Nahoon sewage spill proves BCM’S failure to comply with court order

In January 2022 the Nahoon Estuary Forum successfully obtained a court order against Buffalo City Metro (BCM), giving the municipality 180 days to address the continuous sewage spills into the Nahoon River from the Nompumelelo township in Beacon Bay.

Now, a year later, there are little to no signs that anything has been done.

On Friday morning residents spotted sewage flowing down the river in front of their homes in Nahoon Valley.

“Friday’s spill is clearly from Nompumelelo. I did an inspection and found the two streams on either side of Nompumelelo are running like rivers. It has not rained so it cannot be stormwater. It is pure sewage,” says Christo Theart, Nahoon Estuary Management Forum chair.

Taking samples from the stream behind the Christian Centre and NTT VW which flows directly to the Nahoon River, Theart plans to have a contempt application filed against BCM.

“I am discussing this with our attorney as to a way forward.

“I have given the samples to our laboratory for analyses as proof. I took photographs and videos as evidence and we have photographs from residents on the Nahoon of the effect of this spill on the estuary in front of their houses.”

Theart said BCM were now in contempt of court.

“We obtained a court order against BCM to stop spilling sewage into the estuary from Nompumelelo within a specific time frame. BCM did not comply. So we have to go back to court.”

He said the Estuary Management Forum was also focusing on a new court case to compel BCM to provide lockable sewage manhole covers in Nompumelelo.

“Residents remove the cement covers and put everything possible into the sewers, which then block. We are also trying to get BCM to provide the sewerage team working at Nompumelelo with a high pressure cleaner, which was available in the past but disappeared.

“The team currently has to clear sewer pipes manually, which is simply impossible.”

Theart said the only way to improve water quality in the estuary was to solve the problems with sewage at Nompumelelo.

“Yet we are up against a municipality that should be there to protect us but does not even have respect for an order given by a judge of the high court.”

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the latest sewage spillage issues at Nompumelelo had been caused by load-shedding.

“Persistent load-shedding has affected the generator that was being vandalised, and we had to start it manually. We have secured the pumping station and set the pumps and they are in working condition. We have standby teams.”

In November it was reported that BCM had handed over the site at Nompumelelo to a contractor, appointed engineers for the upgrading of the Nahoon sewer outfall and set aside a budget of R1.5m to do the dredging.

Asked what steps had been put in place since then, Ngwenya said a contractor had been appointed to try to unblock the sewage line.

“We have set aside a budget of R1.9m for the dredging operation. The idea is to get a camera inside a pipe so we can carry out a condition assessment of the pipe in order to determine the state of the pipe and know which areas of the pipe must be replaced.

“This way we have an idea of how much we must budget for the construction of the pipe, and to also check if it is feasible to try to reroute as we have seen that the pipe has sections that are flat, which compounds the blockages. We have an engineer guiding us through this process. We have engineering services and consulting services,” said Ngwenya.

On Sunday a post was shared on the Nahoon Estuary Facebook page indicating that Nahoon Beach had been closed owing to a power outage at the Nahoon sewer pump station.

This is already the second time Nahoon Beach has been closed owing to sewage spills this year. A video shared on the Save Nahoon Facebook page on Sunday also shows what appears to be the overflow of sewage from the Nahoon pump station flowing into the Inhlanza river and out to sea.

Ngwenya said according to the records he received on Thursday, Nahoon Beach had previously been closed due to a spillage earlier this year.

“We ran water samples tests which confirmed the beach could be opened. If any emergency spills have since occurred, then an emergency closure is effected immediately, ” Ngwenya said.