Cape Town - Civic and experts have expressed frustration over the City’s motive to blame load shedding for increasing infrastructure failures across Cape Town, particularly the sewage-related issues which have led to the reopening and closing of a number of popular beaches.
Groups such as lobby group Stop CoCT, RethinkTheStink NPC and the Table View Ratepayers Association (TVRA) agreed that load shedding problems were real, they were not new and should not be used to disguise the fact that water quality at many of Cape Town’s beaches has been poor for many years.
RethinkTheStink NPC director Caroline Marx said: “The problems caused by untreated or poorly treated sewage entering the environment need to be resolved permanently to reduce health risks and potential long-term damage to the City’s reputation as a worldclass tourist destination, as well as the environment.”
This was echoed by TVRA chairperson Mandy da Matta and Dr Jo Barnes, senior lecturer emeritus in the global health department at the University of Stellenbosch.
“Sewage in certain areas of Cape Town has been discharged into the sea from marine outfalls for close on 100 years (depending on where you start counting).
“That sewage is supposed to be discharged some distance from the shore under the mistaken belief that the sewage will simply be diluted and dispersed harmlessly,” Barnes said.
She said this had been shown all over the world to be a convenient and even a naive assumption, but so far the City seemed reluctant to admit these problems, let alone plan for alternative safe disposal of such sewage.
Da Matta said the City was passing the buck literally and figuratively as it was their responsibility to create contingency plans to provide for excessive load shedding or complete blackouts.
“Money that was meant for wastewater treatment plant upgrades was reallocated to other ‘projects’. More than 10 years ago the experts were warning of failing infrastructure and the dire need for maintenance upgrades. What was done 10 years ago to cater for this eventuality? Nothing,” Da Matta said.
Sandra Dickson from lobby group Stop CoCT added that the City chose to support business with reduced load shedding in its effort to score points with its electorate and in the process failed to sustain its ability to protect sewage and other essential services.
However, the City reiterated that these were impacted by load shedding and highlighted that sewer pump stations used sensitive equipment not meant to lose power frequently (i.e. at the current rate), but this was happening because of load-shedding and was damaging the equipment.
Energy Mayco member Beverley van Reenen said: “In the past two years, the Eskom situation has deteriorated drastically, it is therefore reasonable that this will result in unprecedented impacts on infrastructure.
“As the City has been communicating, the escalation and continued non-stop load shedding at high stages of the past year and to date especially has changed the operational environment, as even contingency measures such as generators and uninterrupted power supplies are not sufficient.”