GOOD Statement by Kaden Arguile ,
GOOD National Youth Chairperson
27 November 2024
The GOOD Party strongly condemns the dangerous gamble undertaken by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister and the City of Cape Town to raise the sea sewage dumping levels.
Minister Dion George granted the City an interim decision to suspend the effluent quantity Discharge Permits.
A minister, that by his own admission “had never heard of COP” (the largest environmental global summit), before taking office as the country’s Environmental Minister.
Green Point, Camps Bay, and Hout Bay have previously been allowed to pump a combined 41 millions litres of sewage into the sea per day, with the only treatment being the sieving out of solids.
Lobby groups have already been appealing the alarming high levels of discharge before the limits were suspended.
The City’s argument has always been there is no alternative option due to the increasingly growing population size.
This response reeks of ineptitude and failure in long-term planning resulting in the environment bearing the brunt of the burden.
The limit suspension comes at a time when the city is already experiencing concerning breakdowns at multiple sanitation and sewerage sites throughout the city.
Earlier this year, GOOD reported the City’s Water and Sanitation treatment plants and pump stations received Contravention Notices for various infractions including unqualified senior engineering managers being appointed to oversee these critical operations.
As GOOD, we strongly condemn the precedent this decision sets.
There was no public participation process on the permit suspension, rather an authoritarian decision-making process.
GOOD also notes with great concern that a DA Minister has suspended the limits in a DA run city.
When his non-DA predecessor, Minister Barbara Creecy had conceded that “the discharge of sewage into the ocean can have significant impacts on the environment and public health”.
By contrast Creecy forced the City of Cape Town to reopen their public participation process of the allowable limits at the time. And she allowed the current appeal process of the original permits.
These thresholds being increased are not only a direct threat to the delicate ecosystem but a direct attack on our constitutional right to a healthy environment.
These Marine outfalls are designed with a designated capacity in mind.
With the capacity assurance tossed away, we can cast aside any doubt that this dangerous gamble could lead to an environmental bust.
As we approach the Festive season, with the expected Summer boom of tourists, what will sea water contamination cost the City, the Province, the Country.
Let us learn from eThekweni who is still battling to regain Blue Flag status over their prolonged water quality issues.
We challenge Minister George and Mayor Hill-Lewis to take a dip!
Media enquiries:media@forgood.org.za