Following complaints over a 2015 public participation process on Cape Town's pumping of sewage into the ocean, the City is once again taking public comments on the controversial matter.

On Thursday, 21 September, the City of Cape Town opened a new public participation process to allow the public to comment on its historic pumping of sewage into the ocean through its three marine outfalls, located 1.5km offshore in Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay.

This is the second round of public participation being undertaken after the initial process, conducted in 2015, was found to be "inadequate, outdated and should be redone to give effect to the right to just administrative action" by Environment Minister Barbara Creecy, who ordered that the process be held again.

A briefing was held on Wednesday at Camps Bay High School about the controversial matter, ahead of the launch of the public participation process.

There has been much controversy around this historical practice by the City of Cape Town with large parts of the scientific community, activists, opposition parties, as well as civil society seeking to appeal and challenge the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment's (DFFE's) decision to grant Coastal Water Discharge Permits (CWDPs) for these outfalls and the subsequent impact of discharging sewage into the ocean over the years.

Initially, the City of Cape Town claimed that the sewage was "preliminarily treated"....