Swan river contaminated for the second time in the past month prompting outrage

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A stretch of the Swan River in Perth's north-east remains closed after a sewage spill left a foul odour and contaminated water. It is the second time in the past month a burst sewer pipe has sent human waste into suburban areas and caused a public health and environmental hazard.

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00:00Watercorp staff suited up and testing for raw sewage.

00:06And that's the hill parameter reading.

00:08The consequence of a wastewater overflow which closed the river from Vivash near Middle Swan to Guildford.

00:14I was sad.

00:15Stanley Littlejohn and his mum Jax had come to catch Flathead with the new lures he'd made.

00:20We thought we'd come and test it at a beautiful spot on Noongar country where we always come.

00:26But yeah, today's not the day.

00:29While undergoing repairs on a damaged wastewater pipe in Cavisham, untreated sewage spilled into the Swan River.

00:36Warren Southwell was paddling upstream, training for the Avon Descent, when he smelled something off.

00:42And I thought, that's not the normal smell I smell.

00:45And then I noticed that the river as I was going along changed colour.

00:48So instead of being a clear brown, it suddenly went to a milky, coffee, sort of gravelly colour.

00:54He went home and washed down, but others were caught unaware.

00:58On Friday a group of local daycare children were playing in this area.

01:02One of the mothers says she's very concerned because her son and others were waiting in the water

01:07and there were no signs saying to stay out of the water.

01:10The Water Corp says signs had not been put up then because the sewage had not reached that area yet.

01:15The signage wasn't there at the time the kids were in the water.

01:18I wouldn't expect they have anything to be concerned about.

01:20But if their children are feeling any symptoms, we absolutely do recommend they go and see their medical practitioner to get them checked out.

01:28It comes after sewage flooded streets and parks in Spearwood and Beaconsfield last month.

01:33The government says it's unacceptable and the opposition wants an audit of all 17,000 kilometres of wastewater pipes.

01:40That kilometre and that kind of vast network, these incidents and bursts are unfortunately going to occur.

01:45But what we do try to do is mitigate and get on top of them as quickly as possible.

01:49The Water Corp says it prioritises maintenance and safety.

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