WATCH: 'Vandalism' sees murky grey water flowing into Umgeni River

Over the weekend, a video went around showing murky grey water flowing into the river.

The city says the pump station has been vandalised, although they have managed to temporarily repair the damaged panels.

They say it's going to cost millions to fix the infrastructure.

Desmond D'sa, who is from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, says the city's sewage systems have been collapsing for years.

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"The only concerted effort that will be required means that the national government must take over the function of the city to ensure that they come together and put a programme of maintenance to deal with the problem and put resources. If they don't have resources to fix the problem this will be a problem for a very long time."  

He says the budget was supposed to have been drawn up in April and approved already.

"It is not on. We have been dealing with the city leaving people behind, you ensuring that not only people suffer, the entire tourism industry is being affected, but more importantly, people's livelihoods and some to a stop and people are not able to put food on the table."