Picture: Bathini Mbatha
Durban – eThekwini municipality has announced that some Durban beaches are closed this weekend.
“The City would like to advise the public that following the latest round of testing it has taken a decision to close some beaches with immediate effect as the water quality does not meet acceptable standards,” the municipality said.
All water activities at these beaches are banned.
Earlier in the week City spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela, said officials continue to monitor water quality.
“To enable the public to make informed decisions about our beaches the municipality will increase the frequency of testing at bathing beaches and will publicly share these results as expected.
“Some of the unease about water quality results can be traced back to inconsistent understanding of how sampling and testing works.
“For results to be comparable they need to have come from the same sample, given how dynamic sea conditions are.
“The handling of the sample, its transportation and storage can also affect the result,” Mayisela said.
He said they were hard at work to ensure that flood damage to infrastructure is repaired as speedily as possible to.
“The municipality remains committed to public safety at its beaches and to transparency.
“We remain guided by results from our laboratory and we will react in line with those results,” he said.
Beaches closed:
Brighton
Ansteys
Point
Ushaka
Addington
South
Wedge
North
Bay of Plenty
Battery
Country Club Thekwini
Laguna
Baggies
Reunion
Umhlanga main
Umdloti
Westbrooke
Bronze beaches in the northern region
Beaches open:
Toti
Pipeline
Warner
Winklespruit
Umgababa beaches
IOL