The sewage crisis in Kraaifontein is a public health time bomb, warned Dr Andile Zimba from the City of Cape Town’s health department at a Subcouncil 2 meeting last week.
According to Zimba public health is at the centre of the ongoing sewage spills in Wallacedene that pollutes large parts of the city via three contaminated rivers. He warned of the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever and gastroenteritis.
“Raw sewage is not supposed to run into (retention) ponds or water streams,” he said to a chamber brimming with City officials of all the relevant City departments.In the hot seat were Mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis and City manager Lungelo Mbandazayo to report back on a short-term service delivery plan developed to tackle the stinky affair.
This follows an urgent plea made to the mayor and city manager by previous subcouncil 2 chair Marian Nieuwoudt in March this year reminding them of their mutual legislative accountability for service delivery failures. Calling the area a “slum” Nieuwoudt said the pollution has become untenable and constituted an infrastructure and service delivery failure.
The main source of sewage spills originates around the Covid Squatter camps where some 9 400 shacks sprung up next to the formal township of Bloekombos in a landgrab during the pandemic. Existing infrastructure collapsed under the pressure of the population explosion in the midst of ongoing illegal dumping into the stormwater and sewer systems. Streams of raw sewage in the streets where many young children play is a common sight, while contaminated retention ponds spill over in the city canals, and rivers that bear the brunt of it.
Pollution
To the north-west, sewage flows from the canals into Mosselbank River through the suburb of Kraaifontein, past Durbanville and downstream into Milnerton lagoon and the ocean; and to the south-east, it flows from the Botfontein canal into Bottelary River at the back of Brackenfell into Kuils River downstream to Macassar and into the ocean, polluting agricultural and residential areas along their way.
TygerBurger previously reported that instances of sewage pollution were reported by downstream landowners resulting in National Environmental Management Act (Nema) notices being issued.
The newspaper was informed by a reliable source that millions were allegedly spent on implementing a turnaround service plan for the area back in 2021, a plan that was abruptly halted. TygerBurger could not confirm the exact amount from the City, who in response to a media inquiry stated that “they had no answers”.
Sewage contamination was reported as early as 2017 by residents of Joostenbergvlakte, a rural area adjacent to Bloekombos. Residents first became aware of the stench in September 2017 coming from the stormwater canal running along Joostenbergvlakte on the N1 on the other side of Bloekombos. The sewage contamination was confirmed when residents took water samples from the canal and retention dam for tests at ARC Elsenberg Research Laboratory. Tests indicated the E.coli count in the water samples to be 3 000 times over the legal limit at a toxic level.
“The results were sent to the City of Cape Town but nothing much happened as the City made it off as being caused by rotten plant material in the water and not sewage,” Karin van Zyl told TygerBurger earlier this year. Originating from the gut of humans and animals, E. coli is a group of bacteria that can cause infections in your gut, urinary tract, and other parts of your body.
Feedback
At last week’s meeting Hill-Lewis apologised for the delay in feedback to the subcouncil. He informed the subcouncil that a short-term service plan for Wallacedene and Bloekombos had been drawn up as a result of Nieuwoudt’s persistent unhappiness with the service delivery here, saying he appreciated her activism to drive the issue. “As head of the executive I must be accountable when dissatisfaction is taking place in the City,” he said.
According to the service plan tabled, work over the next three to six months – for which budget were made available – will focus on critical needs. A broader medium- to long-term plan will then be drafted to build on the aforesaid service delivery turnaround programme developed in 2021.
Main objectives include the mitigation of health risks and to reduce environmental pollution. The City’s scientific services have previously considered the treatment of the water with enzymes but has found that it was not effective and they are now investigating other options.
Interventions include better access to stormwater and sewer manholes for cleaning that has already commenced. In this case 125 shacks were found built on top of manholes, of which 55 were moved. Photos included in the report show heaps of rocks and rubbish removed from manholes.
According to official Vincent Harris a four-metre access road was secured and constructed using milled tar and upright kerb stones. In addition debris is being removed from the relevant ponds to help resolve pollution affecting several streets in Bloekombos and downstream in Joli and School streets in Kuils River as well as the Botfontein and Kuils River canals. Other major interventions include the installation of a new sewer line that will require the relocation of 22 shacks and the reconstruction of streets after the containment of sewer and grey water overflow.
Moreover, the capacity of Scottsdene Waste Water Treatment Works will be increased to handle more sewage and future developments.The City committed to the annual removal of alien vegetation at the Sandringham and Botfontein ponds and the dredging of strormwater ponds as well as the Bottelary and Upper Mosselbank Rivers to remove sewer sludge.
On top of that an environmental specialist and fresh water ecologist will be appointed to focus on environmental assessments and remediation to ensure compliance with NEMA and other Water Acts.
In conclusion Geordin-Hill Lewis commented that this plan is a start but that much more remains to be done to improve service delivery in these areas.
