Durban - The water quality at two uMhlanga beaches has improved over the past few days, the eThekwini Municipality has said.
The city said it was waiting for one more water quality test that would determine whether the beaches could be reopened.
UMhlanga Main and Bronze beaches were closed after water quality tests earlier this month showed there were high levels of E coli in the water.
The closure came just days after they were reopened as the city had claimed it was safe to do so.
The deputy city manager for Community and Emergency Services, Musa Gumede, said this week that the latest results showed that E coli levels in the water were at around 100. Levels of 500 or less are considered safe.
“We committed to the public that by December 1, most of our beaches would be open. We have tried our best to keep to that commitment, and obviously there are elements that affect how beaches behave,” said Gumede.
He was speaking to a national broadcaster this week amid concerns about the safety of the beaches.
“We have 44 beach areas in Durban, and six of these are not opened yet, because of levels that are still high. Otherwise, the rest of the beaches have normal results. There may be one or two that have normal results that we have not opened yet. But, as we look at the trend of three tests, we’ll open,” Gumede said.
“When we were at uMhlanga, we had confidence that we had three results that had been positive in terms of allowing us to actually open those beaches. Obviously there are elements which affected the water from December 1 until December 4, and these results then went backwards,” Gumede said.
“I can confirm now that in terms of the results from December 8 and 9, they show (lower) than 100 E coli levels. We have tested twice and we need a trend of over three and then we can say to the public they are free to use the beaches again,” said Gumede.
He added that they were dealing with the Reunion Beach in Isipingo where they were conducting repairs to wastewater infrastructure. The municipality was also carrying out wastewater repairs in the Virginia area.
“Once those two are repaired, the rest of the beaches in eThekwini will open. Otherwise, the rest of the beaches in eThekwini are normal,” said Gumede. The city was expected to do another test at uMhlanga this week, and said it would communicate the results in due course.
Gumede acknowledged that factors like heavy rains and wind affected the quality of the water, and readings could change in a day. The city has also previously said that test results may vary depending on what day the samples are taken.
DA councillor in uMhlanga Nicole Bollman said she had seen the city’s test results and those done by an independent lab and had noted discrepancies.
“I am aware that there are still discharges occurring along the river and I am aware that we have had a lot of rainfall since late last week.
“I am looking forward to the third set of tests, which I am led to believe need to occur before any decisions are made on the opening of uMhlanga beaches,” she said.