The latest E coli readings for several Durban beaches, published by water treatment specialist company Talbot, reflects a vast improvement in the beach water (Peter Titmuss/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for a public private partnership to deal with the city’s sewage works crisis that is hurting tourism because beaches are repeatedly closed because of high levels of the E coli bacterium.
The chamber was responding to the announcement last week by Save our Rivers and Sea from Sewage (SORS-FS) that it will soon release an independently commissioned report on one of the municipality’s biggest sewage pollution sources — the dilapidated Northern waste water treatment works (NWWTW) — that pumps raw sewage into the Umgeni River.
SORS-FS director Johan Jooste earlier told the Mail & Guardian that the nonprofit organisation, formed by paddlers, conservationists, lawyers and others had raised R100 000 and obtained the pro bono services of water and legal experts to conduct its research, and to force the city to fix the facility, and taking the metro to court if necessary.
Chamber president Prasheen Maharaj said organised business was “deeply concerned” about the poor functioning of the treatment works.
“Following recent site inspections, we believe the issue is far bigger than anticipated. Our sewage network is not functional. The city does not have the financial resources to address the problem,” Maharaj said.
He said the formation of a public private partnership model was “critical to help solve the crisis”.
“It’s high time the government requests the support of the private sector. Unless drastic actions are implemented, we will be writing an obituary chapter of our city. The current state of our infrastructure requires urgent attention,” Maharaj said.
He said the repeated closure of the city’s once popular beaches because of sewage spills continued to have “a devastating and lasting effect on an already very battered tourism and hospitality industry”.
“The ongoing closure of Durban’s beach creates a poor perception of Durban’s ability to manage its tourism infrastructure. Furthermore, it has the potential to affect the tourism sector and its entire value chain negatively. We are confident that failure to remedy the negative impact will prove detrimental to hotel bookings.”
He said many tourists who travel to Durban visit the city for its beaches.
“Closure of beaches over a prolonged period will impact both Durban and KwaZulu-Natal’s GDP negatively,” he said. “Furthermore, smaller businesses, single vendors, restaurants, ice cream shops, food trolleys that provide the overall beachfront experience may slowly fade away due to low foot traffic, simply because of the lack of confidence by people not wanting to spend time at Durban’s beaches.”
He said the chamber was in constant discussions with the government to ensure the concerns raised by businesses were confronted.
Meanwhile, the latest E coli readings for several Durban beaches, published by water treatment specialist company Talbot, reflects a vast improvement in the beach water quality after the period before the holidays when E coli levels exceeding a count of 500 parts per million (ppm) per 100ml led to the beach closures.
Talbot’s latest readings, taken from water samples collected on 6 July, show that E coli levels at beaches such as the Point, Ushaka, South Beach, North Beach, Battery Beach and Country Club had improved to between 0 to 25/100ml — “ideal” water conditions.
The latest E coli levels ranged from 52/100ml at North Beach to 146/100ml at South Beach.