The City of Cape Town has closed Camps Bay and Glen Beach as well as the Maidens Cove Tidal Pools to the public following a pump failure at the Camps Bay Marine Outfall.
According to a statement by the City of Cape Town, the failure of two pumps occurred at approximately 8pm on Friday 4 February 2022. This resulted in the flooding of the pumping station, rendering it non-operational. The failure is believed to be due to an electrical fault from frequent power outages.
The Water and Sanitation Department will do a full assessment of the pump failure. In the meantime, the mentioned beaches and tidal pools remain closed until the teams have used vacuum trucks to drain the station.
Due to the large volume of sewage, it will be pumped directly into the ocean, which will eliminate sewage flow across the beach and enable the pump station to return to operation as soon as possible.
In the meantime, residents in the Camps Bay area are kindly requested to reduce their generation of wastewater by reducing the use of washing machines and dishwashers and to only flush their toilets when necessary.
Water samples will be taken at all locations to monitor pollution, and beaches will only reopen once water samplings indicate a return to normal levels. Once pumping starts, the city states that the beaches can be expected to remain closed for two or three days.
Meanwhile, several beaches in KwaZulu-Natal were closed over the weekend due to storm warnings. Shark nets were also removed at these beaches for fear of being damaged in storms.
‘The Sharks Board have removed all the shark nets (in the eThekwini Municipality) to prevent unnecessary losses and/or damage to their equipment as a result of strong winds and heavy seas associated with predicted severe weather systems,’ the City said according to News24.
Picture: Getaway Gallery
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