Global agrochemicals producer UPL has applied for permission to pre-treat chemically contaminated stormwater before releasing it into a river that flows into the sea next to Umhlanga, but there are still concerns over its quality.

A freshwater ecology consultant has reassured the public that the UPL poison decontamination plant in Durban is so effective that its treated water discharges comply with South African safe drinking water standards.

Dr Mark Graham, director of the GroundTruth group and consultant to UPL, gave this assurance at a public participation meeting at the Grace Family Church in Umhlanga last Thursday, 11 April.

But he declined a challenge to drink some of it.

Saddled with millions of litres of chemically contaminated stormwater in the wake of the July 2021 riots, the company has applied for permission to pre-treat the water before releasing it into a river that flows into the sea next to Umhlanga.

The water was contaminated by residual poisons from more than 4,500 tonnes of farm chemicals that burnt or leaked during an arson attack. It has been stored in a temporary Pollution Control Dam (PCD) in Cornubia for nearly three years (though some has already overflowed, been released on an emergency basis after treatment or been trucked at great expense to high-hazard waste dumps).

Now, in an attempt to find a permanent solution to this toxic legacy, the global agrochemicals group has applied for a water use...