Eugene Moll, Kirstenhof
On Sunday June 17, as we walked through the Kirstenhof wetlands, the smell of raw sewage wafted up once more from the canalised river.
It seems that after every good storm the sewage systems up-stream in Pollsmoor, and possibly beyond, simply cannot cope with the saturated soils.
This is not a new phenomenon – it has been going on for years (“Pollution threatens wetland”, March 3, 2011).
Over the years, through the Zandvlei Forum, I have proposed that the City uses extant wetlands to filter and clean this water. Reed-bed technology has been in existence for many decades, yet the City steadfastly refuses to do to anything about a biologically tried-and-tested method to clean water (and re-charge aquifers). Rather the City uses engineering solutions above Nature – and want to claim international recognition for their so-called outstanding wetland conservation efforts. What a lot of absolute nonsense.
In our area there are two large areas that were once functional wetlands, why not simply bring these natural areas back-on-line to clean the water?
This is simply another example of where the politicians
are failing us in Cape Town.
