Scores of tiny indigenous river fish have died from a major sewage spill into the Quinera river that has turned the upper reaches of the wild estuary a stinky opaque-grey this week.Buffalo City Metro (BCM) spokesman Thandy Matebese said late yesterday: “The water and sanitation department has investigated a query and found a burst on the T8 sewer pump station rising main.
“A contractor has been engaged to undertake the repair. Municipal staff are busy with cleanup operations of the affected areas.
“The scientific services department will undertake sampling of the affected areas. These will remain closed to the public until such time as water quality standards are met.”
“If the readings of E.coli are high and/or there is a spill then we will close the river to all bathing until such time that scientific services confirm the water quality is back to an acceptable level.”
Residents blew the whistle by calling the Daily Dispatch yesterday, and queries to BCM were followed by a contractor arriving with a team to investigate.
Edly Symons Avenue resident Jenny Swartz saw men scooping out fish floating in the water.
She, and members of a busy Beacon Bay WhatsApp group, had been badgering BCM to get to the source and fix the disaster.
She said a senior BCM official in the sanitation department had told her a “400mm” pipe had broken somewhere deep in the bush upstream.
The Dispatch visited the scene yesterday and saw how the once-clear waters that flowed through glades of riverine bush in a narrow cleft upstream of the weir had become a foul-smelling gloop.
Water gushes through a breach in the weir and enters a wide pond before moving through a valley.
The polluted river then widens into a 2km-long wetland which teems with bird life, including spoonbills, before it ends at the parking lot at the blind mouth and popular Bonza Bay beach.
Nadine de Lange said she and her husband Chris, who live close to the river in Edly Symons Avenue, were braaiing on Sunday when they got a malodorous whiff.
She blamed the smell on her Staffordshire terrier Emily and rough collie Joshua.
“I chased them away, and then the message came up on WhatsApp that it was sewage in the river.” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Sewage ‘gloops’ river up
Buffalo City Metro (BCM) spokesman Thandy Matebese said late yesterday: “The water and sanitation department has investigated a query and found a burst on the T8 sewer pump station rising main.
“A contractor has been engaged to undertake the repair. Municipal staff are busy with cleanup operations of the affected areas.
“The scientific services department will undertake sampling of the affected areas. These will remain closed to the public until such time as water quality standards are met.”
“If the readings of E.coli are high and/or there is a spill then we will close the river to all bathing until such time that scientific services confirm the water quality is back to an acceptable level.”
Residents blew the whistle by calling the Daily Dispatch yesterday, and queries to BCM were followed by a contractor arriving with a team to investigate.
Edly Symons Avenue resident Jenny Swartz saw men scooping out fish floating in the water.
She, and members of a busy Beacon Bay WhatsApp group, had been badgering BCM to get to the source and fix the disaster.
She said a senior BCM official in the sanitation department had told her a “400mm” pipe had broken somewhere deep in the bush upstream.
The Dispatch visited the scene yesterday and saw how the once-clear waters that flowed through glades of riverine bush in a narrow cleft upstream of the weir had become a foul-smelling gloop.
Water gushes through a breach in the weir and enters a wide pond before moving through a valley.
The polluted river then widens into a 2km-long wetland which teems with bird life, including spoonbills, before it ends at the parking lot at the blind mouth and popular Bonza Bay beach.
Nadine de Lange said she and her husband Chris, who live close to the river in Edly Symons Avenue, were braaiing on Sunday when they got a malodorous whiff.
She blamed the smell on her Staffordshire terrier Emily and rough collie Joshua.
“I chased them away, and then the message came up on WhatsApp that it was sewage in the river.” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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