Cape Town - A heated public meeting took place in Table View where the City engaged with almost 200 affected residents regarding issues and concerns related to the escalating environmental degradation and resulting stench of the Milnerton Lagoon.
At this second quarterly Milnerton Lagoon stakeholder engagement on Wednesday night, the City provided detailed feedback on its action plans and remediation efforts, including short-term interventions from a team of experts.
Residents believed these developments were on the right track but remained sceptical about the City’s ability to address this decade-old issue.
Caroline Marx of RethinkTheStink and the Milnerton Central Residents Association’s (MCRA) environmental head said: “In October I complained that the lagoon was grey, it was stinky and something was very wrong.
“I kept being told that there was no problem and the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works was fine and there were no major spills. In desperation, I had someone go to Potsdam and do an independent water test. On the official effluent discharge, the count was 750000 E coli.
“What upsets me is that I have to collect money from this community to pay for the cost of that water testing when the City should know what is being discharged into the river and have a responsibility to be transparent with that to the community,” Marx said.
This was echoed by other participants of the meeting. One resident mentioned that the pollution situation had become so severe there were actual faeces floating up and down the side of someone’s house.
Thereafter, expert consultants shared several possible short-term measures to improve the lagoon quality with the residents, including aerating the lagoon to introduce healthier oxygen levels, potential bio-remediation solutions, improving the functioning at Potsdam, and exploring extra package plant capacity technologies.
Spatial planning and environment Mayco member Eddie Andrews said: “In the coming years, the City aims to restore the lagoon environment via multibillion-rand sewerage and stormwater infrastructure upgrades coupled with on-the-ground pollution mitigation measures.
“The aim is to steadily close off pollution sources to the lagoon over time, building up to the ultimate goal of dredging the water body and removing the sediment containing decades-long build-up of pollution.”
City coastal manager Gregg Oelofse said 31 submissions were made by active members of the community for the short-term remediation of the pollution crisis in the Milnerton Lagoon.
Some of these included building community ablution blocks in informal areas, diverting stormwater channels away from the river, turning waste discharged into energy, bio-remediation, and changing the Milky Way detention pond into a retention pond.
In respect of the Milnerton Lagoon/Diep River, the Department of Local Government, Environ-mental Affairs and Development Planning issued one Directive to the City, this included a Pre-Directive in March 2020, a Directive in September 2020, and a Modified Directive in January 2021 which contained a range of short- and long-term measures to address the pollution of the water bodies.
Cayla Murray, the DA’s constituency head for Blaauwberg-Durbanville, confirmed that she has received a parliamentary reply from local government MEC Anton Bredell which revealed what successes have been achieved regarding the directive.
Bredell said the City was compliant with majority of the conditions of the Modified Directive.
The City was compliant with nine conditions of the Modified Directive, non-compliant with one condition, two conditions were relaxed based on motivation from the DWS, and partially compliant with four conditions.
“The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) does not provide for administrative fines or penalties for failing to comply with a directive issued in terms of it. It is an offence to not comply.
“Since the City, is in-compliance with the majority of the conditions of the Modified Directive and given that some of the time-frames are future-dated, criminal action is not yet an option,” Bredell said.
Alex Lansdowne, chairperson of the City's mayoral advisory committee on water quality in wetlands and waterways explained the pathway out of the stink for the Milnerton Lagoon.
“Our strategy to improve the water quality at Milnerton Lagoon has three goals, which are being implemented simultaneously. Firstly, to upgrade Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works and sewage infrastructure in the catchment which is currently overburdened.
“Secondly, to insulate the vlei from diffuse pollution sources such as illegal connections and solid waste, which mainly comes from the stormwater system,” Lansdowne said.
“Thirdly, to rehabilitate the catchment, with a specific focus on Milnerton Lagoon, so that the natural ecosystem can recover from it's current state of ecosystem collapse.”
Lansdowne said the City was finally on the scoreboard with interventions in all three focus areas and from next year the bigger interventions would start coming online, such as upgrades to the Koeberg Pump Station, interventions to remove the biosoild sludge at the bottom of the Milnerton Lagoon, and further infrastructure upgrades at stormwater outlets.
“We are also in the process of evaluating bioremediation strategies to assist the lagoon digest nutrients during any pollution incident during this programme.
“The idea is to consistently move the needle of the health of the lagoon over time,” Lansdowne said.