eThekweni Municipality issues WARNING about it’s own incompetence

eThekweni issues warning about it’s own incompetence

eThekweni issues warning about it’s own incompetence: with so much irony, that it almost sounds like they are actually doing their job by warning us of the toxic water conditions that they themselves have created.

Water management

Is the most basic and the most important duty that a government or municipality has the honour of carrying through for its people. Without clean water, we are doomed.

• bathing, surfing and diving will be too dangerous due to the water borne ecoli
• fish will die in the estuaries which are already down to 1%. The knock-on effect will reach the farthest reaches of our local reef and marine ecosystem
• we will have to boil tap water before we use it for anything
• we will have to buy water from the corporates who probably have a hand in this pollution

Except, oh shit! This has already all happened!

Fish kills at Isipingo and Umgeni Estuaries

These two estuaries have both got the potential to be valid contributors to the KZN estuary system that we have systematically destroyed over the last hundred years. By farming the land to shreds. For cash crops and livestock. Using dodgy fertilisers and pesticides pushed to these profiteering farmers by Monsanto and friends like a sophisticated drug dealing network.

And now by eThekweni Municipality totally failing it’s water management mandate, we have fish kills. With their knockon effects.

Isipingo had the same scene last year. It also made the news. This year was no different in calamity. SO many gorgeous fish.

But the Umgeni fish kill really broke me down. That was a large percentage of KZN’s estuary fish all killed right there. Rare and protected species. There were little baby kingfish in there. So many beautiful little koblets. And the spotted grunter – heartbreaking as they could be seen in the video – gasping for breath with their heads out of the water trying to breath some oxygen in.

You see, the sewage and pollution lies on the bottom with all the other oxygen destroying stuff. The top level of water has the oxygen that the fishies can survive in. The dry season kicks in. Water extraction upriver goes on unchecked for both industry and farming. The water stops flowing. The mouth silts up and starts to close as the east winds start up for spring. The tide hardly makes a difference and is restricted to the lower reaches. The weather changes for the warmer or the wind blows extra hard and the top layer is evaporated. The bottom layer becomes the top and the fish die of suffocation.

Every time. Over and over. Except this time a huge chunk of KZN’s fish nursery stock were murdered in one fell swoop.

Don’t drink the water!

If you live in Durban – your drinking water also comes from the Umgeni sometimes, best you be very careful. The same thing happens down here in the UGU warzone. Except here they blame it on easily managed salt regression (just turn the pumps off a few hours), in the Umzimkulu River. And plan to build a berm blocking the last free-flowing river left in KZN.

These are the symptoms you may suffer if you ingest contaminated water:

Signs/Symptoms of Drinking Contaminated Water

• Gastrointestinal Problems.
• Diarrhea.
• Nausea.
• Intestinal or Stomach Cramping.
• Intestinal or Stomach Aches and Pains.
• Dehydration.
• Death.

Don’t go in the water

Yip, that happened too now, bathing is banned at most Durban beaches as the toxic soup gets distributed by wind, waves and currents that pull in ALL directions.

“?? ETHEKWINI NEWSFLASH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 AUGUST 2022

CITY CLOSES SOME BEACHES DUE TO HIGH E-COLI LEVELS

The public is informed that the City has taken the decision to close some beaches with immediate effect due to high levels of E-coli in the water.

This decision is as a consequence of recent water testing results which confirmed high levels of E-coli.

All water activities such as swimming, surfing, fishing, bathing, canoeing, and other activities taking place at City beaches are therefore prohibited. Beachgoers are urged to heed this warning as disregarding it could result in outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

Closed beaches include Westbrook, uMhlanga Main, uMdloti, Casuarina, eThekwini Beach, Laguna Seasonal Beach, Ansteys Beach, Brighton Beach, Isiphingo Beach, Reunion Beach, Warner Beach, Amanzimtoti Main Beach, and Pipeline Beach.

Residents can still enjoy other activities along the beach that do not require them to come into contact with sea water.

Lifeguards and law enforcement officers will be on site to monitor the beaches to ensure the public adheres to the closures.

The public will be notified when the beaches are deemed safe to utilise.

ENDS
Issued by the eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit. For media enquiries contact Municipality’s Spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela on 060 966 4220″

It really sounds like they are proud of the warning they have just submitted to the very people they are meant to be protected from themselves.

Here’s the thing

A few days before all of this fish murder catstrophe, the following story went around ,about a poor guy with a little gill net, getting arrested. At the pump station in the Umgeni Estuary…

REPORT

Good afternoon sir.

This morning SAR members were called out to Umgeni River for reported gillnetting. Based on information and active communication with the informant/complainant we were able to identify
3 suspects who were in possession of home made craft two nets, and five fish.

We gave chase. The suspects fled into the bush and into the water.

They abandoned about 500m of gillnetting with their catch and craft. The nets were 4 cm square with 9 cm stretch and estimated to be about 500m long in total.

The fish were taken to Ushaka specialists for identification and stats.

The fish that were abandoned were;

5 Mozambican Tiliapa
230mm female
230mm female
225mm female
260mm male
300mm male
1 Flat head mullet
390 mm

In the absence of suspects all abandoned equipment was distroyed as saps would not recieve perishables in the Saps 13 register.

Ok, so this subsistence fisher taking a few mullet and tilapia – both species unrestricted and easy to target specifically got chased and almost arrested. And the eThekweni Municipality? They kill thousands upon thousands of fish in one go. Over and over again. And is even ONE person accused of ANY crime?

What we can’t see dead in the water is the real problem. All the millions of larvae and fry. Tiny beautiful animals taken at childbirth.

Habitat destruction.

eThekweni’s response

Is the same horse shit all over again. We just heard their very own David Wilson who is somehow responsible for making up excuses:

• somebody poured something very poisonous into a manhole or something
• it was not ecoli levels that caused the fish to suffocate in tepid still water
• the Umgeni is a fast-flowing river that is tidal
• it is normal for an entire treatment plant to go offline for months like at current. Since April untreated raw sewage has been going into the Umgeni. It is because of the 100 year flood
• informal settlements discharge straight into the river (this is the one true statement in this list)
• Umgeni discharge water goes north and so cannot affect Durban’s main beaches
• the Umgeni will heal itself

Yip. I just heard all that ignorance on the radio right now. Whilst also admitting that their treatment plant cannot be fixed due to a complete lack of security and management. The treatment plant was electrified and looted by vandals so nobody could work there?! Who makes this shit up? Or why not just call the cops?

This is why we have fish kills. Levels of ignorance this high at government level.

Final Comment

Goes out to all those so-called conservationists and sport anglers who incessantly moan and complain about there being no fish in the Umgeni Estuary.

Well.

You are totally wrong. Look at those fish in the pics and videos! That you should have been protecting from the evil and destructive clutches of the eThekweni Municipality.

That IS your job.

It’s definitely NOT a guarantee anymore but we do have clean water in the Umzimkulu Estuary at the moment. We also have cool riverfront accommodation and plenty of fishing and other activities on the go. You can even go surfing.