Clean-up operations are under way to remove tons of sewage that seeped into a Durban river last week, East Coast Radio reported yesterday.

Clean-up operations are under way to remove tons of sewage that seeped into a Durban river last week, East Coast Radio reported yesterday.

Scores of fish at the Isipingo River lagoon died after large volumes of sewage spilled into the river.

At the time, department of water affairs spokesman Lin Gravelet-Blondin said the deaths were linked to theft from an electricity pylon that subsequently toppled over and cut power supply to several industries in parts of south Durban.

With no electricity to drive several sewage pump stations, sewage and industrial effluent poured into rivers that drained into the Isipingo estuary.

Three men had since been arrested in connection with the theft and face charges of sabotage, police spokesman Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said.

Yesterday, Gravelet- Blondin told the radio station that the situation was normalising as clean-up operations were underway. He said that while oxygen levels in the water were not good, they were still acceptable. - Sapa