What’s Going Down Cape Town? Sewage Story Update…

Now that the deadline for comments and objections regarding the City of Cape Town’s application for a permit to discharge untreated effluent into the sea has closed it appears that things have gone quiet…

Despite Mayco Member for Utility Services Ernest Sonnenberg’s many statements to the press over the past few months that “the outfalls are properly functioning and do not pose a risk to the environment or beachgoers” it seems that this may not be the case…

Word in the diving industry is that the diffusers on the Green Point outfall are badly blocked and the City has appointed contractors to try and sort the problem out, which is proving challenging with the winter sea conditions.

This begs the question of how long this has been the case and why have inspection dives not been conducted at regular intervals to ensure everything is working as it should?

In any case the diffusers merely act as the “sprinkler on the end of the hosepipe” and don’t solve the real problem of putting toxic chemicals and untreated sewage in the sea in the first place.

On Friday last week (21 August 2015) I took journalist Martina Polley (“Waste water threat to Cape Town’s beaches” – Weekend Argus) on a flight to see firsthand how the outfalls are looking. The answer is BAD, about as bad as I have ever seen it!

There was a huge plume from the Green Point outfall over 2km long, and the Camps Bay plume was clearly visible and being pushed straight back into the bay and onto the (Blue Flag) beach by the current.

But don’t worry,  Ernest says it’s all fine…