Further clouding the picture is the Green Drop report’s introduction of the contender awards. These are given to wastewater treatment works which fulfill all criteria but are disqualified from receiving a 90% score (the minimum for a certification award) because they fail to treat the effluent to minimum standards.
Contender status was awarded to 30 wastewater treatment works in the country, giving the impression their environmental impact is acceptable. However, eight of them failed dismally when it came to effluent quality, cumulatively releasing billions of liters of partially treated sewage into their catchments.
Releasing approximately 1 million liters of effluent into the Diep River daily, Potsdam wastewater treatment works was given an 89% score in the Green Drop report, yet it only met minimum standards for effluent quality 9% of the time during the year under review.
One of only six large estuaries on South Africa’s west coast, the Diep River estuary in Milnerton, Cape Town, experienced a major fish die-off in March. Estuaries such as these are critically important as fish nurseries, says marine biologist and founder and director of Anchor Environmental Consultants Dr. Barry Clark.
They are breeding grounds for a large number of species which are important for inshore fisheries – a critical source of livelihood for small-scale commercial and subsistence fishers, as well as recreational fishers who contribute to local economies.
“On the west coast, there are only five or six reasonably large estuaries, and the Diep River is one of them,” said Clark, with their scarcity making them “disproportionately important to fisheries.”
With Potsdam wastewater treatment works releasing huge volumes of wastewater into the Diep River estuary, it is in an “extremely poor state of health at the moment.”
He said the quality of wastewater flowing into the estuary has “deteriorated severely” over the last decade. “Diep River estuary is hugely important, and it’s a tragedy it’s effectively lost to society,” said Clark.
The putrid state of the estuary, known locally as the Milnerton Lagoon, has also impacted residents, who regularly post notices of sewage flows on a Facebook group, and, as Hanse’s story illustrates, shut down opportunities for youngsters from poor and working-class families living in townships nearby.
Milnerton Canoe Club chairperson Richard Allen said his organization used to run the development program that Hanse and other youth from nearby townships attended. But, he says, he had to shut it down when the water became so polluted that they could not risk a child falling in.
Allen said they used to have about 20 kids in the program who were spending time outside of an environment beset with social ills and instead spending time in a healthy sports environment. After the program had to be shelved, he says, “a lot of them backslid and went the other way.”
Membership of the club is also dwindling due to frequent sewage spills, making training days an uncertainty. He said about 30% of the members had left, choosing to travel to other relatively cleaner water bodies. This meant people who used to earn money as coaches there were no longer able to do so.
Allen added that the water was toxic, and the constant stench meant people living near the water’s edge could no longer sell their houses.
“It’s a disaster, a catastrophe,” he said.
The city of Cape Town is making efforts to upgrade Potsdam wastewater treatment works and rehabilitate the Diep River estuary, but it is falling short of meeting a directive meted out by the provincial Environmental Management Inspectorate, a state office responsible for enforcing environmental legislation, in 2020.