On 10 September 2026, the Sunday Tribune reported that the eThekwini Municipality had told residents a broken 400mm-diameter sewer line running beneath the M4 freeway in Merebank, south of Durban, had been repaired, while frustrated ratepayers said raw sewage was still flowing along a railway line in the area months after the first complaints were logged (Sunday Tribune). Acting director of eThekwini Water and Sanitation Sibusiso Vilane told a recent Executive Committee meeting that, as of the end of June 2026, the directorate had achieved 46% wastewater Green Drop compliance against an annual target of 90% (Sunday Tribune).
Key takeaways
- A 400mm-diameter sewer line beneath the M4 in Merebank has been repaired, but residents say raw sewage still flows onto the railway line (Sunday Tribune).
- Excavation on the Merebank repair reached more than four metres deep and a replacement manhole is under construction (Sunday Tribune).
- eThekwini Water and Sanitation reported 46% Green Drop compliance at end-June 2026 against a 90% annual target (Sunday Tribune).
- The municipality estimates it needs R4.6 billion to refurbish all wastewater treatment works to meet Green Drop standards (Sunday Tribune).
What happened: Merebank repair and a wider compliance gap
The dispute centres on a sewer pipeline running beneath the M4 near the Himalayas Road Bridge in Merebank, south of Durban (Sunday Tribune). Resident Raven Naidoo said pictures taken on 1 July showed sewage had spread for more than 150 metres along Clairwood Logistics Park and Barrackpur Road, and that municipal teams had inspected locations along Basil February Road, Krishna Rabilal Road, Himalayas Road and Barrackpur Road while trying to locate the blockage (Sunday Tribune). In August, contractors excavated alongside Lansdowne Road without stopping the flow, according to Naidoo (Sunday Tribune).
Naidoo argued that "residents and ratepayers cannot be expected to report the same problem repeatedly while teams inspect different locations, contractors excavate roads, and the sewage continues to flow," and called the situation a public-health and environmental failure that demands urgent intervention and accountability (Sunday Tribune). The same report also describes a separate failure in Reservoir Hills, where a source alleged municipal teams turned a cracked pipe around so sewage would not spill onto the ground because no budget was available to replace it (Sunday Tribune).
In its response reported on 10 September 2026, the municipality said technical teams were on the ground, that excavation of more than four metres had been completed and that the 400mm sewer line had been repaired, with teams now constructing the new manhole and cleaning the railway side and affected areas (Sunday Tribune).
The Merebank incident sits inside a much larger programme. The municipality has estimated it needs R4.6 billion to refurbish all wastewater treatment works to meet Green Drop compliance standards (Sunday Tribune). Vilane told the eThekwini Executive Committee that, as of the end of June 2026, the directorate had achieved 46% wastewater Green Drop compliance against an annual target of 90% (Sunday Tribune). The Green Drop programme, run by the Department of Water and Sanitation, grades municipal sewage treatment plants, networks and pump stations for wastewater management (Sunday Tribune). Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Dr Jack Bloom conducted a two-day oversight visit to Durban on 20 and 21 August 2026, which the report said placed water and sanitation service delivery, environmental protection and accountability "firmly under the spotlight" (Sunday Tribune). Earlier local-level failures, including an August 2023 complaint about more than 23 Siyanda B and C households in KwaMashu affected by overflowing sewage, are part of the same pattern of ageing infrastructure and slow municipal response (Democratic Alliance).
Specification read
The reported event is a 400mm-diameter gravity sewer failure in a coastal municipal network serving Durban's southern industrial-residential corridor. No flow rate, BOD/COD load or population equivalent is reported in the source for the Merebank line, so the buyer-side conversion is left as a class range: a 400mm gravity sewer at typical municipal grades of 1 in 200 to 1 in 400 will carry roughly 80 to 160 litres per second, or about 7,000 to 14,000 m³/day, before surcharging, with a population equivalent of roughly 35,000 to 70,000 (general industry range, not from the sources). For a class of project of this size, the relevant treatment train is screening and grit removal, primary clarification, biological treatment (typically A2O, MBBR, SBR or MBR), tertiary filtration, disinfection and, where Green Drop and discharge-permit limits are tight, polishing steps such as DAF and a ZLD or partial-reuse loop; the Merebank story is a collection-system failure, so it bears on the upstream pumping and trunk-main stage rather than the biological reactor, but it is the trigger for the broader R4.6 billion refurbishment programme (Sunday Tribune). If your plant looks like a 7,000-14,000 m³/day municipal works (influent BOD 250-400 mg/L, COD 500-800 mg/L, mixed domestic-industrial catchment, Green Drop audit pressure) and you are seeing recurring trunk-main spills before the works, the engineering reading is that the bottleneck is upstream of the reactor and the capex that follows is interceptor and pump-station renewal, not reactor retrofits alone. Buyers scoping Municipal collection-and-treatment renewals can use the R4.6 billion figure as a published analogue for budget magnitude, and the 46%-against-90% Green Drop metric as a benchmark for compliance gap. Where a works is being pushed from a low compliance baseline towards Green Drop, the practical train is screened, degritted, primary clarified flow into an MBBR or SBR with nutrient removal, then DAF polishing and disinfection, often packaged as an Integrated Sewage Treatment skid for fast delivery. Comparable capex framing is visible in projects such as the Surrey Connect North Shore Wastewater Plant at $5.5B (Surrey Connect puts North Shore Wastewater Plant cost at $5.5B, September 2026), and pre-treatment choice between DAF and clarifier for tough industrial streams is covered in the Lowell guide (DAF vs Clarifier for Petroleum Wastewater in Lowell: 2026 Factory Guide).
FAQ
What flow band does a 400mm sewer line represent?
The source only gives diameter, not flow. A 400mm gravity sewer typically carries roughly 7,000 to 14,000 m³/day at municipal grades, equivalent to about 35,000 to 70,000 population equivalent (general industry range, not from the sources). The reported scale is therefore a mid-sized interceptor, not a small local lateral (Sunday Tribune).
What treatment train is appropriate to move a works from 46% to 90% Green Drop compliance?
For mixed domestic-industrial catchments the typical chain is screening and grit removal, primary clarification, biological nutrient removal (A2O, MBBR, SBR or MBR), tertiary filtration, DAF polishing where required, and disinfection, with ZLD or reuse loops for the tightest permits (general industry range, not from the sources). The Merebank line itself is a collection-system repair, so the immediate capital need is trunk-main and manhole renewal rather than a new reactor (Sunday Tribune).
What is the budget envelope eThekwini has published for its wastewater refurbishment?
The municipality has estimated it needs R4.6 billion to refurbish all wastewater treatment works to meet Green Drop standards (Sunday Tribune). This is the headline figure buyers and EPC contractors should anchor quotes against, alongside the 46%-against-90% compliance gap reported for end-June 2026 (Sunday Tribune).
How long does a manhole-and-trunk-main repair like Merebank typically take from excavation to reinstatement?
