The foul stench of raw sewage along the beach at the point where the Lourens River meets the ocean is an odour residents, beachgoers and holidaymakers have to contend with for months on end.
Over the past few weeks readers have sent several letters of concern and complaint to DistrictMail, the City as well as ward councillors, but the stench remains, hanging in the air and providing discomfort to residents in surrounding suburbs such as Lochnerhof.
In a letter addressed to a ward councillor and copied to DistrictMail, Marinda Louw Coetzee told of how she had come across the stench over a weekend while walking on the beach near the Lourens River. “This is a matter of public and environmental safety and should be dealt with as soon as possible,” she wrote. “Where is the sewerage coming from, and what is being done to clean up and repair the leaks?”
Another resident states sewage smells come from the Lourens River in Lochnerhof, and that this waste is also going into the ocean. “I experienced it myself, I smelled it and swam in that water. Some even went into my mouth and it clearly tastes like sewage. It seems to have been a problem now for years, but it doesn’t get fixed.
“The smell gets so strong one has to close one’s windows and doors during the day and especially at night, just to do away with the sewage smell. It’s terrible. I’m at my wits end,” the reader stated.
Local conservation enthusiast and founder of Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement (Hoam) Lisa Starr is a regular visitor to the river mouth. “I can say it probably smells two or three days (at the most) a month due to a spill. This is very bad, but it’s caused by electricity cut outs (load-shedding) and burst pipes due to blockages. Luckily it doesn’t bother the birdlife. They seem to like a bit of faeces as there is a huge array at the Macassar pump station. But don’t swim if you smell a spill.”
A local engineer familiar with the situation said that the pump station sump will smell due to the ponding of sewage, but there should be some form of odour control due to its situation in a residential area. “Years ago there was a system that sprayed a fine mist around the building vents that captured most of the odour, but I have not seen this working for a very long time.”
According to the City’s Mayco member for water and sanitation, Councillor Zahid Badroodien, the pump station’s odour control system is in working order.
“The City’s water and sanitation directorate reports that there are no issues at the Lourens River pump station,” he said. “The water pollution control unit will investigate this matter to identify any potential sources of pollution.” He added that City health was looking into residents’ complaints.
According to Steven Louw, chairperson of the Lourens River Conservation Society, the issue of the sewerage plant, and in particular the smell, came up repeatedly at a recent City of Cape Town and Future Strand public participation event.
“It continues to be a key negative in attempts to uplift the area. Experts have indicated to us that the piping is old, unmaintained and inadequate and that the filtration system at the plant appears to either be inactive or defective. Our concern is that the smell could be an indicator of raw sewerage leaking directly into the Lourens and sea, which is used by many. The recent City of Cape Town Water Colloquium highlighted concerns over water quality measurement as a whole, so we are not confident about eColi and other counts, which are way above acceptable levels around this plant.”
