Prinesha Naidoo's article reads: "Tourism will pay the price for Durban’s filthy beaches - Hopes for a bumper holiday season knocked by raw sewage washing onto some of the city’s beaches.
Millions of litres of untreated human sewage is flowing into the rivers and seas of Durban and its surrounding coastline, threatening tourism and business in one of country’s most popular holiday spots.
Decaying infrastructure, vandalism last year during the worst rioting since apartheid ended and damage from floods is causing raw sewage to wash onto some of the 600km of city’s beaches. That’s led to fluctuating levels of E. coli bacteria in the water and the poisoning of aquatic life, knocking hopes for a bumper summer holiday season.
“The ongoing closure of Durban’s beaches and the sewage spill across the city creates a poor perception of Durban’s ability to manage its tourism infrastructure,” said Prasheen Maharaj, president of its business chamber. Failure to stop the pollution will lead to “severe economic losses”, he said.
The crisis is the latest in a series of setbacks for the region, which relies on an influx of visitors during the summer holidays to boost its economy. December is traditionally the most popular holiday month in SA, when inland dwellers flock to the coast.
KwaZulu-Natal is the biggest contributor to GDP after Gauteng. More than 800,000 tourists spend about R1.5bn in Durban every year-end period, according to the municipality.
The past two summer holiday seasons were marred by Covid-19 restrictions, while operations at Toyota’s local unit and the nation’s biggest port at Durban were disrupted by the floods. The riots that shuttered thousands of businesses and a strike by employees of state-owned port and freight rail operator Transnet as well as a cyberattack in 2021 also choked output.
Several beaches have been closed since early April, according to Duncan Heafield, chair of a tourism association in Umhlanga, north of Durban. Festive season cancellations in the regional hospitality industry are close to 20%, he said.
None of the beaches in the eThekwini metro, which includes Durban, were awarded Blue Flag status — an internationally recognised standard to denote clean, secure and environmentally safe beaches — for 2022/2023.
The city’s managers are trying to allay visitors’ concerns and have vouched for the safety of some areas.
“Contractors are currently on site repairing the infrastructure” and many beaches have reopened, Msawakhe Mayisela, the spokesperson for eThekwini, said in an emailed response to questions.
Despite the reopening of some spots and a dip in the sea by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda to prove that swimming is safe, experts are advising holidaymakers to be aware of water quality.
“Honestly, most of the beaches should either not be open or immense caution should be taken by the public,” said Anja du Plessis, an associate professor and research specialist in water resource management at Unisa.
While water quality samples show an improvement in E. coli levels, some results don’t meet internationally recommended standards and will probably revert to a critical range due to recent rainfall and “immense sewage pollution” of the Umgeni river, she said.
High levels of E. coli are a public health hazard and may cause illnesses such as urinary tract and bloodstream infections.
The City of Cape Town indefinitely closed part of its popular Muizenberg beach on Monday due to a sewage spill." (
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One of Durban most-visited attractions is the Golden Mile. It is a long stretch of beaches, with a distance of approximately 3.7 mi, starting from uShaka Beach up to Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World in the north, and borders the central business district to its west.
Our two photos of Golden Mile were taken from our hotel.
Status of Durban beaches and swimming pools as 12 December 2022 (
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