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The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Environmental Affairs Department has delivered a unanimously supported ultimatum to eThekwini municipal officials, to fix the current sewage crisis or vacate their office.

The message is just one of several strong words delivered to city officials during a multi-party oversight inspection of the Ohlanga and Northern wastewater treatment facilities held yesterday. (view video here and photo's here and  here)

Further measures by the portfolio committee include a high-level task team consisting of national, provincial and eThekwini officials to address progress on sewer repairs and help untangle the web of red tape at procurement and bid adjudication stages within the city.

The oversight has highlighted the blatant neglect of duty the ANC-run Council has perpetrated on society, year after year.

Investigations have also revealed how eThekwini’s Council has consistently underfunded its own Water and Sanitation unit – leaving it powerless to upgrade or even maintain the sewer network.

In most instances, the unit received well below R500 million a year. This while the DA-led City of Cape Town, not facing a crisis of this magnitude, has recently embarked on an annual R2.6 billion refurbishment campaign.

Water and Sanitation Head, Ednich Msweli said: “We were in trouble even before the floods;” -confirming all assertions of the city’s culpability in the crisis.

This consistent underspending has crippled the city. Coupled with an already shaky economy, and eThekwini is facing a dismal December holiday season.

The oversight also showed how more than 30 million litres of raw untreated sewage is being diverted into the Umgeni River as the treatment works remain inoperable since the floods. The same applies to the Ohlanga works, where another 30 million litres reach the Umhlanga catchment each day.

Three tranches of funding totalling R160 million is needed to fix the Northern works, neatly drowning out Mayor Xolisi Kaunda’s arguments of beaches being ready by December. Alarmingly, there is still no indication of where eThekwini will find the R650 million needed to get basic water and sewerage operations on track from a perspective.

This while province has now also established that 56 sewer pump stations continue to “directly affect” swimming beaches. The Mahatma Ghandi station – responsible for some of the worst harbour pollution - continues to operate on two pumps instead of the five.

The DA welcomes the robust stance taken by the Environmental Affairs portfolio committee, which has also accepted a DA resolution to urgently find and prosecute businesses who continue to discharge effluent into the sewer system.

Insiders believe it was this industrial effluent that was responsible for the recent massive fish deaths in the Umgeni, with more evidence of chemical discharges being noted in Pinetown this week.

The DA will continue to fight for the rights of eThekwini’s residents to have access to clean water, whether it be in their taps or along KZN’s natural waterways and ocean.

Issued by Heinz de Boer, MPL - DA KZN Spokesperson on EDTEA