Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says restoring health of Milnerton Lagoon is not optional
Cape Town - Following the outcry by residents last week about the continued pollution and environmental degradation of the Milnerton Lagoon after the recent fish die-off, the City has announced that it is compiling a plan of action to restore the Milnerton Lagoon environment in the shortest possible time frame.
The City was busy with appointing environmental consultants to help investigate and assess possible short-term interventions.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said restoring the health of the Milnerton Lagoon was not optional and that professional consultants will help the City with time and cost interventions to steadily close off pollution sources to the lagoon over time, building up to the ultimate goal of dredging the water body and removing the sediment containing decades-long build-up of pollution in the shortest possible time.
However, in the meantime he said they had to consider what short-term interventions were feasible, efficacious, and environmentally defensible.
“Many people have flooded us with proposed ‘solutions’. It is not possible for us to know which of these is serious, and which is wishful thinking. This will be the work of this specialist consulting team,” Hill-Lewis said.
Milnerton Central Residents Association (MCRA) member Caroline Marx said residents welcomed the action plan, however they noted the lack of timelines and questioned (again) what exactly was going to be done and by when.
The MCRA was satisfied with the long-term plans mentioned but remained concerned about the City’s ability to deliver on these timeously.
“The new focus on wetlands by the mayor and his team is appreciated, as is outside expert opinion, however, why has it taken the City manager three years to decide to appoint outside consultants?
“Lungelo Mbandazayo is named as the responsible party in the March 2020 Diep River directive and yet, under his watch, over the past 18 months the ecosystem has totally collapsed,” Marx said.
She said the community was tired of being told that options were being investigated, considered and evaluated.
University of the Western Cape Professor Leslie Petrik, an expert in the field of chemistry, environmental remediation, water treatment and beneficiation of industrial waste, said the situation in Milnerton was ongoing and the lagoon had no ecosystem left to speak of due to sewage pollution, and that it would take years to recover.
Some of the options for restoring the lagoon that the consultants would be assessing were short-term water quality and odour mitigation of the lagoon (including bio-remediation of sediment through microbial inoculation), costs for dredging of the lagoon and river channel, feasibility of pumping seawater into it to increase salinity and dissolve oxygen levels, and the use of a diffusion aerator to improve oxygenation in the estuary.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za