[imagesource: Jean Tresfon]

Thank goodness for ActionSA and the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) who are threatening legal action over a permit allowing the City of Cape Town to pump wastewater into the ocean.

While the City is probably doing its best, with a limited budget and continuous load shedding problems, discharging sewage at three marine outfalls, two of them in Marine Protected Areas, is not acceptable.

GroundUp reported that the City is considering treating the 39 million litres of essentially raw sewage, which is pumped out to sea every day, untreated, through a small sieve.

One of the three marine outfalls – in Hout Bay, Camps Bay and Green Point – was built 122 years ago, which suggests it is highly unlikely to be pumping correctly and safely.

Since those photos of us soiling the sea came to the surface in 2016 (one photo is above), this matter has been highly controversial and only now is the city thinking about treating the sewage before it lands in the sea.

Acting Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation Siseko Mbandezi said the City was “assessing the feasibility of measures to further mitigate the environmental impact of the three coastal outfalls, including additional higher level pre-treatment on land prior to discharge”.

The City also uses reports from 2016 that they commissioned the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to compile, which states that this sewage-to-sea system has a “surprisingly low environmental impact”.

But the likes of ActionSA and the NSRI are having none of it, persistent that the issue does have an impact on the sea’s health and residents’ livelihoods:

Yesterday, I kayaked from Three Anchor Bay to the exit of the Green Point sewage outfall to see for myself what is being pumped into the ocean every day. I was horrified to find large islands of slimy sewage. Sanitary pads, tampons, condoms floated around. Heartbreaking. 💔 pic.twitter.com/FRhGSqR9Kf

— Michelle Wasserman (@go2Michelle) February 14, 2023

Michelle Wasserman is the ActionSA provincial chairperson and was out at sea when the weather was calm enough to show the slime settling on the surface of the water.

When deputy chair of the Water Quality in Wetlands and Waterways Advisory Committee Alex Lansdowne went out to the spot two days later, the weather conditions had changed and the slime had conveniently disappeared:

This morning I conducted an oversight visit to the Greenpoint marine outfall point 1,7km at sea.

Here are the facts:

– @CityofCT marine outfalls are legal, licensed, & compliant.

– Scientists at the CSIR have found “no ecological disaster or major risk to human health”. pic.twitter.com/TEDeTcJaa1

— alexlansdowne (@alexlansdowne) February 15, 2023

What the City and its authorities seem to have forgotten is the seepage of ‘forever chemicals’, industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals into the sea.

NSRI chief executive Cleeve Robertson said the institute was appealing against the granting of the permits “from a health and a conservation point of view” noting that the situation was “a disaster”:

The studies he referred to are those by Senior Professor Leslie Petrik at the University of the Western Cape’s Chemistry Department, and Cecilia Y. Ojemaye, who found that fish caught by small-scale commercial fishers in Kalk Bay are contaminated by antibiotics, pain killers, antiretrovirals, disinfectants, and industrial chemicals.

The CSIR study notes the ‘forever chemicals’ present too, mostly coming from drugs that are not fully metabolised in the body before being excreted in faeces or urine:

…The pharmaceutical compounds found most often were acetaminophen (paracetamol); ofloxacin (an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections); valsartan (used to treat high blood pressure, heart failure, and diabetic kidney disease); sulfamethoxazole (an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections); codeine (an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug); and bezafibrate (used to lower cholesterol levels in the blood).

The experts and people who care are asking the City to thoroughly treat all wastewater before releasing it into the ocean:

“Any permit granted by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment must ensure that, within the shortest possible time, the City of Cape Town establishes the infrastructure necessary to process the sewage so that all harmful elements, including chemicals, toxins and hormones, are removed before the remaining water is discharged into the sea”, states ActionSA.

News24 reported that the City is hesitant as any alternatives or improvements to the system would cost billions to implement at its three marine outfalls.

Eish, but it’s going to get worse, people are going to get sicker and fish are going to suffer and die if this isn’t handled correctly sooner than later.

Remember you can appeal against the issuing of the permits by writing to Adv. Mokete Rakgogo, Director: Appeals and Legal Review, E-mail: MRakgogo@dffe.gov.za and or appeals@dffe.gov.za.

[source:groundup&news24]