Durban — eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and deputy city manager Dr Musa Gumede each had a swim at a Durban beach on Thursday.
Kaunda swam at North Beach in the afternoon, while Gumede swam at an uMhlanga beach in the morning.
This was on the same day the municipality unveiled its readiness to host a safe festive season, and a day after the DA in eThekwini said Mayor Kaunda had refused to swim at a beach he claimed was safe.
In North Beach, Kaunda said the leadership of eThekwini wanted to inform the public that most of their beaches were open and safe for swimming.
“We have partnered with one of the reputable and independent laboratories, Talbot, to constantly test the quality of our water, and we have agreed to compare and share our results publicly,” Kaunda said.
He said that on Thursday morning they had conducted an assessment at uMhlanga’s Main and Bronze beaches, and they were pleased the quality of the water had improved after receiving consistently safe results from November 10 to 25.
He also said lifeguards had been deployed to both beaches to ensure the safety of swimmers.
“Our teams continue to monitor the water quality, and we urge members of the public to rely on the information that is disseminated through various communication platforms of the municipality,” Kaunda said.
“Any information that does not come from the city regarding this and other matters will be nothing but fake news. We urge members of the public to use social media in a responsible manner and desist from sharing old visuals which mislead and cause unnecessary panic in the public.”
Kaunda said they were pleased to inform the public that uMhlanga Main, uMhlanga Bronze, Point, Ushaka, Wedge, North, Bay of Plenty, Battery, Pipeline, Toti Main, Warner, Umgababa, Ansteys and Country Club beaches were open and safe for swimming.
“The opening of these beaches demonstrates that, since the devastating April and May floods, the city has been hard at work repairing damaged sewer infrastructure that has been responsible for the pollution of our rivers and beaches.”
On closed beaches, Kaunda said that in the next few days they would be finalising repairs to the sanitation infrastructure that impacted the Westbrook, Laguna, Thekwini, uMdloti, Winklespruit, Addington, Reunion, and Brighton beaches.
“As soon as we receive improved water quality results, we will not hesitate to open these beaches,” Kaunda said.
He said that last week he had conducted an assessment of various wastewater treatment plants and sewer pump stations to check on the progress being made with regard to repairs the city was implementing on this infrastructure.
“We are pleased to report that sewer pump stations such as Ohlange have been commissioned, and contractors are on site to finalise repair work on the sewer lines and manholes,” Kaunda said.
“We are also delighted that the northern wastewater treatment works, which was submerged during the floods, is now partially operational and is able to treat a significant amount of effluent that was impacting on central beaches.”
Kaunda added that, in addition to the beaches, there were a number of swimming pools that were open, and those were Rainham, Durban North, Pipeline Paddling, Tiger Rocks, Ansteys, Westville, Kings Park complex (both indoor and outdoor), Stanmore, Umlazi D, LT King, Bayview, Arena Park, Alex Bully, Lamontville, Lahee Park, Ntuzuma, Sutton Park, South Beach Paddling, Tesoriere, Mariannridge, Tills Crescent, Croftdene, Bellair, and Umgababa.
Addressing the media after his swim, Gumede said the municipality had been monitoring all the beaches since April.
“We have opened most of the beaches in eThekwini. What we were left with were uMdloti and uMhlanga beaches, and some of the beaches on the South Coast of Durban and also around Umgeni River.
“We have not opened those up to (now) because of different reasons – because of the challenges of the infrastructure, especially around Ohlanga River, and also around Umgeni River, and also the northern wastewater works, which was damaged,” Gumede said.
“Over the last few weeks, we have repaired the northern wastewater works, and some of the issues around Umgeni are also being sorted.”
He said that the results from November 17 to 30 had shown that uMhlanga’s Main and Bronze beaches were all within normal limits. They had received safe readings since around November 15 until now.
Gumede said the municipality had conducted tests twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and all those results had been normal.
“Because the results have come down quite low – at this beach (uMhlanga Main) even less than 50 of E. coli could be found in these beaches – we found no reason to keep them closed,” Gumede said.
He said the mayor could not be there because of other engagements, but the municipality continued to stress to the public that the results at the beach were quite low and there was no reason to keep it closed.
Daily News