DURBAN - UPL South Africa (Pty) Ltd, the company responsible for the oil spill that led to the recent closure of several of Durban’s beaches, has welcomed their re-opening.
KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) MEC Ravi Pillay announced that most of the beaches that were closed would be reopened for recreational purposes as of Tuesday.
Pillay issued a statement announcing the conditional reopening of beaches that were affected by the UPL warehouse chemical spill in July. This was in line with the recommendations of a peer review of the specialists’ report on the safety of the beaches.
While 96% of the beaches that had been closed will now be opened for recreational purposes, all fishing and harvesting of marine resources between the uMgeni River mouth to Salt Rock and one kilometre out to sea, remain prohibited. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) will make a decision on the reopening of this zone at the appropriate time, Pillay said.
UPL spokesperson Japhet Ncube said the reopening of the beaches demonstrated the success of the company’s ongoing extensive clean-up operations.
Ncube said the decision followed the finalisation of the EDTEA’s external peer review of the independent specialists’ final beaches report, submitted by UPL on September 24 to the eThekwini Municipality.
The report had concluded that, save for a 1km exclusion zone north, south and east of the Ohlanga River mouth, the beaches were safe to reopen, regardless of whether the Ohlange Estuary mouth was open or closed.
“We are pleased that the EDTEA’s external peer reviewer has concurred with the recommendations of the beaches report and that the eThekwini municipality, as the competent authority, has made the decision to reopen the beaches,” Ncube said.
He said UPL had spared no expense to mitigate the impact of the chemical spill on July 12 on the warehouse that UPL had elapsed, and the failure of emergency and fire services to attend to the fire timeously due to the complete breakdown of law and order in the area at the time.
“It has spent over R250 million to date on its clean up and rehabilitation operations,” Ncube said.
He said going forward, UPL’s team of independent specialists will continue to assess the impact of the spill on the environment, and the potential impact on human health, in the surrounding business and residential communities. UPL will continue working on remediation and rehabilitation programmes in the affected areas.
The company will continue engaging with government authorities, civil society and surrounding communities on those programmes.
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