Following several reported permit violations at marine outfall locations, ActionSA has urged the government to take the City to task.
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In an open letter to DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy, ActionSA Provincial Chairperson Michelle Wasserman stated that they had appealed the issuance of permits that allow the City to discharge untreated sewage into the three outfall sites in Cape Town’s Marine Protected Areas at Camps Bay, Green Point and Hout Bay.
According to Zahid Badroodien, a Mayco member responsible for water and sanitation, the City has been operating the marine outfalls in accordance with the terms of the current permits and licences, ‘as issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation/DFFE.’
Creecy revoked a permit that the City had been granted earlier this year, claiming that the public participation process that the City had previously carried out was ‘inadequate, outdated, and should be redone.’
On November 21, the City completed a new public participation process.
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‘As you deliberate on the issuance of the permits, it is critical that you consider the fact that the City has not complied with the requirements of the Hout Bay permit, issued to the City on 7 May 2019…’ said Wasserman.
Information about the City’s failure to comply with the requirements of the Hout Bay permit was obtained through a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request to the City, which asked for records demonstrating compliance with each of the conditions contained in the Hout Bay permit.
‘According to the “Hout Bay Flows” document provided by the City in its PAIA response, in the six-month period from 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023, the maximum daily discharge volume was exceeded on 104 days in that six-month period. In other words, the maximum daily discharge volume was exceeded 57% of the time. The daily discharge volume sometimes doubled the prescribed limit, reaching up to 12.5m3 in a single day (on 14 June 2023).’
Wasserman also accused Badroodien of ‘misinformation’ when he claimed that the City was ‘not obligated’ to adhere to the stipulations of the 2019 Hout Bay permit due to its filing of an appeal against its issuance.
Badroodien refuted the allegations.
‘ActionSA’s allegations are incorrect. The Hout Bay outfall is operating well within its 9.8 ML/day design capacity. The Hout Bay outfall has further been awarded Green Drop Certification by the national Department of Water and Sanitation for achieving above 90% compliance on overall Green Drop Score compliance.’
‘The draft permit conditions currently being considered by the Minister contain erroneous reference to a condition of 5 ML/day discharge limit for the Hout Bay outfall, and the City has requested this to be corrected before the updated permit is granted by the minister.’
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Also read:
Sewage in the sea: City fails to meet Hout Bay permit conditions
Picture: Jean van der Meulen / Pexels