Three Anchor Bay. Lagoon Beach; Three Anchor Bay; and Beta Beach have seen poor water ratings since 2018, except for 2020 for the latter. Picture: Jason Boud
Cape Town - University of the Western Cape researcher professor Leslie Petrik says maintenance and upgrading of the sewage treatment systems in the city had not been prioritised for a long time, resulting in poor water quality at many Cape Town beaches and tidal pools.
The City of Cape Town’s recent results and analysis report of the Water Quality ratings at Recreational Nodes and Coastal Monitoring Points along the Atlantic and False Bay coasts in Cape Town found that some of the city’s most frequently visited and enjoyed beaches and tidal pools have been found to have poor water quality.
The City conducts testing at 90 sites every two weeks in which indicator bacteria in seawater are collected to determine the water quality at recreational beaches, tidal pools, and coastal monitoring points.
The samples are analysed and categorised as excellent, good, sufficient, or poor, based on a 12-month rolling period.
Petrik said sanitation services were “woefully inadequate” for the size of the population as the population had doubled since the dawn of democracy.
“Many communities are not yet provided with adequate cleansing and sanitation services, thus their waste escapes into the environment and from thence into the sea.
“Moreover, because the sewerage reticulation system is old and needs replacement, many sewerage pipes are breaking and are discharging raw sewage into storm water drains, which discharge straight to sea without treatment,” she said.
Even low counts of E coli and enterococci indicate the presence of sewage in seawater, though in diluted form, and that disease-causing organisms can infect open wounds or cause diseases such as gastroenteritis, ear and eye infections and even lung infections.
Central False Bay, Lagoon Beach (Milnerton), Macassar to Gordon’s Bay, and Three Anchor Bay (Sea Point) were considered to have chronic coastal water quality problems.
In the report, recreational nodes along the Atlantic Coast categorised as poor were Small Bay (Bloubergstrand); Milnerton Lighthouse; Lagoon Beach; Three Anchor Bay; Rocklands Beach; Saunders Rock tidal pool; Camps Bay tidal pools A and B; Beta Beach (Bakoven); and Hout Bay beach.
Lagoon Beach; Three Anchor Bay; and Beta Beach have seen poor water ratings since 2018, except for 2020 for the latter.
The City said stormwater and river discharges have the biggest impact on near-shore water quality.
In a statement of November 24, the City said its popular beaches had shown excellent water quality results ahead of the festive season and that this was based on an independent analysis of water samples taken over the past seven weeks, the latest being November 15.
Deputy Mayor and Mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said: “We are thrilled to announce that the results for 147 water quality samples show excellent water quality across Cape Town’s key recreational nodes or beaches...
“I want to urge the public not to fall for baseless misinformation about our coastal water quality... these allegations are not backed are not backed up by scientific evidence, namely enterococci data from more than just one sample, over a period of time, at a specific beach.”
Beaches with the Blue Flag status were Bikini Beach, Camps Bay, Clifton 4th Beach, Fish Hoek, Llandudno, Melkbosstrand, Muizenberg and Silwerstroom and pilot Blue Flag status was awarded to Mnandi and Strandfontein.
Blue Flags are voluntary awards for beaches, marinas, and sustainable tourism boats with stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria which should be met and maintained in order to gain this status.
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za