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For years, the City of Cape Town has been the subject of much ire and controversy for pumping sewage into our coastal marine-protected areas.

Not a single person is okay with the fact that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment granted the City a five-year permit to pump sewage into the ocean via marine outflows at Green Point, Camps Bay, and Hout Bay.

Locals, laymen, experts, and activists have slammed this terrible decision, calling out how the discharge not only stinks up our most beautiful places, and threatens the environment, tourism, and our livelihoods, but also causes major health concerns.

That classic Cape Town tummy bug that makes its way around sometimes? It could very well be blamed on the sea you accidentally snort or sip when you go for your cold immersion.

The department’s research is conveniently biased – likely because they don’t want to spend the money (a small fortune) on fixing the sewerage system and treating the siff stuff so that it lands safely in our seas – with one study indicating “there is no immediate ecological disaster or major risks to human health”.

Hah, jaaa right china. Fat chance.

IOL just reported that local and international scientists met in Durbanville last Friday to present studies on the health conditions of the marine environment in Cape Town as part of the SANOCEAN project.

Besides microbial bacteria such as E.coli and Enterococcus floating around, ‘forever chemicals’ from pharmaceutical compounds not fully metabolised in the body before being excreted in faeces or urine are also found in our oceans.

According to the academics, gross chemical contamination from poorly treated sewage was evident, and even reached Robben Island.

This sort of shit causes gastrointestinal issues, and now, even worse, the scientists are saying it wreaks havoc on male reproductivity. There’s no spreading your seeds so easily when the sea is shitty and the climate is catastrophising, that’s for sure.

Professor Liana Maree, Dr Shannen Keyser and Dr Monique Bennet from the comparative spermatology group said: “Sperm from both humans and sea creatures such as oysters, which broadcast their sperm, as well as penguin sperm, could be affected by the presence of these toxic chemical compounds even at very low levels of exposure, making the sperm swim more slowly and become incapable of fertilising an egg.

This would impact on the survival of these species, and even human sperm was found to be highly susceptible to being incapacitated by exposure to these chemicals.”

Note the laundry list of compounds that are killing your sperm:

Studies showed that Atrazine, a banned pesticide, was detected in most of the samples analysed at all sampling points around the Cape Peninsula.
Norway’s professor Magne Sydnes from the University of Stavanger said antibiotics, perfluorinated compounds used in fire extinguisher foams or as waterproofing and in non-stick coatings as well as in paints, were also seen as compounds that were severely polluting the marine environment.

So the beaches along the Atlantic Seaboard are riské, but so are fish bought from Kalk Bay Harbour, penguin carcasses, and eggs sampled from Boulders Beach and Robben Island colonies.

UWC chemistry professor Leslie Petrik said the coastline from Green Point all the way around the Peninsula, including False Bay from Miller’s Point to Rooi Els, was contaminated by chemicals from inadequately treated sewage.

“The practice of discharging untreated sewage through the three marine outfalls has added to the extensive chemical pollution of seawater, sediments and marine biota,” she said.

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

They better get on it. The sperm needs to swim, and so do the German tourists coming in droves from December through to March as they escape their winter.

Me and you too, though. A dip at Saunders always leaves a bad taste in my mouth now.

[source:iol]