Had 190,000kg of plastic pollution in the Umhlanga River reached the ocean, it would have spelt another environmental disaster for Durban, say environmentalists.
But — with no support from the eThekwini municipality — swift work by local environmental organisation The Litterboom Project, R200,000 in donations and a team of hired hands averted a catastrophe within 12 days.
A three-year build-up of waste believed to have emanated from communities upriver was flushed out during recent heavy rains, resulting in a “plastic blockage” that covered 70m of the river in a 3m-deep layer of plastic and other detritus.
The affected area, north of the city, is still reeling from a toxic spill at chemical company UPL SA’s Cornubia warehouse, which was set alight during the unrest in July last year.
Beaches were temporarily closed because of the toxicity of the water. After they reopened, the municipality urged beachgoers to avoid a special exclusion zone 1km north and south of the Umhlanga River mouth.
Cameron Service, CEO of The Litterboom Project, said with such a fragile ecosystem after the chemical leak last year, “we really can’t afford to be putting this area under even more strain”.
He said had they not halted the pollution “we would have a lot of plastic that ended up on the Umhlanga and Umdloti coastline for starters”.
“The more devastating impact would be on the ocean and bird wildlife in these areas, with millions more micro plastics developing from this mass over time.”
About 90% of plastic pollution comes from river systems and the non-profit organisation uses a simple system of a large pipe across the river to act as a catchment to manage the problem. Removing the mass of trapped plastic creates jobs.
“Our booms usually hold about one tonne before they break. Nothing will stop that much plastic unless it’s a permanent structure. It was actually a bridge that trapped it,” said Service.
According to a report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature, SA is the 11th-worst offender for leaking land-based plastic into the ocean.
“There is also evidence of an increase in marine plastic debris from land-based sources within SA, suggesting this problem is likely to grow,” says the WWF report, titled “Plastics: The cost to society, environment and the economy”, which analysed the extent of the global plastic crisis and profiled several of the worst polluters.
• 41kg: The amount of plastic waste a South African generates every year
• 20: The number of workers who cleared the plastic pollution from the Umhlanga River
— In Numbers:
Service said there were a few variables that led to the size of the recent blockage.
“First, the fact that this was one of the biggest rains we have had in a few years, which meant that all the plastic pollution that has been accumulating above the high-water mark would have been swept downstream.
“The second cause — and possibly a more relevant issue that needs our urgent attention — is the lack of waste management infrastructure within the many communities upstream, such as Waterloo and Palm View. [This] makes us wonder what alternatives are left for these communities with no real options.”
The Litterboom Project calculated the weight of the waste by the number of truck and tractor loads.
“Our No. 1 goal was to retrieve all of the plastic out of the river, therefore whilst we did start trying to sort painstakingly through these piles of pollution with the intent to recycle as much as possible, we realised that this would have taken weeks,” said Service
An estimated 8% was recycled and the rest went to a landfill.
We are proud of our efforts but disappointed that we did not get support from Durban Solid Waste or any sector of the municipality to help combat this challenge
— Cameron Service, CEO of The Litterboom Project
“We are proud of our efforts, but disappointed that we did not get support from Durban Solid Waste or any sector of the municipality to help combat this challenge,” he said.
Janet Simpkins of Adopt-A-River, which also operates in the vicinity, said: “One of our biggest challenges is that these are almost forgotten areas. It’s all very well that the municipality have Blue Flag beaches and clean up to the mouth of the Umgeni River. But they turn a blind eye to places that are too hard to get to or [are] someone else’s problem.”
The municipality said "it is on the receiving end of an illicit behaviour of streams being polluted, a serious threat to aquatic, human and marine life."
Spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the "unfortunate situation" is despite the city embarking on a campaign to educate the public about pollution.
"Big industries are also culprits in this regard resulting in some of them being fined. It should be noted that the issue of pollution is not the responsibility of the city alone but all residents residing in both formal and informal settlements have a responsibility of disposing of litter responsibly."
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