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Mayor’s war on sewage – one year on

Cape Town still has a sewage pollution crisis, but mayor ‘inherited a bad hand’ and is ‘on the right track’

It has been a year since Geordin Hill-Lewis donned Cape Town’s mayoral chain and declared the city’s sewage pollution crisis a top priority, yet many of the biggest pollution problems remain largely unchanged.

Arguably the most pressing, and most visible sewage pollution crisis that of the Diep River estuary, which forms the Milnerton Lagoon.

While the estuary receives stormwater and polluted runoff via the Diep River from informal settlements upstream, activists and scientists believe the main pollution source is the Potsdam sewage treatment works, which releases about 47 million litres of effluent into the Diep River per day. Under the City’s management, the effluent is supposed to be properly treated, but historical data from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) shows the sewage plant has failed to meet national effluent quality guidelines since 2018.

The extent of the estuary’s pollution led to the provincial government issuing the City a directive to stop the pollution and rehabilitate the estuary more than two years ago. Despite the pollution persisting, no further enforcement has been taken by provincial authorities. Any recreational activity on the estuary is currently a health hazard, and surrounding residents have to endure an almost permanent stench emanating from the water.

During his election campaign, Hill-Lewis said he had childhood memories of swimming in the lagoon and intended to return it to a healthy state before the end of his term. Lead researcher at UCT’s Future Water Institute, Dr Kevin Winter, believes at the current rate, this looks unlikely.

Widespread sewage treatment failure

Potsdam is far from the only failing sewage treatment plant. Of the 24 sewage treatment plants managed by the City (excluding three marine outfalls), 15 of them release effluent into our rivers and oceans that do not meet national DWS guidelines. This is just one less than the 16 which were failing last year. Failing sewage plants include Athlone, which is designed to treat 105 million litres of sewage per day. Over the last three months it has a 0% adherence to national guidelines for faecal coliforms such as E.coli and enterococcus (max 1,000 faecal coli/100ml) and scores 46% for treatment of chemical pollution indicators such as phosphates and nitrates. This partially treated effluent is released into the highly polluted Black River, from which people are known to fish for food.

Other notable sewage works failures are the Cape Flats treatment works, which release up to 200 million litres of effluent into False Bay per day, along with Simon’s Town (4,7m litres/day), and Macassar (35m litres/day). The cumulative effect of these failing sewage works releasing effluent into False Bay contributes to growing levels of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals in the seawater, which accumulates up the food chain. Local scientists have found alarming levels of these chemicals in fish sold at Kalk Bay harbour.

Sewage on the streets

Sewage spills along residential streets has been a common occurance in places such as Dunoon and parts of Khayelitsha where sewer blockages and collapsed pipes lead to sewage pushing up from manholes. The raw sewage flows down streets and enters the stormwater system where it adds to contamination of streams and rivers. This has also been a longstanding problem, creating a health risk for residents and children in particular, impacting people’s dignity and right to a healthy environment.

In a July press release, Hill-Lewis stated the City was investing R150m on sewer pipe replacements in the current financial year, enabling to increase the length of the annual sewer pipe replacement target of 28km, to 50km this year.

“Over the past financial year, sewer pipelines were replaced in several areas, including Muizenberg, Glencairn, Kalkfontein, Khayelitsha, Gordon’s Bay, Eerste River, Kraaifontein, Wallacedene, Joe Slovo, Milnerton, Goodwood, Philippi, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain, Kuyasa, Delft, Bellville, Dunoon, Milnerton, Joe Slovo/Phoenix, Makhaza, Cape Flats and Sweet Home,” stated Hill-Lewis.

This is having some impact. In the June 2020 to June 2021 financial year, the City reported there were 1,368 sewage spills per 100km of pipeline. Over the last 12 months this has been reduced to 1,068.

As reported by Peter Luhanga, residents of Dunoon have also said they are looking forward to an end to rivers of sewage flowing down their streets.

“For eight years I have been tip-toeing over sewage. We’re very excited and grateful to see our ward councillor at the centre of service delivery in our township,” said Nomhla Maposa, who lives along Dunoon’s Mnandi Street, where sewage frequently overflows when sewer lines are blocked.

Making gains

Last year’s extended closure of all its major recreational inland water bodies – Rietvlei, Zandvlei, Zeekoevlei, and Milnerton Lagoon – which saw job losses and sporting clubs losing members has, with the exception of Milnerton Lagoon, not been repeated this year with Hill-Lewis in charge.

Earlier this month, councillor Alex Lansdowne, who chairs the mayoral advisory committee for water quality in wetlands and waterways, listed 30 things the City has done to clean up Cape Town’s vleis, rivers and wetlands.

Lansdowne admits many of the initiatives are symbolic and some are small in scale, but

are foundational to our new approach to water governance which prioritises transparency and collaboration.

Winter, who sits on the City’s Committee on Inland Water Quality, says the establishment of the committee, which meets quarterly and is attended by specialists in water quality, executive and management members of the City’s water and sanitation department, mayco members, and councillors, is in itself “a significant gain”.

While the committee is not a decision making body, it shares pertinent information “that is helping to make gains”.

Equally, Winter said the publication of water quality data on the City’s website (which during the previousa City administration this publication fought hard to be made public) is “a massive gain which is partly attributed to the mayor” as such information “is crucial to inform citizens, to build trust and improve the potential for partnerships”.

Still ‘huge concerns’

But he said there are “huge concerns around the lack of compliance and final effluent discharge from Athlone, Cape Flats, Klipheuwel, Potsdam, and Simon’s Town” sewage treatment works.

He said the failure of Potsdam in particular, resulting in the pollution of the Diep River estuary “warrants new levels of action and a call for a state of emergency within the City”.

While there are plans to upgrade Potsdam, neither the receiving wetlands, Milnerton Lagoon, near shore marine environment, nor the people living around it, could afford to wait five years before this upgrade is in place.

He said sanitation also includes safe access to toilets, which is an “ongoing challenge, especially in peri-urban/informal parts of the city that are continuing to expand”.

He said the mayor has been rather quiet about addressing this issue.

“The clarion call, even if this is aspirational, should be ‘a toilet in every home’.”

Inherited problems

Winter said the mayor was “on the right track”, but “has been dealt a bad hand” by inheriting sewage treatment works that were deteriorating.

“He (Hill-Lewis) is making the right noises, but the challenge of keeping this city on track is simply overwhelming and it can’t be left to the City. Formalising agreements and establishing meaningful, trustworthy partnerships between community-based groups and the private sector are necessary to address an increasing challenge of water and sanitation in a rapidly expanding city that is receiving very little support from the national fiscus.”

Milnerton Central Residents’ Association environmental head Caroline Marx, who has been at the forefront of the fight to clean up the Diep River estuary and one of the people behind rethinkthestink.co.za, said the City’s long term plans to address the sewage pollution crisis were “good” and the mayor’s team had done more to address the problem during the last year than the previous administration did over five years.

“That being said, they haven’t done enough,” said Marx.

“The quality of discharge from Potsdam is dreadful.”

She said when matters were reported directly to the mayor, action followed, but the problems should have been dealt with by engineers and technicians.

“Politicians don’t know anything about wastewater generally. The officials paid to run those plants are not doing their job. Those basics have to work without political interference. Politicians should only have to provide the budget and hold them accountable.”

She said she was in agreement with Winter that Potsdam should be declared a disaster.

“There are people really really trying hard but doesn’t stop the fact there are things that are just not working.”

Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.
Black water flowing into Milnerton beach.
Black water from the Diep River flowing along Milnerton beach.