Update

GEORGE NEWS - George Herald obtained more clarity from George Municipality regarding the handling of the sewage generated by the newly renovated booking office of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM ) at Victoria Bay.

In last week's issue the newspaper reported on the concern of a long-time resident that the building, built in the 60s, was serviced by a sewage pit, and was never connected to the Victoria Bay sewerage system. 

Both this resident and a regular surfer suspected that some of the problems with sewage contamination over the years originated from this building.

George Municipality, the authority responsible for services at Vic Bay, however gave the assurance that the building connects to the septic tanks for the campsite, which in turn connects with one single pipe (ie, no joins) to a 65mm asbestos cement pipe (at a manhole). 

"This means that the caretaker's building does not have its own septic tank. The 65mm asbestos pipe is located in the road service, that is, under the tar," said the municipality.

"This sewer line does not run along the embankment (as we pointed out previously) and is located towards the centre of the road under the tar. The water seen running down the road close to the embankment has been identified as coming from a reservoir located above the camping site. This water, which is groundwater (brown), runs to the stormwater channel. The leak has been reported to Civils and will be addressed.

"The 65mm asbestos cement pipe located in the road service then runs down to the pump station located at the beach. This pump station has a submersible pump that automatically kicks in when it reaches a certain level and which then pumps everything up to a larger pump station located to the left of the road as you are leaving Victoria Bay, and that larger pump station is emptied on a daily basis by sewer tankers."

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