodien says his department is fully committed to restoring the quality and health of Milnerton Lagoon and has devised a comprehensive action plan to achieve this.
“The plan encompasses short-term interventions and long-term strategies to address urban pollution in the lagoon,” he says.
During major flooding in winter the system was flushed by the excessive rainfall, says Mayco Member for Spatial Planning and Environment (and Deputy Mayor) Eddie Andrews.
“This resulted in sediment on the estuary floor being flushed out to sea,” he explains. “The flushing that took place, together with the spring lows that have occurred, may be attributed to the current change in the system.
“This greater tidal variation should be welcomed as it indicates a much healthier and functional estuary mouth with the greater intrusion of healthy seawater at high tide reaching further into the system and bringing beneficial oxygen levels.”
Upgrades
At the Milnerton Lagoon quarterly meeting in September to update the community, a City initiative to help improve the Milnerton Lagoon’s water quality, environmentalists said they were happy about the feedback. Now the waiting game was on for implementation.
The City had previously provided updates on the effective short-term solutions, which are already showing significant improvements in effluent quality at the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) and water pollution-mitigation measures in place, such as the installation of litter traps.
The City said that in the coming years, it aimed to restore the lagoon environment through multi-billion-rand sewerage and stormwater infrastructure upgrades, coupled with on-the-ground pollution-mitigation measures.
Three of these major infrastructure upgrades are already underway: the R5,2 billion Potsdam WWTW upgrade, R430 million on Montague Gardens bulk sewer rehabilitation and R118 million invested in the Koeberg pump-station upgrade.
