SYDNEY, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) on Friday announced a major upgrade of wastewater infrastructure in Sydney to prevent debris balls from polluting the city's iconic beaches.
Rose Jackson, NSW's minister for water, on Friday said that the state government would spend 3 billion Australian dollars (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 10 years upgrading the Malabar wastewater treatment system.
The system, which services around 2 million people in southwest Sydney, was in October identified by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) as the likely source of thousands of debris balls that washed up on beaches along an 80 km stretch of NSW's coast between October 2024 and February 2025.
The EPA said that the black debris balls were made up of hundreds of components, including human waste, chemicals, fat and food.
Their initial appearance at seven beaches in eastern Sydney, including the iconic Bondi Beach, forced their closure for several days while clean-up operations were underway.
Jackson said on Friday that the staged upgrades over the next decade would reduce the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated and discharged via the Malabar deep ocean outfall, reducing the likelihood of debris balls forming again.
"Sydney is a rapidly growing city and no one wants to see debris balls washing up on our beautiful beaches again -- but the truth is our wastewater system needs an upgrade to keep pace with the population," she said in a statement.
Sydney Water, which owns and operates the Malabar system, said that it is continuing to work with the EPA to limit debris ball incidents and has increased cleaning and inspections of ocean outfall screens. ■
