Toxic Spill at KZN Beaches

TURQUOISE DEATH: The Umhlanga Lagoon has turned a toxic aquamarine colour. Photo Supplied

According to reports, pesticides have poisoned the Umhlanga and Umdloti lagoons via storm water drains channelling water firefighters used to battle a blaze at a chemical plant at Cornubia started by looters on Tuesday.

Thousands of fish, crayfish, prawns and octopus have been washed up on the beach. Residents manning community roadblocks reported the stench of chemicals on Thursday, while surfers reported the presence of toxins in the surf, some suffering skin burns while surfing.

The Ethekweni Municipality has warned people to avoid all recreational activities, “including fishing or surfing, bait collection and picking up of dead species in this area”.

Democratic Alliance member in Durban Rory Mcpherson said: “The lagoon is dead.” He said it was important to share knowledge as a user of the ocean, estuary and promenade to inform the public of what was happening. He said he spent the whole day and much of the night getting “pushed from pillar to post trying to establish the severity of the pollution” but the adage “persistence beats resistence” had eventually brought proactive results.

DEAD ZONE: Chemicals from a fire upstream has caused an ecological disaster. Photo Supplied

With local authorities over-stretched and under-resourced to tackle the disaster, outside agencies were bring relied on to manage the situation. Beaches from Umdloti to the Umhlanga lighthouse would be closed, Mcpherson said, urging people to stay out of the ocean. “The potential for skin damage is very real. This is a S30 category spill, one of the highest levels of toxic pollution you can get.”

The Daily Maverick reported that uMdloti residents had posted “video clips of dead crayfish washing up on the beach, along with voice messages reporting that marine fish, octopus and crayfish were with The Bidvest Group has warned that one of its warehouses in Mobeni south of Durban was at high risk of releasing up to 500,000 litres of “extremely hazardous chemicals”being eaten by seabirds.”

“While some surfers and spearfishers have called on authorities to block off rivers to prevent pollution from reaching the sea, marine and estuary scientist Nicolette Demetriades has cautioned strongly against this – noting that strong tidal currents from the sea would help to disperse and dilute the pollution.

“Any attempt to block river water flowing into the sea would result in poisons being restricted inside river estuaries rather than being diluted naturally by the power of the sea,” the Daily Maverick article stated.

Meanwhile, the article aslo pointed to another potential catastrophe. The Bidvest Group has warned that one of its warehouses in Mobeni south of Durban was at high risk of releasing up to 500,000 litres of “extremely hazardous chemicals”.

“The group has issued a public safety advisory that one of its chemical facilities in South Coast Road contains thousands of litres of highly flammable chemicals and that warehouse sprinkler systems and other control systems had been damaged by looters.

“The warehouse facility includes a certified hazardous storage facility containing approximately 500,000 litres of extremely hazardous chemicals which are highly flammable and highly toxic,” the company warned.