Staff Reporter
Sewage from a failed eThekwini pump station flowed along Margaret Mncadi Avenue and reportedly into Durban harbour on Monday, forcing the temporary closure of three central beaches and again raising concerns about the city’s collapsing wastewater infrastructure.
The Bay of Plenty, North Beach and Battery Beach have been closed as a precaution after technical failures at the Mahatma Gandhi Pump Station caused sewer overflows along Margaret Mncadi Avenue.
The city said on Wednesday that it was implementing “urgent intervention measures to contain and mitigate the sewer overflow incident” following “technical failures” at the Mahatma Gandhi Pump Station.
“Repair work at the pump station remains underway following the identification of a fault affecting pumping operations.
“Municipal sanitation teams, engineers, and specialist technicians are working round the clock to restore full functionality to the station as quickly as possible,” the city said.
It said tankering services had been dispatched to assist with the removal and management of wastewater while repair operations continued.
Acting Director of the Water and Sanitation Directorate Sibusiso Vilane said the city continues to “undertake continuous monitoring of overflow points, as well as clean-up and disinfection operations”.
At a press briefing on Monday, the city’s executive director of technical services, Ednick Msweli, apologised to residents, businesses, commuters and visitors.
“Firstly, on behalf of eThekwini Municipality, I wish to sincerely apologise to our various stakeholders, including residents, businesses, commuters, and visitors for the inconvenience and distress caused by the sewer overflows at Margaret Mncadi Avenue,” Msweli said.
“We fully appreciate the impact this situation is having on public movement, surrounding businesses, environmental conditions, and the daily lives of our communities.”
Msweli said the pump station had experienced technical failures affecting critical electrical and mechanical components required for normal pumping operations.
He said the failures were attributed to “excessive rags and foreign objects damaging the screens and clogging the pumps”.
He said sanitation teams, specialist technicians and engineers had been working “around the clock” to stabilise operations at the pump station and restore full pumping capacity “as urgently and safely as possible”.
However, additional technical complications were identified during repair and recommissioning processes, resulting in further delays in restoring full operational capacity.
“The municipality immediately attended to the matter as an emergency and mobilised all available technical resources to address the situation,” Msweli said.
The station was already operating under constrained conditions when the incident occurred “with only two of its four design pumps available and operational at the time,” Msweli said.
“One of the pumps was under an ongoing Mechanical and Electrical Emergency Repairs Contract and had not yet been fully commissioned.”
Msweli said one pump alone was not enough to manage incoming sewer flows at the facility.
“By design, one pump alone is insufficient to effectively manage incoming sewer flows at this critical facility,” he said.
He said another replacement pump was urgently sourced and installed on 10 May. While this briefly improved pumping operations, another failure occurred almost immediately afterwards.
The municipality then took what Msweli said was an “extraordinary” decision on 11 May to accelerate the commissioning of Pump 1, despite the project still being under execution.
“While this approach carries technical risks, the decision was taken in the interest of restoring at least two operational pumps to the station and reducing the impact on the public,” he said.
Repair work is continuing on affected infrastructure, while additional equipment and specialised components have been sourced to strengthen reliability and improve operational stability at the station.
Msweli said the city had intensified mitigation measures in the affected areas.
“As a precautionary measure, the Municipality has temporarily closed affected central beaches impacted by the pumpstation overflow incident,” he said.
“The beaches include Bay of Plenty, North Beach and Battery beach.
“This decisive action has been taken to protect public safety while continuous water quality monitoring and remediation work are underway.”
The latest overflow comes after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, sitting in Pietermaritzburg, ruled on 9 February that eThekwini had failed to meet its constitutional obligations to maintain and repair sewerage and wastewater infrastructure.
At the briefing, Msweli said the incident had highlighted the need for infrastructure improvements at the Mahatma Gandhi Pump Station.
“While our immediate priority is to contain and mitigate the current overflows, this incident has also highlighted the need for broader infrastructure improvements at the Mahatma Gandhi Pump Station,” he said.
Msweli said medium-term interventions would be implemented to improve operational resilience and reduce the likelihood of similar incidents.
“These measures include upgrades to critical electrical and mechanical systems, improved ventilation and gas management infrastructure, replacement of ageing equipment, and the strengthening of maintenance and spare capacity,” he said.
He said longer-term infrastructure upgrade projects would also be undertaken to address “historical design and operational challenges” identified through technical investigations and engineering assessments.
