KwaZulu-Natal's Ugu district municipality has blamed structural vandalism and theft of electrical and mechanical components in their pump stations as communities complain about sewage spillages into the rivers.
Port Shepstone residents told TimesLIVE that the south coast municipality has been dragging its feet in resolving malfunctioning pump stations, allowing sewage to flow into rivers which feed into the sea.
They said they have been asking for months that it fix its pump stations, which are next to the rivers.
They said sewage spilling into and contaminating the Umzimkhulu River was an ecological disaster and needed urgent action.
The municipality admitted it was experiencing challenges which led to the pump stations not functioning optimally as designed.
It said as an immediate remedial action on the vandalism of pump station 9, it has switched off the feeding to pump stations 7 and 9 and invoked manual relief through a vacuum tanker.
“This immediately reduced the chances of uncontrollable spillage,” said Ugu’s acting communications senior manager Zimbini Mpurwana.
Mpurwana said the municipality has also enhanced security personnel guarding pump station 9, and the process to procure and replace the components is under way.
She said it has submitted a Section 30 emergency incident report to the department of economic development, tourism & environmental affairs (Edtea), which has been accepted and supported, detailing the cause, the incident and future actions to be executed.
“The short-term interventions being implemented are VTS [vacuum tanker service] manual relief, and the long-term includes the repairs and time frames for the repairs to be effected, all detailed in the Edtea report.”
Mpurwana said the repairs are estimated to be completed by July, 15.
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KZN south coast municipality blames vandalism and theft after concerns over raw sewage spills into rivers
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KwaZulu-Natal's Ugu district municipality has blamed structural vandalism and theft of electrical and mechanical components in their pump stations as communities complain about sewage spillages into the rivers.
Port Shepstone residents told TimesLIVE that the south coast municipality has been dragging its feet in resolving malfunctioning pump stations, allowing sewage to flow into rivers which feed into the sea.
They said they have been asking for months that it fix its pump stations, which are next to the rivers.
They said sewage spilling into and contaminating the Umzimkhulu River was an ecological disaster and needed urgent action.
The municipality admitted it was experiencing challenges which led to the pump stations not functioning optimally as designed.
It said as an immediate remedial action on the vandalism of pump station 9, it has switched off the feeding to pump stations 7 and 9 and invoked manual relief through a vacuum tanker.
“This immediately reduced the chances of uncontrollable spillage,” said Ugu’s acting communications senior manager Zimbini Mpurwana.
Mpurwana said the municipality has also enhanced security personnel guarding pump station 9, and the process to procure and replace the components is under way.
She said it has submitted a Section 30 emergency incident report to the department of economic development, tourism & environmental affairs (Edtea), which has been accepted and supported, detailing the cause, the incident and future actions to be executed.
“The short-term interventions being implemented are VTS [vacuum tanker service] manual relief, and the long-term includes the repairs and time frames for the repairs to be effected, all detailed in the Edtea report.”
Mpurwana said the repairs are estimated to be completed by July, 15.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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