These popular Cape Town beaches have ‘chronic’ water quality problems

Ahead of South Africa’s summer holiday season, when thousands flock to the many Blue Flag beaches dotted around the Cape coastline, holidaymakers may want to err on the side of caution.

The City of Cape Town conducts regular water testing at 90 coastal sites to determine the water quality at recreational beaches, tidal pools and coastal monitoring points.

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The results are then categorised as excellent, good, sufficient or poor.

A poor report card

According to the latest ‘Know Your Coast’ annual water quality report, Seaforth Beach (next to Boulders Beach), Fish Hoek Beach, Beta Beach in Bakoven and Small Bay in Blouberg are a handful of popular beaches in Cape Town that were deemed unsafe for swimming.

‘Poor’ water quality means more than a 8.5% risk of gastrointestinal illness, with exposure defined as 10 minutes of swimming with three head immersions.

The City also releases weekly enterococci readings, with varying results for some of these locations since the 2022 report was published.

Enterococci are bacteria that are used as indicators of fecal contamination in water, particularly in recreational areas, helping assess water safety. Monitoring enterococci levels is crucial for public health and environmental purposes.

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‘Red flag’ beaches

Furthermore, Central False Bay, Lagoon Beach (Milnerton), Macassar to Gordon’s Bay and Three Anchor Bay are identified by the City as locations with chronic coastal water quality problems.

Professor Leslie Petrik of the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape warned that these “red labelled” beaches presented a significant health risk to people.

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“Given the parlous state of our wastewater treatment plants and the huge volumes of untreated and partially treated sewage being continuously discharged into the sea and into surf zones by [the City of Cape Town], the coastline is continuously contaminated with both bacteria and chemicals these days,” Petrik said.

The City of Cape Town meanwhile has also cited river discharge and illegal discharges via stormwater drains as a major contributor to poor water quality.

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City satisfied with overall readings

Greg Oelofse from City coastal management says that while E. coli levels along Cape Town’s coastline varied, the general quality of the water remained relatively good.

“We never can say that the water’s 100% safe for swimming. That’s what the national water quality guidelines do and because it’s an urban environment, there are sources of pollution and there’s variability of risk,” he said.

“So, broadly speaking, at almost all of our recreational facilities the water quality falls within either excellent or good.”

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