Makana Municipality’s sewage has been running into rivers and streams since 2014

Residents and livestock at Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape face a health crisis as raw sewage overflows into the rivers and streams in Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown.

Makhanda resident Helen Holleman said she never understood why the council made such a fuss about Covid instead of panicking about cholera, dysentery and hepatitis.

“Trying to get an official out of his or her office to walk the watercourses and smell the smells is almost impossible. And goodness knows where the person in charge of the monthly water report hides the information,” said Holleman.

She said sewage flows into the river that runs through built-up areas where kids paddle and dogs drink.

“What we have here is a systemic problem with many nodes. Some of them have been fixed, but they soon bubble up again because people don’t understand … and because the actual system seems to be a hodgepodge of systems,” said Holleman.

She said she has seen children playing in the polluted water and recently saw an overflowing sewer near a school, with cows wandering through it and drinking the water.

According to DA councillor and Makhanda resident Cary Clark, tests have revealed dangerous E. coli levels in certain sections of local rivers.

“Residents of this municipality are facing a dire health crisis due to the municipality’s inability to deal with raw sewage flowing into the rivers,” she said.

Clark said they recently conducted oversight inspections at seven sites along the Kowie, Blaauwkrantz and Mtayane rivers to determine contamination levels.

“We then took samples and sent those off to Rhodes University in Makhanda to be examined by an independent expert. The testing revealed that E. coli counts posing a definite danger to the health of residents were found at five of the seven sites. 

“E. coli levels should be close to zero … anything above 100 colony-forming units (CFU) per 100ml is dangerous to humans and animals alike,” she said, adding that at the five contaminated sites, E. coli counts of 280, 1,000, 1,800 and 30,000 were found. 

“This is an environmental and economic catastrophe waiting to happen. The discharge of sewage into rivers could result in the water becoming so contaminated that it will no longer be fit for use as an irrigation source for farmers.

“The discharge of raw sewage into a natural water resource is also illegal in terms of the Constitution, the National Environmental Management Act and the National Water Act.”

Clark said the sewage spills were the direct result of the Belmont Valley Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) being unable to cope with the sheer volume of sewage flowing through it. 

“Belmont Valley requires a huge refurbishment, and although there are plans for some work to be done, it falls far short of what is needed to make Belmont Valley compliant,” she said.