The City of Cape Town maintains that its popular beaches have shown “consistently high water quality” during the festive season, despite counterclaims from environmental supporters.

In a statement issued on Monday afternoon, the city pointed out that out of 297 water samples taken from designated swimming areas across its “30 most frequented coastal recreational sites,” 100% complied with recreational use standards throughout the festive period.

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The city’s response comes after a statement from the ‘Bays of Sewage’ community group, which has gained support from three academics, including water expert Professor Anthony Turton, who claims that the Cape metro is being “economical with the truth” regarding water quality and the Blue Flag designation of certain beaches.

“From a scientific sampling perspective, the testing methods used by the City of Cape Town are inadequate and misleading for drawing the conclusions presented, making it incorrect to claim that the beaches are safe for swimming,” Turton states.

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The statement references a recent study report – Project Blue – conducted by Dr. Jo Barnes from Stellenbosch University and Professor Leslie Petrik from the University of the Western Cape.

The research found that three out of seven water samples taken from two Blue Flag beaches between November 26 and December 6 exceeded acceptable levels for the bacteria enterococci—one at Camps Bay and two at Clifton 4th Beach.

Both enterococci and E. coli are bacteria commonly linked to sewage pollution in water.

Project Blue

Project Blue was a focused citizen-led investigation into the seawater quality at selected beaches along the Cape Peninsula, particularly on the Table Bay and False Bay sides. Samples were collected from these areas during November and December.

The findings showed that safety limits for E. coli and enterococci were surpassed on 42% of sampling dates on the Table Bay side, while 38% of the dates on the False Bay side indicated unsafe contamination levels.

Alarmingly, the Soet River Mouth in Strand recorded “exceptionally high” bacterial levels, posing significant risks to public health and safety.

Recommendations

The report recommends that the city pursue objective and independent assessments of water quality at its beaches that are “not conducted partially or wholly by the city.”

The researchers argue that testing for E. coli and enterococci is the accepted method for detecting sewage presence in environmental water sources.

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“Historically, the advice has been to test for E. coli in freshwater and enterococci in brackish or seawater; however, in the past decade, depending solely on one of the two organisms leads to an underestimation of risks.”

They advocate for both organisms to be included in all testing protocols, contending that reliance on just one can yield misleading conclusions about risks in an “unacceptable number of cases.”

City’s response

According to the City of Cape Town’s statement, extensive sampling has been carried out at its beaches, with “hundreds of samples” undergoing independent analysis by a laboratory accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (Sanas) for seawater samples.

The results indicated “consistently high” water quality.

The city highlights that the enterococci counts represent the “internationally recognized gold standard” for coastal water quality regarding risks to human health.

Nevertheless, they also “acknowledge the findings” from the Project Blue report and requested further information from the authors.

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“Over the past year, a rigorous high-frequency sampling program has been implemented at various beaches. Summary reports detailing water quality at these sites are now available on the city’s website,” it states.

Furthermore, updates on weekly water samples will be provided throughout the festive period until the end of January 2025.

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