Residents of Milnerton have been complaining about the bad stench that has been emanating from the Milnerton Lagoon for months now, and several meetings have been hosted between the City of Cape Town, the area’s ratepayer association and canoe club.
A meeting was recently held between the angry residents and representatives of the City, which ended up taking place in Table View after protestors crashed the initial meeting point.
The main talking point of the meeting was the Potsdam sewage treatment facility being unable to cope with the increase in volume it has had to treat recently.
“Unfortunately, we have quite a few big races coming up so a lot of the squad members still take to the water. They are just very careful and make sure they don’t fall in,” Richard Allen, Chairperson of the Milnerton Canoe Club said during an interview with CapeTalk.
Allen added that he makes sure to stick to the sea in the summer when there is no rainfall to flush the lagoon. “But I will have to get back into the lagoon when the sea becomes rough again,” he said.
He also attended the meeting hosted on Monday, February 3, but said it was very frustrating. “There was no real sense of urgency or accountability. There was no admission of wrongdoing whatsoever. The City is still blaming the citizens,” Allen said.
He maintains that the fault lies with the Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works, and not with the citizens as the City reportedly persists. “The questions we asked were pretty much all lost in their political talk and budgetary restraints. We just wanted something urgent to come out of it.”
The City also informed Milnerton residents that it may take up to five years for the Potsdam treatment facility to receive an update. “We’re pretty much guaranteed five years of deteriorating water quality,” Allen said.
According to Allan, there is still no solution from the City.
