DWS to take legal action against municipalities "polluting" the Great Fish

25 Jun 2019 | Admin Author

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is taking legal action to force an Eastern Cape municipality to stop polluting the Great Fish River.

Andrew Lucas, who is responsible for water regulation in the province said legal action is being taken against the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality as well as the Chris Hani District Municipality.

He said the Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) at Cradock was non-functional, and all that was done to treat the effluent was chlorination. Despite this, "some settling of solids occurred in the tanks" and untreated sewage continued to flow into the Great Fish River.

The DWS’ Eastern Cape Region first issued a directive to the Chris Hani District Municipality for its Craddock WWTW in October 2016 to apply for authorisation for the WWTW, and to stop pollution from occurring, as well as to rehabilitate the affected area.

The municipality submitted an action plan that was not approved as it did not adhere to the requirements of the directive.

Lucas said two more notices were issued in mid-2018 and no response was received.

In early April, the Eastern Cape's DWS office referred the matter to the department's national compliance, monitoring and enforcement (CME) unit for application of a court interdict.

"The CME office is awaiting outstanding reports to secure a successful application from the Eastern Cape office. The reports are expected on Tuesday and the full application will be with the Department's legal services on Thursday.

An environmental inspector was also dispatched to the Treatment Works who made the following findings:

The WWTW has completely shut-down. There was not a single municipal employee at the plant, the only people present were two security guards;
Wastewater continued to flow into the non-functional plant but was then channelled, untreated, into the Great Fish River;
The problems at the plant were mechanical in nature, as most of the pumps and all the brush aerators were dysfunctional;

As a result of the WWTW and pump stations being non-operational, raw sewage was being discharged at different places along the sewer lines, most notably out of manholes.

Lucas said It is further noted that the WWTW appears [to have been] in this state for a number of weeks now, prior to the recent electricity cuts for non-payment and public unrest," said Lucas.

He said Chris Hani District Municipality had a poor record of sewage problems in Craddock. DWS had issued notices and directives in the past year for pollution from un-fixed sewer blockages, failed sewer pump stations and non-compliance at the WWTW.

The Democratic Alliance raised the alarm earlier this month when they too visited the site and found it to be deserted.

Here are our previous stories regarding the sewage flowing into the Great Fish:

https://www.algoafm.co.za/article/local/100773/raw-sewage-flowing-into-fish-river-da

https://www.algoafm.co.za/article/local/100896/great-fish-river-pollution-now-a-crisis-da

https://www.algoafm.co.za/article/local/100781/department-of-water-confirms-da-allegations-about-sewage-flowing-into-fish-river-