eThekwini Municipality closes Bronze Beach and Umhlanga Main Beach due to wastewater contamination

At the start of the holiday season, the eThekwini Municipality declared their beaches were ready and bathing friendly, but have since announced the forced closure of Bronze Beach and Umhlanga Main Beach.

It has been reported that "foreign objects" were found in the local Ohlange Wastewater Pump and caused the malfunctioning of the system, which then resulted in the water quality of these beaches being affected.

Once again, the municipality made an appeal to residents to refrain from dumping rubbish into the sewer network as it has a severe impact on the sewer infrastructure, leading to service disruptions and negative environmental impacts.

“We strongly urge the public to dispose of waste responsibly,” the municipality urged in a statement.

A video released by the city shows workers pulling out a large collection of cloth material, animal carcasses, and assorted household waste lodged inside the pump machinery.

Despite the setback, the entity is confident that beach water quality had been largely stable across the city, which has been the fruit of a multimillion-rand programme to repair and upgrade infrastructure damaged by repeated flooding in recent years.

“It is important to note that over the past two years, the vast majority of the 23 bathing beaches have consistently met safe water quality standards,” the municipality indicated.

DAILY NEWS