The City of Cape Town has rebuffed alarming findings from the independent water testing initiative, Project Blue, which raised serious questions about the safety of water at some of the city’s most popular beaches.
As families flocked to the coastline for the festive season, Project Blue’s extensive testing between November 4 and December 6, 2024, painted a grim picture; nearly 40% of sampled beaches reported elevated levels of E. coli and Enterococci, both of which are critical indicators of water contamination.
In stark contrast, City officials declared that all 146 samples from Cape Town’s sought-after beaches had achieved an “excellent water quality” status.
This discrepancy has led to rising concerns among residents and visitors alike about the reliability of the City’s water quality assurances.
Project Blue’s disturbing results included particularly high bacterial counts at renowned Blue Flag beaches, such as Camps Bay, Clifton 4th, and Saunders Rock. Water samples collected from Camps Bay revealed Enterococci levels exceeding 2 419 cfu/100ml on one testing day.
Additional tests indicated significant contamination at the Soet River mouth in Strand, with bacteria levels well above acceptable limits. Altogether, 42% of sampling dates at Table Bay exceeded safety thresholds for both E. coli and Enterococci.
Water quality expert Professor Anthony Turton, who verified the findings, criticised the City’s testing protocols as “inadequate and misleading,” undermining claims that the beaches are safe for swimming.
“From a scientific sampling perspective, the testing protocol used by the City is inadequate and misleading to draw the conclusions they have drawn. Therefore, it is erroneous to conclude that the beaches are safe to swim in,” Turton said.
Caroline Marx, director of RethinktheStink – which spearheaded Project Blue – voiced concern over the apparent lack of transparency regarding water safety. She highlighted the fact that no warning signs were present at the contaminated beaches, potentially jeopardising public health.
In a statement yesterday, the City said Cape Town’s popular beaches showed consistently high water quality over the festive season, based on independent analysis conducted by a laboratory that is SANAS accredited for sea water samples.
“Of 297 water samples at designated swimming areas across the City’s 30 most popular coastal recreational nodes, a full 100% were within recreational use thresholds over the festive season.
“The City is posting weekly water sample updates on its website for the duration of the festive season until the end of January 2025 for easy access and unprecedented transparency,” the City said.
The City noted the Project Blue findings and said it has requested supporting information from the authors on which the findings and statements of the report are based.
Regarding Camps Bay, the City said that based on the outcome of 371 City sampling tests over the last 12 months from four locations at Camps Bay beach, results show consistently high water quality at this beach throughout the year.
“A full 100% of the 10 most recent water samples were within recreational use-guidelines at three locations along Camps Bay beach over the festive season, including samples taken on 6 December when the Project Blue sample returned the solitary above-guideline enterococci result.”
While the City said its sampling dates at Clifton 4th differ to those of Project Blue, 100% of independently-analysed samples at this beach for December and January have been within recreational guidelines over the festive period.
“Where specific pollution incidents are identified, the City responds swiftly to address the pollution source, install warning signage, and take water samples until results show it’s safe to swim again,” said mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews.
The City further noted the Project Blue sample findings at “known chronically polluted locations” at the Soet River mouth and Lagoon Beach, where the City said it has closed the coastal waters to public use.
Cape Times