Africa Wild

Mpumalanga municipality fined R70m for Vaal River sewage pollution


Members of the joint Blue Scorpions and Green Scorpions environmental management investigating team in Mpumalanga acknowledge their successful prosecution of the Lekwa local municipality. Outside the Standerton Regional Court last week are, from left: Lesley Moremi, Thandi Mopai, Gezephi Nyalunga, Musa Luhlanga, Xolile Mhlakoana and investigator Maanda Alidzulwi (back, hands raised). (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Carnie | 25 Jun 2023

The Lekwa Local Municipality was fined R70m for failing to stop sewage from flowing into the Vaal River. The penalty is among the highest on record in SA for an environmental crime
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A municipality in Mpumalanga has been fined R70-million and put on strict terms to plug the torrent of raw or semi-treated human sewage and factory muck that has been pouring into the Vaal River near Standerton for more than five years.

The fine, imposed last week on the Lekwa Local Municipality by the Standerton Regional Court, is among the highest on record in South Africa for an environmental crime and comes at a time when several other municipalities face similar criminal action for their failure to halt the regular fouling of rivers and dams nationwide.


A torrent of untreated sewage flows towards the Vaal River from a pump station in Standerton. (Photo: Supplied)

The prosecution, investigated by Maanda Alidzulwi, a senior Green Scorpions environmental management inspector in Mpumalanga, comes in the wake of a waterborne cholera outbreak that has killed at least 45 people in several provinces.

Last year, Alidzulwi took the Thaba Chweu municipality to court for similar water pollution offences, securing a R10-million fine.

He was also a guest speaker at Daily Maverick’s Gathering: Earth Edition last month, where he warned that pollution of the Vaal River was endangering the health of thousands of people because of the regular and “blatant” dumping of untreated human sewage into local rivers.


Sewage and factory effluent pours from a pump station operated by the Lekwa Local Municipality. (Photo: Supplied)

He remarked that municipalities seemed oblivious to the fact that several sewage-polluted streams flow into the Vaal, one of the main water supply sources for Johannesburg and other major urban settlements in Gauteng.

Rehabilitate and repair

A condition of the Lekwa prosecution agreement is that the R70-million fine will be used to rehabilitate and repair dysfunctional wastewater treatment works in Standerton and other parts of the Lekwa Local Municipality over the next three years.

Municipal officials will also have to appoint an external auditor and submit detailed reports every three months to Alidzulwi and the national Department of Water and Sanitation on the progress of “urgent and necessary repairs” to municipal wastewater treatment works.

Lekwa will further be compelled to appoint properly qualified and experienced process controllers at its treatment facilities and to ensure that local industries instal new pre-treatment processes to reduce the level of oils, sludge and inorganic solid matter sent to the municipal treatment works.

Lekwa, represented by municipal manager Malose Johan Lamola, pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in terms of a plea and sentence agreement under section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act.

The offences included:

• Failing to comply with wastewater management licences;

• Unauthorised disposal of waste;

• Failure to comply with national government compliance notices;

• Unlawful water use;

• Causing significant pollution of the environment;

• Unlawful or negligent disposal of raw sewer effluent; and

• Failure to comply with a notice issued under the National Environmental Management Act.

According to the plea and sentencing agreement, most of these offences continued from 2017 to 2021 and were still unresolved.

It states that raw or untreated human sewage had also flowed from at least five municipal pump stations (Stein, Rooikoppen, Johan, Muller and Taljaard streets).

This had led to significant pollution of the environment and groundwater as well as public land, farms and residential areas.

The guilty plea agreement acknowledges that Standerton lies on a large, open plain where much of the polluted water drains into the Vaal River.


Wastewater overflows from a pump station. (Photo: Supplied)

While the municipal wastewater system was designed to treat up to 18 million litres of effluent per day, it was evident that the main treatment works and several substations were currently not operational.

Lamola admitted that poor management of the Standerton treatment works had resulted in “significant pollution and degradation of the environment” – including the Vaal River – and numerous spillages on to grazing land and cropland.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Sewage continually draining into Vaal Dam as overburdened, underserviced water treatment plants fail

Not only did the stench of sewage cause a public nuisance, but harmful bacteria also created a health risk for residents of Standerton and neighbouring areas.

The agreement notes that municipalities and other state organs are not immune from transgressions of the Constitution and environmental laws and – like any other business entity – Lekwa was obliged to comply with national water and environmental laws.


Sewage and factory muck has been flowing into the environment, farmlands and rivers for more than five years because of poor management of municipal wastewater around Standerton. (Photo: Supplied)

“The flagrant, repeated and continued breach of the environmental laws by the accused forced the complainant to act by way of a criminal charge in order to protect and manage the environment to give effect to [constitutional rights to a healthy environment].”

The formal criminal complaint was laid by Musa Luhlanga, the regional manager for compliance monitoring in the Gert Sibande District Municipality (Ermelo).

A mitigating factor was that Lekwa had expressed commitment to enforcing municipal by-laws to reduce industrial effluent pollution and to keep sewage discharges to the Vaal River to a minimum.

In addition to the R70-million fine, Lekwa has to pay R500,000 to the national Department of Water and Sanitation and the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs to cover some of the costs of their environmental pollution investigations. DM

Toxic Shock It’s more than two years since the Durban July riots saw the UPL chemicals warehouse gutted. The full health impacts of that blaze are beginning to become clear, with the latest report warning that thousands of people living in the vicinity of the site are at two to three times the risk of developing heart and lung disease (including cancer) after breathing in the noxious fumes. Tony Carnie digs into the report.

TOXIC SHOCK

UPL chemical inferno ‘more than doubles’ risk for heart disease and lung cancer in parts of Durban


A new health study in the aftermath of the UPL Cornubia chemical fire has flagged increased heart and lung disease risks for exposed communities closest to the old chemical warehouse. (Image: iStock | Unsplash)

By Tony Carnie | 30 Aug 2023

Thousands of people living in the immediate vicinity of the former UPL chemicals warehouse in Durban face twice to three times the risk of developing heart and lung diseases (including lung cancer) after breathing in a cocktail of poisonous chemical fumes during the July riots more than two years ago.

Click on the title to read the whole article.

https://youtu.be/Z67ltyD4C44?si=M_0_9zmGH_4-9fdN

Watchdogs call for criminal charges after UPL’s contaminated water pours into Durban river – again


An image of the polluted Umhlanga lagoon in July 2021. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Carnie | 24 Oct 2023

Toxic chemical residue from the old UPL warehouse has overflowed into the Ohlange River in Durban once more, just days after government authorities warned the company it faced criminal charges unless it acted swiftly to prevent further water and soil pollution in the area.
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In a written directive sent to UPL regional head Marcel Dreyer on 18 October, the Department of Water and Sanitation cautioned that, if convicted, company representatives could be jailed for five years for water pollution offences.

In the directive, titled “Failure to take reasonable measures to contain or prevent a situation which causes pollution of the water resource”, senior water regulation official Colin Zwane said he had reasonable grounds for believing that UPL had contravened the provisions of the National Water Act by failing to take adequate steps to prevent pollution.

Zwane said one of the big worries was how to deal with thousands of litres of pesticide-contaminated water currently stored by UPL in a makeshift pollution control dam (PCD) located near the company’s fire-gutted warehouse in Cornubia.


The ‘pollution control dam’ at Cornubia on 22 October. (Photo: Supplied)

Just days after Zwane’s warning directive, however, treated and untreated water from this dam started to flow into a nearby stream during heavy rains over the weekend.

The same dam also overflowed into the Ohlange River after heavy rains in April 2022, and now questions are being raised once more on why UPL allowed the dam level to rise to the point where there was a risk of further pollution overflows.

Following the arson attack on the warehouse in July 2021, government officials instructed the company to ensure that dam water levels were kept below 30% of capacity, but this was revised to a maximum level of 60% last year at the request of UPL.

To ensure that this polluted stormwater did not flow out of the dam, UPL was required to hire tanker trucks to transport the poisoned water to a registered hazardous waste dump.

But UPL, the fifth-largest agrochemical company in the world, complained about the costs of taking the water to a land-based waste facility, and in late 2021 it submitted proposals to dump the water into the sea via the Southern Wastewater Treatment Works near Merebank.

That proposal was rejected and, more recently, UPL consultants proposed reducing the level of the pollution control dam by pre-treating the contaminated water with ozone and ultraviolet light processes and then releasing it into the sea via the Ohlange River.


Though sandbags have been placed above the dam wall, water was still flowing beneath the sandbags via a porous layer of stones. (Photo: Supplied)

In response to the latest government directive, UPL attorney Norman Brauteseth has once again raised the issue of the high cost of tankering water to a landfill site, suggesting that this was no longer necessary as the water could be pre-treated to non-toxic levels and then discharged directly from the dam.

“As you are aware, our client has been tankering PCD water to landfill since the incident, at a cost of many hundreds of millions of rands,” he said, noting UPL was also required to keep the dam below 60% capacity.

“Demands have been made in the last week for UPL to recommence tankering to regain that level. The need to tanker is however now entirely redundant in the light of the non-toxic nature of the successful treatment,” he said, further suggesting that the eThekwini municipality had obstructed the company’s efforts to resolve the situation by refusing to grant landowner permission to discharge treated water onto land owned jointly by the municipality and the Tongaat-Hulett group.


Contaminated water from the UPL ‘pollution control dam’ flows into a stream below the old UPL warehouse. (Photo: Supplied)

In his 20 October letter to the provincial department of environmental affairs and other senior government officials, Brauteseth said the level of the dam was now above 90% and, due to the risk of an overflow because of heavy rain, UPL had been advised by one of its environmental consultants (Dr Mark Graham of GroundTruth Environment and Engineering) that the dam level “must therefore be reduced on an expedited basis”.

“In the circumstances as set out above, and the fact that the treated PCD water is able to be discharged without licensing, UPL will no longer tanker clean water to landfill.

“It is able to be safely treated and discharged in situ, and UPL has accordingly today instructed its consultants to run the plant, discharge it in accordance with the submitted SOP [standard operating procedure] and EMP [environmental management plan] and lower the PCD level to 60%.”

However, UPL’s stance has enraged several community watchdogs who sit on the government-appointed Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) to monitor the impacts of the Cornubia warehouse environmental disaster on behalf of local communities.

In a letter to the provincial department of environmental affairs official Sabelo Ngcobo, forum convenor Jeremy Ridl has requested an urgent meeting with senior national, provincial and local government officials this week to discuss what it considers to be “a crisis in the management” of the UPL disaster.
Noting that the last meeting between the MSF and UPL was cancelled because the agro-chemicals company would not allow Daily Maverick to sit in on the meeting, Ridl said forum members would no longer attend any meetings that were “controlled by UPL, both as to what information is disclosed and who may attend”.

It was unacceptable for information to be given to community representatives at a meeting and for them to be expected to keep such information confidential. This defeated the entire purpose of the MSF.

“Instead of there being communication between stakeholders and the authorities, and between stakeholders and UPL, stakeholders have been subjected to what may only be termed as an ‘information dump’ that is of no assistance to ordinary members of the public.”

The MSF has also called for an investigation into allegations that certain information about the UPL clean-up and rehabilitation process was being controlled or withheld from both the public and the authorities.

“The MSF is not aware of the true facts and requires a full investigation of the matter by the authorities and public disclosure of the findings.”

Turning to the overflow of polluted water from the UPL pollution control dam, Ridl said it appeared that the water release began late on Friday or early Saturday and continued into Sunday.

(Independently, Daily Maverick has seen imagery of untreated water flowing directly from the crest of the dam wall on Sunday.)

“The MSF has sight of the letter addressed to you by UPL’s attorney and the recommendations of GroundTruth,” said Ridl.

“… It is clear that UPL is proceeding on the advice of its attorney and the recommendations of its specialist, in blatant disregard of the section 30 directive and the directive issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) only a few days ago.

“The MSF does not agree with UPL’s interpretation of the law when it contends that it does not need to comply with municipal stormwater by-laws or the National Water Act. In the case of the latter, the MSF was pleased to see the directive issued by DWS as it confirms the MSF’s understanding of the law,” said Ridl, who is also a senior environmental attorney.

“Many questions arise from what is obviously, the unlawful discharge of contaminated water into the watercourse. Monitoring the impact after the event, as suggested in [Brauteseth’s] letter and the GroundTruth recommendations, is unacceptable.

“Aside from the possible contravention of the section 30 directive and the DWS directive, the discharge of contaminated water into the watercourse without a water use licence or exemption is a criminal offence, as is the failure to comply with the municipal stormwater bylaws.

“The MSF has been disappointed that no prosecution has resulted from the incident and must assume that the authorities are unwilling or unable to progress with criminal action. The MSF will accordingly lodge a criminal complaint concerning the discharge currently taking place with SAPS.”

The MSF has also requested an urgent meeting with the provincial department of environmental affairs to discuss several issues and, if necessary, “to redefine the role and purpose of the MSF”, said Ridl, noting that it would be advisable for the provincial department of environmental affairs to have its legal advisers at this meeting.

Daily Maverick sent questions to UPL regional head Dreyer on Monday, asking the company to comment or elaborate on the latest events, but this request was not acknowledged.

Nevertheless, attorney Brauteseth has set out the company’s position in a detailed six-page letter to government authorities who sit on a Joint Operations Committee dealing with the Cornubia investigation.

Further to UPL’s concerns about the costs of tankering waste to landfill, Brauteseth’s letter also records the company’s understanding of recent events and how they should be dealt with.

Brauteseth states that UPL submitted a proposal to the provincial department of environmental affairs in November requesting permission to discharge wastewater into a stream flowing into the Ohlange River – after it had been treated with ozone and ultraviolet processes.
Conditional approval was granted in March, with the proviso that this discharge be licenced by the DWS. UPL had also proposed an “expedited” procedure be followed under a General Authorisation process, but the DWS required written landowner consent from both the eThekwini municipality and Tongaat-Hulett.

However, Tongaat was only prepared to provide consent on certain conditions, including approval in terms of eThekwini by-laws. In July, eThekwini responded, stipulating that UPL would have to obtain “unconditional” landowner consent from Tongaat.

“Quite clearly, those stipulations created an impasse,” said Brauteseth.

Despite several efforts to resolve this, including an application to allow an “emergency discharge” of treated water, the impasse had not been resolved.

As a further precaution, UPL also consulted and obtained a review report from Dr Sebastian Jooste, a senior official of the DWS.

He had advised that as test results from the UPL treatment process did “not appear to indicate any negative impact on the receiving environment”, the pre-treatment plant would be suitable to remove any “residual pesticide toxicity” prior to its discharge to the environment.

“In the result, the treated PCD water can be discharged to the adjacent stream without licensing,” Brauteseth asserted.

It was in these circumstances, he said, that UPL had decided to no longer tanker “clean water” to landfill as the water could be safely treated and discharged on-site. DM

Ethekwini Municipality responds

In reference to your article above, I wish to correct an allegation made by Mr Norman Brauteseth which suggests that eThekwini Municipality obstructed the company’s efforts to resolve the situation by refusing to grant landowner permission to discharge treated water onto land owned jointly by the municipality and the Tongaat-Hulett group.

The land upon which UPL proposed, and subsequently illegally discharged contaminated water, is owned by Tongaat Hulett Properties.

In terms of the eThekwini Municipality Stormwater Management Bylaws any discharge of contaminated stormwater must be approved by the municipality. In this regard UPL made application in terms of the Stormwater Management Bylaws and we furnished UPL with our requirements. (Read the full letter).

Tongaat Hulett were also served notice of the requirement to comply with the eThekwini Municipality Stormwater Management Bylaws [url=file:///C:/Users/utente/Documents/Africa%20Wild/-Letter-to-Tongaat-Hulett-Compliance-With-E-Muni-Stormwater-Management-Bylaws-22-April-2022.pdf](Read the letter) [/url]

No further information was provided to the municipality in order to assess and make a decision to approve or refuse this discharge. UPL subsequently wrote to eThekwini Municipality withdrawing their Stormwater Application on 20 October 2023.

Dr Andrew A Mather Pr Eng FSAICE MIMESA

UPL Incident Coordinator

eThekwini Municipality

Tongaat Hulett Developments (THD) responds

UPL proposed to discharge treated wastewater onto THD and Ethekwini Municipality (ETM) landholdings (not jointly owned land between the City and THD – the discharge will traverse THD land and then ETM land)

For UPL to discharge treated wastewater onto THD landholdings, the General Authorisation (GA) application with the Department of Water and Sanitation required landowner consent from THD, with THD in turn requiring approval from eThekwini Municipality in terms of its Stormwater Bylaws.

THD did not obstruct granting landowner permission to UPL for the discharge of treated wastewater. The agreed terms for THD providing landowner consent to UPL were unfortunately not adhered to. THD remains fully supportive and ready to provide the requisite landowner approvals, subject to eThekwini confirmation.

everywhere around the world there are "pigs"

High court orders UPL to prevent another toxic chemical water spill in Durban


An aerial view of devastated vegetation in the Ohlanga River estuary north of Durban taken in April 2022. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Carnie | 03 Nov 2023

More than two years after at least 5,000 tonnes of farm poisons and other ‘agricultural remedies’ went up in flames or flowed into a river north of the city, legal disputes about the aftermath of the chemical pollution disaster came to a head in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Durban.
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The eThekwini (Durban) Municipality has won a significant — albeit temporary — court victory to avert the growing risk of another spillage of poison-polluted water into a major river and the sea north of the coastal holiday city.

In a ruling late on 2 November, Acting Judge Ian Dutton ordered the Mumbai-based UPL agrochemicals giant to stop discharging water from its new chemical treatment plant into the Ohlanga River with immediate effect, and to rather hire wastewater tankers to cart polluted water to a reputable hazardous waste dump.

More than two years after at least 5,000 tonnes of farm poisons and other “agricultural remedies” went up in flames or flowed into a river north of the city, legal disputes about the aftermath of the chemical pollution disaster came to a head in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Durban.


The new UPL poisoned water treatment plant near Umhlanga. (Photo: Tony Carnie)


Water from the UPL chemical treatment plant flows into a tributary of the Ohlanga River in Durban earlier this week. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

In very simple terms, the legal dispute is about the permitted water levels of a “pollution control dam” (PCD) — a hastily modified depression in the ground that is being used to capture the remnant poison overflow from the UPL warehouse in Cornubia, Durban.

This dam contains up to 10,000 cubic metres of contaminated water, but senior eThekwini officials are worried that this polluted reservoir could overflow shortly due to recent heavy rains.

According to evidence presented by UPL itself, the pollution control dam level is currently around 92% — even though government authorities had previously recommended that it should not exceed 30%.

That way, there would be adequate capacity to contain a sudden influx of polluted water from the gutted UPL warehouse after a major rainstorm — as happened in April last year and again during heavy rain last month.

Evidence in the court papers shows that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Edtea) was later persuaded by UPL’s legal team to relax that safety precaution level to 60% — leaving just a 40% capacity to capture pollution overflows from the derelict chemical warehouse.

However, the “pollution control dam” has overflowed twice — first during the April 2022 floods and again last month.


Senior Durban municipal engineer Dr Andrew Mather told the court that there was a ‘pattern’ by UPL to avoid complying with government directives. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Dr Andrew Mather, a senior eThekwini coastal policy engineer, said in court papers that he was worried that the level of UPL’s pollution control dam was now above 95% and was again at risk of overflowing into the environment.

Therefore, he urged, UPL should take immediate action to avert this risk, by sucking up polluted water into tanker trucks and removing the waste to reputable hazardous waste dumps.

Mather said this was a simple case where UPL had failed to comply with a directive from Edtea that had potentially major consequences for the environment and people living in that area.

(It is worth noting here, that Mather and eThekwini took urgent legal action against UPL for the potential water and environmental pollution threat, in the absence of any court action by the national Department of Water Affairs or the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs.)

In the words of eThekwini’s advocate, Warren Shapiro, the city required comfort that the resolution of the potential pollution would not be left in the hands of a “corporate polluter”.

Judge Dutton said that, based on the evidence in the court papers, he was concerned about the possibility of an environmental “disaster”.

Based on Mather’s version of events, there was a “situation of imminent peril” to the environment.

However, UPL’s counsel Jabu Thobela-Mkhulisi and UPL’s Africa head of legal affairs, Rachel Evatt, argued that this was not the case.

Thobela-Mkhulisi argued that there was not in fact any such danger, as UPL was treating polluted water from the dam to the point where it was “cleaner than stormwater”.

In response to Daily Maverick’s queries, UPL executive Marcel Dreyer went even further, stating that chemically treated water from the company’s pollution dam was “equivalent to drinking water”.

(He has not, however, commented on a challenge from Daily Maverick reader Gregory Scott for him and the UPL legal team to drink this water or to participate in a “swimathon” in the UPL pollution control dam.)

Thobela-Mkhulisi argued that Mather’s fears about imminent harm or “catastrophe” for the environment were a “red herring”, adding that it would be more costly for UPL to dispose of waste using tankers.

Summing up his views, Judge Dutton, said that UPL had suggested that polluted water from the polluted dam could be treated to a safe level.

However, the evidence currently available to the court on this issue remained in dispute, and he was inclined to defer any decisions on this issue by allowing UPL to submit further evidence on or before 17 November.

In the interim, he ordered that UPL, eThekwini, the Edtea and the Department of Water and Sanitation convene a meeting by no later than 10 November to endeavour to find a long-term “that attains and maintains the pollution control dam [level] at 60%”.

According to the interim court order, UPL would undertake to reduce the dam level to avoid any further pollution of the river by hiring tankers, pending a meeting of government regulators. DM

It makes me sick to see how the spill has killed the vegetation Imagine what it does to everything that it encounters and to the sea

Happy tomato and tadpole tales don’t tell the full story of UPL river devastation


From left: Tomato plants thriving in pot plant experiments by UPL rehabilitation consultants. (Photo: UPL specialist report) / Corporate responsibility adverts on the UPL website. (Image: UPL) / Dead fish collected in the Ohlanga estuary in July 2021. (Photo: MER report to UPL)

By Tony Carnie | 14 Nov 2023

Anyone reading the latest corporate news bulletin from the UPL agrochemicals group is very likely to gain the impression that the ecology is looking peachy, recovering rapidly after a massive chemical spill north of Durban more than two years ago.
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In its new Road to Recovery communique, the UPL corporate communications team speaks enthusiastically about the reappearance of tadpoles in a small river tributary near Umhlanga, along with recent potted vegetable plant experiments. Despite being grown in soil once exposed to a torrent of pesticides, herbicides and other agrochemicals from the old UPL Cornubia storehouse in July 2021, the potted tomatoes appear to be flourishing.

“Signs of natural life returning to the tributary and further down to the confluence with the Ohlanga River are being observed, and as recently as September 2023 saw tadpoles present in significant numbers throughout the tributary — a strong sign of recovery.

“Trials to assess the effects of natural degradation in soils affected by the spill have been led with tomato, pepper, radish, and Swiss chard. Vegetables grown in untreated soil collected from the upstream portion of the confluence wetland, have shown no signs of stress after 3 weeks.”

That’s not all.

There has also been “significant progress” with ecological remediation work “across most of the impacted system”.

In fact, says UPL, “The majority of substances related to the spill (both pesticides and metals) are no longer present in the system or are at such low concentrations they cannot be quantified by laboratory testing.

“This indicates the strength of the work which has been done by the broader independent expert team over the past two years to achieve this milestone.”

Good news indeed, it seems.


Corporate responsibility adverts on the UPL website. (Image: UPL)

Sadly, the company acknowledges, “some challenges remain” — mainly related to what it refers to as “external pressures” unrelated to the company’s uncontrolled spillage of more than 5,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals, herbicides and heavy metal pollutants after an arson attack during the July 2021 riots.

“Most critically, the high levels of sewage from surrounding communities are impeding the remediation and rehabilitation efforts in these areas,” the company asserts.

In simpler terms, UPL’s residual chemical pollution is now so diminished or so diluted that it’s no longer a big deal. In the company’s version, the real problem lies with sewage overflows from the eThekwini municipality.

Buried chemicals

While sewage pollution in rivers across Durban has been flagged as a major issue, it nevertheless seems remarkable that the UPL communicators skimmed over or completely ignored some more inconvenient facts and opinions provided by its own environmental consultants.

(Readers who wish to interrogate fuller details on these issues can access an extensive repository of documents established by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Environmental Affairs)

For example, UPL makes no mention of the strong likelihood that several tonnes of toxic chemicals remain buried deep in the muddy sediments of the Ohlanga River and a tributary adjacent to the old UPL warehouse.


An image of the ‘dark green/black oily substance’ seeping from streambanks close to the old UPL warehouse. (Photo: August 2022 GroundTruth report to UPL)

For several months, UPL environmental consultants have also been monitoring a “dark green/black oily substance” leaching from streambanks and preventing the recovery of vegetation close to the old warehouse.

Initial tests showed that this substance contained “extremely elevated concentrations of pesticides” (along with herbicides such as metolachlor (12,200 mg/L) and acetochlor (6,700 mg/L)) according to an August 2022 report by Dr Mark Graham of the GroundTruth consultancy.

More recently, Graham has estimated that there are roughly 4.2 tonnes of pesticides/chemicals buried deep beneath the soil in a river wetland near Blackburn Village.

“To date [September 2023], there has been limited recovery in the wetland system, with much of the wetland remaining largely denuded of vegetation. The limited recovery seen in the system raises concerns about the extent and severity of contamination residual in the wetland and, possibly more critically, whether the wetland may now be functioning as a source of pollutants that could pose an environmental risk to the downstream system.”

Graham notes that traces of 22 pesticides (including 2,4-D, imidacloprid, MCPA, and propiconazole) were found in one of the samples here — with much higher pesticide levels (over 35,000 ug/kg of tebuthiuron) in another sample from a depth of 390cm.


A current ‘hotspot’ of pesticide and herbicide-polluted water next to the Ohlanga River. (Photo: September 2023 GroundTruth report to UPL)

So, while the UPL communique may be correct in suggesting that many of the toxic substances have disappeared or been diluted in several places over the past 28 months, it makes no mention of sections of the river that are still “highly contaminated” to a soil depth of nearly 4m.

Graham maintains that these buried chemicals are unlikely to escape en masse in future to poison human communities lower downstream. But if they do leak out, at some point, the harmful impacts will most likely be to river and plant life, possibly including fish. This is because the chemicals are mostly herbicides and, he suggested, their concentrations will be diluted considerably by fresh water flowing in the Ohlanga River.

However, a second UPL environmental consultant notes in her specialist reports that most life forms in the Ohlanga River Estuary have been all but wiped out by the UPL chemical spill and are showing little sign of recovery more than two years later.

‘Persistent contamination’

Marine and Estuarine Research (MER) scientist Nicolette Forbes notes in her September report that there is no precedent in South Africa for a chemical spill of this magnitude.

While contamination levels in the upper section next to UPL and the lower sections of the river next to the sea had decreased, the main middle reaches of the estuary had been “defaunated”.

Unlike the marine environment at the mouth of the Ohlanga River, she says, the main estuarine ecosystem “continues to exhibit persistent contamination”.

In her words, “the estuary is still nowhere near its pre-spill state”.


A ground-level view of chemically devastated vegetation in a wetland next to Blackburn Village. (Photo: Groundtruth report to UPL)

At least three pesticide types were still being recorded within the estuary water and sediments, and there had been “significant ecological loss of species and function”.

This included riverine vegetation and crustacean and invertebrate species such as the formerly abundant population of cracker shrimp.

“Notably, the more sensitive crustacean taxa remain absent, which aligns with their vulnerability to biocides.”

Though some fish species had been seen intermittently, it was not clear whether they had arrived via the sea quite recently, or whether they had survived and grown up in the river estuary.

“A number of piscivorous [fish-eating] birds were observed at the estuary with fish prey, but this was during March 2023 only and these observations have not been repeated. The low numbers of bird piscivores and absence of the larger birds such as Goliath heron suggest that the fish population has not been sustained or developed to numbers sufficient to attract more fish-eating species.

“The process of ecological recovery remains gradual, with the current invertebrate community representing a diminished remnant of its former composition, currently comprising only polychaetes, leeches and fly larvae.


Aerial photographs clearly illustrate the scale of damage to vegetation in the upper parts of the Ohlanga estuary in Durban following the July 2021 UPL chemical fire. Photo taken in August 2021. (Photo: MER report to UPL)


Aerial photographs clearly illustrate the scale of damage to vegetation in the upper parts of the Ohlanga estuary in Durban following the July 2021 UPL chemical fire. Photo taken in December 2021. (Photo: MER report to UPL)

“Given that high levels of contamination still exist at the UPL warehouse platform, in sections of the contaminated tributary and the lower wetland — all upstream of the estuary — it is strongly recommended that measures continue to focus on the remediation of upstream environments. At this stage it is premature to effect any significant interventions such as animal reintroductions while the threat of even the slightest contamination remains.

“The unfortunate overall conclusion at this stage is that the Ohlanga event has no precedent in this country, and one is left with the Northern Hemisphere experience that full functional recovery has to be timed in years and in the worst-case scenario, in decades.

Forbes suggests that it could take 12-15 years for a full recovery of the estuary — a far cry from the more optimistic scenario painted in UPL’s Road to Recovery statement, which forms part of the company’s “extensive efforts to communicate clearly and transparently” in the aftermath of the chemical disaster.

On the issue of transparent communication, it’s noteworthy that Daily Maverick has been barred — twice — from community feedback meetings at UPL’s regional offices in Umhlanga.

Earlier this month, this reporter encountered UPL legal representative Norman Brauteseth in the corridors of the Durban High Court. Noticing that Brauteseth’s left hand was heavily bandaged, Daily Maverick asked what had happened.

“It’s from punching too many journalists… Ha, ha, harr, harr,” he responded.

That might have been an attempt at levity, but it fell rather flat in the circumstances.

(In fact, he had undergone a minor surgical procedure, Brauteseth clarified shortly afterwards)

Six days later, UPL executive Marcel Dreyer wrote a letter to Daily Maverick Editor-in-Chief Branko Brkic to register concerns about the most recent coverage of the chemical spill.

Since Dreyer stated very clearly that his letter was not for publication, the contents will not be reported on here. Suffice to say, he was not happy. DM

Caught again! Durban tries to hide crappy sea water quality results as holiday season beckons


Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda takes a dip at Durban’s North Beach in December 2022 to reassure visitors that the city’s beaches are safe for swimming. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

By Tony Carnie | 26 Nov 2023

The latest transparency blunder, which involves dangerously high E. coli levels, is not the first time the eThekwini Municipality has sought to conceal poor results.
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Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda pledged to be transparent about the quality of sea water at city beaches over the holiday season, by publishing the results of all water quality tests conducted simultaneously by the City and an independent laboratory.

And the City lived up to that promise – until last week (24 November), when an inconvenient set of very poor results from both the municipality and Talbot Laboratories was deliberately withheld by the City’s communication team – apparently on the basis that they were “outdated” and “we would not want to cause alarm for no reason”.

At a media briefing on the Durban beachfront earlier this month, Kaunda further sought to reassure residents and holidaymakers that the vast majority of the city’s 23 designated bathing beaches were safe and open for bathing.

Under pressure from the local hospitality industry and other groups to address the unresolved issue of poor or patchy beach water quality in the coastal holiday city, Kaunda and senior eThekwini Municipality officials also held “frank and robust” discussions with the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 9 November.



They resolved to pursue several measures to keep the city’s beaches clean and safe, to “consolidate our marketing campaigns to reposition Durban as a destination of choice for visitors” and to also work to regain international Blue Flag beach status for some of the most popular beaches.

Writing in his mayoral blog on the City’s website on 6 October (see above screenshot), Kaunda stated:

“The fact that most of our bathing beaches are now open for swimming is testimony to this hard work by our technical teams. We want to assure residents and visitors that the City only opens the beaches that meet the quality standard for safety of bathing water.

“To this end, from 5 October, we have collaborated with independent laboratories such as Talbot and the Durban University of Technology to conduct water tests on the same spot, date and time and subsequently release them simultaneously (emphasis added).”

Yet last week, when Daily Maverick requested a copy of the latest joint test results from the City’s communications unit, we received this curious response three days later:

“We are still awaiting the latest results from the joint sampling. We will share them once we have them. The ones we have are outdated, and we would not want to cause alarm for no reason.”

Smelling a rat, we searched the internet and found the latest dual test results were published by Talbot on 23 November (two days after we asked eThekwini for the latest results).

Yet, despite the mayor’s pledge to publish them simultaneously, eThekwini failed to provide them on request, or to post them on the municipality’s website or social media accounts.

This is what the results show:

Every one of the six Durban central beaches (tested simultaneously by laboratory technicians at eThekwini and Talbot on 16 November) had E. coli levels way in excess of safe bathing limits for recreational contact.

According to Talbot’s rating scheme, an E. coli (sewage bacteria) rating between 0 and 250 units is considered “ideal”. Readings between 250 and 500 are “acceptable”, while readings above 500 are “critical” and therefore unsafe for bathing.

According to eThekwini’s own test results, the lowest E. coli reading was 1,968 units (North Beach) and the highest was 15,290 (Country Club beach).


The inconvenient 16 November joint test results.

These one-off results from six central beaches on a single day may not paint a fair picture of the city’s overall sea water quality, since test results can fluctuate widely from day to day – especially when heavy rains wash pollution from rivers and stormwater into the sea.

It is also worth noting that the same six beaches were rated “excellent” in similar tests by Talbot and eThekwini just seven days earlier.

And it should be recorded that several other beaches tested by the City laboratory just before the “alarming” results of 16 November generally had good-quality water. For example, three Umhlanga beaches tested on 13 November had E. coli levels ranging from a low of 20 units at Lighthouse Beach to a high of 309 units at Bronze beach (all within the limits).

On the central Durban beachfront, Suncoast and South beaches also had very low readings.

But if the City has committed itself to a policy of transparency to reassure the public that there is nothing to hide, why did City officials try to conceal the embarrassing results?

That question was also posed by the independent environmental monitoring group Adopt-a-River in a Facebook post on 24 November.

“Adopt-a-River” said it had sampled a number of sites with Talbot for nearly two years and was then requested by eThekwini to conduct joint sampling at six beach sites for comparative purposes ahead of the 2023 festive season.

Of the six beaches they sampled jointly, four had generally maintained a good record, until the 16 November tests.


Adopt-a-River Facebook post on 24 November 2023

“This set of samples was collected after rain. This always brings nasty things down… We have always advised the public to keep out of the sea for a day or two after rain. Especially if there are rivers close by. These results point to a greater ongoing issue and raise concerns over transparency.

“We sample together. We did not release together… You wanted transparency… Be transparent.”

The latest transparency blunder is not the first time eThekwini has sought to conceal poor results. In January 2022 (several months before the devastating April 2022 floods damaged the city’s wastewater treatment works and pump stations) City official Malcolm Canham went on television to reassure the public that Durban’s beaches were safe for swimming, when official test results showed unacceptable water quality.

So, Daily Maverick contacted senior City communications manager Gugu Sisilana to ask why her unit was withholding the latest dual test results?

In a series of email exchanges, she denied that any results were being “hidden”.

“The results of the joint sampling were last taken on 16 November 2023. Since then, more water quality sampling tests have been conducted as these results are ever changing depending on various environmental factors.

“When your request came on Wednesday, 21 November 2023, we were informed by scientists that the results you were requesting were already outdated and were given the latest results published on our website dated 22 November 2023, which have been shared with you for ease of reference.”

(NOTE: These are the City’s own results for all 23 beaches – not the latest dual test results from Talbot and eThekwini. Also note that eThekwini is quite happy to include good test results from 16 November in this table, but not the poor results from the same day)


eThekwini’s latest beach and pool status report. Note that it includes good results taken on 16 November, but excludes poor results taken from other beaches on the same day.


eThekwini’s latest beach and pool status report.

“We were then advised by the scientists that the next joint sampling is on Thursday, 23 November 2023. This morning we requested for those results but were informed by scientists that those results are still being processed and are not yet available.

“If the City’s intention was to hide water quality results, it would not have entered into a joint sampling agreement with independent scientists. It must be stressed that in all the beach water quality samples taken jointly by the municipality with independent scientists our results have always been comparable. This confirms the reliability and accuracy of the water quality test results the municipality has always been taking and publishing.


Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda (centre) makes a point at a recent media briefing on beach safety. He is with Durban city councillor Ernest Smith (left) and Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Prasheen Maharaj. (Photo: eThekwini Municipality)

“Why do you not want to wait for the current results if your intention is not to cause unnecessary harm or panic?” she asked.

“All bathing beaches in the City are open and safe for bathing as per the latest test results. The allegations that the City is hiding results are unwarranted and only seek to tarnish the image of the City ahead of the festive season for motives unknown to the City. The latest beach water quality results are available on the municipal website www.durban.gov.za.”

But why, we repeated, were the inconvenient 16 November results not published by eThekwini, as mayor Kaunda pledged?

“The municipality would be doing the public a disservice if it were to publish the results of six or nine bathing beaches out of a total of 23,” Sisilana responded. “My understanding from discussions with scientists is that the published beach results are based on samples and tests conducted on all 23 bathing beaches and not just a select few… We do not have last weeks’ results because they are outdated and no longer relevant. Therefore, I will not lie to you because you want me to lie and confirm outdated reports.” DM

Hopes for clean seawater rise after Durban agrees to (partial) takeover of overflowing sewage plants


Ethekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, escorted by senior Metro Police officers and their assembled fleet of new patrol vehicles, arrives at the Durban beachfront on 29 November to welcome holidaymakers to the Durban beachfront. (Photo: Ethekwini Municipality)

By Tony Carnie | 29 Nov 2023

The eThekwini Municipality has agreed to allow the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board to jointly manage the city’s biggest sewage treatment plants.
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The prolonged flow of sewage in rivers leading to the Durban beachfront may start to ease over the next few weeks after the eThekwini Municipality agreed to (partly) hand over control of the city’s largest wastewater treatment plants to a state-owned water utility company.

The initial 12 month-contract provides for the Pietermaritzburg-based uMngeni-uThukela Water Board to assume joint responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the city’s biggest sewage treatment plants — a clear indictment of the city’s failure to remedy the situation on its own.

The exact terms of the contract have not been disclosed, but many Durban treatment plants have been discharging untreated or partially treated effluent into rivers and the Indian Ocean, largely due to infrastructure damage caused by the April 2022 floods, but also because of the prolonged neglect of several treatment plants which predates the flood damage.

The emergency repair plan, announced this week by the water utility’s chairperson, Professor Vusi Khuzwayo, and eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, will involve 10 local wastewater treatment works that collectively process nearly 90% of the city’s sewage and industrial effluent flows.

This includes the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works, which has been discharging poorly treated water into the uMngeni River for more than two years at a point roughly 2.5km upstream of the Blue Lagoon.

Significantly, uMngeni-uThukela will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Southern and Central treatment works (which discharge effluent directly into the sea via offshore pipelines) as well as the uMhlanga, KwaMashu, Phoenix, Amanzimtoti, uMbilo, Isipingo and uMhlatuzana treatment works.


While the latest water quality tests of seawater along the central Durban beachfront have been rated as ‘excellent’ by both Ethekwini and the independent Talbot laboratory group, the sewage pollution levels in the lower reaches of the Umngeni River remain off the charts – way in excess of the maximum safe recreation level of 500 E.coli units.
(Image: Supplied)

eThekwini officials promised to curb the flow of sewage into the uMngeni River from the Northern works just before the last Christmas holiday season, but a year later sewage levels in the lower reaches of the Umngeni River remain way above the maximum safe limit of 500 E. coli units — with recent levels still measuring in the millions in the vicinity of the uMngeni Bird Park.

However, according to a joint statement issued this week by Khuzwayo and Kaunda, the Pietermaritzburg-based regional water utility company formally took over operations of the 10 plants on 15 November.

“We are happy to report that, to date, uMngeni-uThukela Water has completed a conditional assessment of the wastewater infrastructure in the 10 wastewater works and is implementing an urgent programme to restore compliance going into the festive season.

“We have dispatched technical teams from both uMngeni-uThukela Water and eThekwini that have already started working together on identified projects to improve compliance. The delivery of necessary chemicals, integration of monitoring and laboratory analyses is expected to be completed by Friday [1 December].”

The compliance levels from the 10 wastewater works were expected to “start improving by the first week of December”, they said — although an indication of the scale of the problems was evident from Khuzwayo’s statement that the initial 12-month contract would probably have to be extended for up to three years.


Adopt-a-River founder and pollution monitor Janet Simpkins surveys sewage pollution along the banks of the Umngeni River in August 2022. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

The projects that have been prioritised include the “rehabilitation and putting back into operation of the uMhlanga wastewater works, which last operated before the 2022 floods”.

It would also include the rehabilitation and recommissioning of the Northern works; fixing a major effluent pipeline leading to the uMhlathuzana wastewater works; “reseeding” the Phoenix works and the rehabilitation of the KwaMashu, uMbilo, Isipingo, Amanzimtoti, Central and Southern wastewater works.

However, the full implications of the new arrangement remain unclear.

Janet Simpkins, founder of the Adopt-a-River group that has been monitoring sewage levels along the Durban beachfront and its feeder rivers for two years, said she was “cautiously optimistic — but time will tell.

“I think this agreement is a recognition that the city needs help to resolve this issue, and we will continue to monitor water quality,” she said.


An aerial view of Durban’s Northern wastewater treatment plant. (Photo: Shawn Herbst)

However, a local water engineering expert was more cautious and declined to comment until the full terms of the agreement were disclosed.

Responding to a question from Daily Maverick on whether the new contract could lead to higher rates or surcharges, uMngeni-uThukela chief financial officer Thami Mkhwanazi indicated that the new contract provided for a “costs plus 4%” arrangement for the utility company, which would be providing the services of additional engineering expertise.

“We do not see a big spike for [Durban] residents,” he said.

Meanwhile, the latest beach water quality tests suggest that the majority of the city’s 23 bathing beaches are currently safe for swimming, although there was a significant hiccup after heavy rains earlier this month — resulting in sewage pollution readings at six central beaches being way above the limits — in some cases more than 30 times higher than regulated recreational standards.

Speaking at a “state of readiness” ceremony on the Durban beachfront on Wednesday, Mayor Kaunda reiterated the city’s commitment to continue its partnership with the Adopt-a-River group and the independent Talbot Laboratories group.

This involves joint testing of seawater quality by the eThekwini Municipality and Talbot laboratory staff.

“We are pleased that the water quality results were comparable and reflected that our water was safe for swimming. The joint sampling is to enable credible comparison of results and to ensure transparency and public safety,” he said. DM