{"id":913815,"date":"2022-01-06T05:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T05:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/06\/ethekwini-halts-swimming-at-durban-beaches-following-abnormal-murky-water-discharge-at-umgeni-river\/"},"modified":"2022-01-06T05:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T05:43:37","slug":"ethekwini-halts-swimming-at-durban-beaches-following-abnormal-murky-water-discharge-at-umgeni-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/06\/ethekwini-halts-swimming-at-durban-beaches-following-abnormal-murky-water-discharge-at-umgeni-river\/","title":{"rendered":"eThekwini halts swimming at Durban beaches following \u2018abnormal murky water discharge\u2019 at Umgeni River"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/5361293f-184d-58e6-a3ea-c48a498a4b18&#038;operation=CROP&#038;offset=0x55&#038;resize=3543x1993.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<div><!--sse--><\/p>\n<p>Durban \u2013 Beaches along the Durban north coast have been closed to bathers.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela, said the decision means&nbsp;bathing and any sporting activities are prohibited until further notice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIn the interest of public safety, the city has taken a decision to close temporarily&nbsp;North,&nbsp;Bay, Battery, Country Club 1 and 2,&nbsp; eThekwini and Laguna beaches.&nbsp;This after&nbsp;the Umgeni River discharged&nbsp;a very abnormal murky waters to the beach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>eThekwini&nbsp; is conducting tests, the outcome will determine its next course of action that will be communicated to the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe city sincerely apologises for the inconvenience this is going to cause to the public,\u201d Mayisela said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RelatedArticlescss__StyledRelatedArticles-sc-10g88yu-0 ezIKFV\">\n<h2><span>MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Last year, the city banned swimming, fishing, surfing and water-related activity at beaches along the north coast after chemicals seeped into the water following the UPL chemical spill in July.<\/p>\n<p>The beaches were later re-opened to the public after officials were satisfied that the water was safe to swim in.<\/p>\n<p>Mayisela confirmed that extensive efforts have been made by clean-up crews appointed by UPL to reduce and contain the contamination that caused serious environmental damage to the Ohlanga River and uMhlanga River Estuary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>He said while there has been some degree of success, the effects of the contamination will take years to remediate.<\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"strong-612dcaf00873852e0c976048b8111e6f\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--\/sse--><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durban \u2013 Beaches along the Durban north coast have been closed to bathers. Yesterday, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela, said the decision means&nbsp;bathing and any sporting activities are prohibited until further notice. \u201cIn the interest of public safety, the city has taken a decision to close temporarily&nbsp;North,&nbsp;Bay, Battery, Country Club 1 and 2,&nbsp; eThekwini and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-913815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}