Steve Kretzmann
Several beaches were closed over the holidays, but test
results show that water quality at some other beaches is even worse
- The City of Cape Town has been quick to close beaches to protect swimmers following sewage spills.
- But tests show that at several beaches which were not closed, the water is highly polluted.
- Activists are concerned that the City's routine coastal water quality testing is inadequate.
At least eight Cape Town beaches were closed during the December and January festive season after sewage spills were reported. But water test results show that several other beaches were also too polluted for safe swimming.
Many of the beaches were closed when sewage pump stations
could not pump out incoming sewage during load shedding. After continued water
quality testing for the presence of E. coli, most of the affected beaches were
opened within a day or two. Chair of the mayco committee for water quality,
Alex Lansdowne, said then that the maximum E. coli level was 500 colony forming
units (cfu) per 100ml, and as soon as tests showed E.coli was lower than this,
the beaches were reopened.
The City takes coastal water quality samples every two
weeks, and tests are done not only for E.coli but also for the presence of
enterococci, a more virulent strain of faecal bacteria. The limit for safe
swimming is 200cfu of enterococci per 100ml.
However, an examination of the fortnightly coastal waterquality test results over the periods 6 to 8 December and 13 to 15 December -
the latest available on the City's data portal - showed 21 of 88 coastal
monitoring points had enterococci levels above 200cfu/100ml. Of these, 11 were
over 1,000cfu/100ml, which is the maximum number of faecal coliforms (bacteria
found in sewage) allowed in treated sewage released from sewage treatment
plants, according to the national Department of Water and Sanitation.
This would imply that it was safer to swim in the discharge
from a properly functioning sewage plant than at these beaches at the time the
samples were taken.
Swimming or surfing in water with high levels of faecal
coliforms can lead to gastrointestinal illness (tummy bugs) and ear, nose, and
throat infections. Children and immuno-compromised people are particularly at
risk.
Of the 11 monitoring sites where pollution was higher than
levels allowed for treated sewage, eight were popular beaches:
- Strand at Murray Road (1,300cfu/100ml);
- Maiden's Cove tidal pool 1 (1,986cfu/100ml);
- Maiden's Cove tidal pool 2 (>2,419cfu/100ml);
- Lagoon Beach, Milnerton (>2,419cfu/100ml);
- Gordon's Bay (1,553cfu/100ml);
- Glencairn beach (1,553cfu/100ml);
- The Kom, Kommetjie (>2,419cfu/100ml);
- Long Beach, Kommetjie (1,120cfu/100ml);
- Frank's Bay, Simon's Town (1,986cfu/100ml)
As far as can be determined, none of them, with the
exception of Lagoon Beach at Milnerton, which has been polluted for at leastthree years, had signage warning beach goers that the water was unsafe for
swimming or playing in.
In response to GroundUp's questions, the City said it would
look into the records "to determine whether pollution incidents occurred
at these beaches mentioned in this media enquiry".
Trend analysis
The City also said coastal water quality was "not an
absolute science" and real time water quality measures did not exist, as
laboratory results "take days". In line with the National Coastal
Water Quality Guidelines, coastal water quality was "an estimation of risk
determined by looking at the last or previous 24 results taken over a rolling
period of 365 days". The water quality was then rated as poor, sufficient,
good, or excellent.
"The trend analysis approach analyses long-term trends
over 365 days and is a much more reliable tool to determine the overall water
quality for a recreational area," the City said.
This trend analysis was formerly available on the City of
Cape Town website. But it has been taken off because the City's Scientific
Services Laboratory stopped testing for enterococci in May last year "due
to the quality concerns of the agar media used in the enterococci
analysis". These concerns arose after independent tests at Rietvlei foundthe City lab results to be skewed too high.
The City has appointed an external provider, A.L. Abbots
& Associates, and the 365-day trend analysis is being updated.
A tick-box exercise
Community activist Caroline Marx, who sits on the mayoral
advisory committee for water quality, said it appeared the coastal water
quality tests were little more than "a tick-box exercise".
Marx has been at the forefront of the fight for the cleanup
of the highly polluted Milnerton Lagoon, and helped establish non profit
company Rethink the Stink and the Facebook group for responsible wastewater
management.
She said there didn't seem to be any follow-up when water
quality test results showed consistently high pollution at the beaches.
"What action is being taken as a result?" she asked.
"Where is the website where visitors can look to see
whether the beach is fit for swimming?"
Marx welcomed the fact that water quality test results were
available to the public. But, she said, the data was highly technical in
nature, and determining where the samples were taken required cross-checking
coordinates on a programme such as Google Earth. Additionally, the length of
time it took to publish the results meant they were of little use to the
public. On 30 January, the latest test results were from 15 December, making
them a month-and-a-half old.
Hidden data
Jackie Whales, chair of Friends of the River in Hout Bay,
said when the Hout Bay beach was closed on 10 January after sewage pollution
due to blocked stormwater pipes, City officials were at the beach testing the
water every day. "They were very good," said Whales.
She said engagement with the City had improved since Mayor
Geordin Hill-Lewis had shaken up the water and sanitation department, but the
data portal where water quality results were posted was very difficult to
navigate. She said the organisation was thinking of appointing someone to sift
through the relevant data and present it.
Senior lecturer emeritus at Stellenbosch University's
Department of Global Health Dr Jo Barnes said pollution at city beaches had
"been happening for a long time" but City officials seemed to focus
only on pollution caused by loadshedding. Though the authorities had been quick
to close beaches when loadshedding led to sewage spills, they had remained
quiet about pollution at other beaches, said Barnes.
Barnes said the water quality testing limit of
2,419cfu/100ml for enteroccocci also disguised the extent of the pollution. At
Maiden's Cove tidal pool, for instance, which was popular with families and
children, the City found enterococci levels to be above the limit of
2,419cfu/100ml, but how much higher is not known. The level could have been
much, much more than that, putting people's health at serious risk, said
Barnes.