Durban - A large number of beachgoers were swimming at the Golden Mile Beach (New Beach) yesterday despite the eThekwini Municipality stating that beaches along the Durban beachfront were closed due to poor water quality.
On September 16, the municipality issued a notice stating that a number of Durban beaches were closed due to tests revealing poor water quality at these beaches. The beaches were Brighton, Ansteys, Point, uShaka, Addington, South, Wedge, North, Bay of Plenty, Battery, Country Club Thekwini, Laguna, Baggies and Reunion beaches.
Asked for clarity yesterday on whether any of the Durban beaches were opened for water activities, including New Beach, which is between closed beaches – Wedge Beach and Addington Beach – the municipality referred The Mercury to its September 16 statement on the beaches.
It added that anyone found to be swimming at closed beaches was in contravention of the directive that it issued.
“The communication issued was not meant to inconvenience anyone but was for public safety. We ask that people respect the directive and not swim in the water. We will continue to monitor the water quality and apprise the public of any changes.”
A man, who is visiting Durban from Joburg, said he came to the beach to swim with his family because he was on holiday.
“I didn’t know anything about the beach closure. I’m on holiday with my family and wanted to go to the beach. We didn’t know anything about the water being contaminated and beaches being closed. I will be going back to Joburg soon.”
Another man admitted that he knew about the closure of the beaches but said he still decided to swim due to yesterday’s hot weather,
“My friends and I went to the beach. We felt very hot and decided to swim. We knew the beaches were closed but still decided to go in.”
Another beachgoer Snakhokonke Sibiya said she had not been aware that the beach was closed.
“I needed to relax so I came to the beach. I was not aware that the beach was closed but I’m not going back to swim.”
Thabani Mthethwa, DA eThekwini caucus leader said he would raise the matter of members of the public swimming at beaches in a meeting today.
“We will be calling upon the eThekwini Municipality to ensure that there is more law enforcement present and to ensure that members of the public do not swim at beaches that are closed. At the end of the day the eThekwini Municipality has to take responsibility for not attending to the sewage problem and now we are in a situation where members of the public are faced with the problem of getting sick if they swim at beaches when this could have been avoided.”
The IFP’s Mdu Nkosi said the beach closures came at the wrong time for the city.
“We are having the Cosafa Beach soccer tournament and visitors from Africa may have wanted to swim but now they are not able to. We call upon lifeguards and law-enforcement to ensure that people do not swim at Durban beaches. We call upon the municipality to resolve this situation and ensure that sewage does not get into our beaches. It is disappointing as we know school is closing on Friday and we are going to lose out on tourism due to beaches being closed.”
Earlier this month, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the city was expecting more than 900 000 visitors to Durban for the summer season.
“We expect a double increase of foreign visitors compared to last year now that international airlines are open. In the 2021/22 summer season – with the aftermath of the pandemic, the riots, and the floods – we were at 49% occupancy rate compared to 2019/20 which saw a 71% occupancy rate. This coming summer season, we are anticipating an occupancy rate of 60%.”
While the city has yet to announce the results of its recent water quality tests, environmental organisation, Adopt-A-River, said in a Facebook post yesterday that independent testing done on samples taken on September 22 showed the E Coli levels had reduced significantly to acceptable or ideal levels across several beaches in Durban.