GroundWork wants results of Durban beach water tests made public
An environmentalist says eThekwini needs to be more transparent and publish the water quality results of Durban beaches.
"If they are not doing that. If they are being secrete about it, then we can have no confidence as the public whether or not the beaches are safe and whether or not the pesticides levels in the sea are safe," says Rico Euripidou from GroundWork.
"So that is imperative that eThekwini practices open democracy, tests regularly, put the results on a website where the public can get the information so that we can make informed decisions; otherwise, who knows whether or not it's safe."
The city gave the all-clear over the weekend for some beaches in central Durban to be reopened after they were shut over E. coli concerns.
The city said teams had to fix a malfunctioning sewer pump station that was vandalised.
Euripidou says the failing sewage treatment works is a highway to another pandemic.
"In the context of Covid and in the context of the global pandemic it should be the city's priority that it maintains its public health infrastructure because imagine if we can't drink the drinking water that comes out of our tabs because it's being compromised by E. coli and by sewage-related issues."
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