The City of Cape Town has released the water quality test results for Zeekoevlei, Zandvlei, Rietvlei and Milnerton lagoon for May – October 2021, and according to Ground Up, all four waterbodies have been closed to the public for months due to dangerously high levels of E. coli (a bacteria found in human faeces).
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The results have revealed that all four waterbodies still have E. coli levels far higher than what the City considers safe for contact, reports Daily Maverick. E. coli is measured in colony-forming units (cfu) per 100ml. The City considers levels over 4001 cfu/100ml to be an “unacceptable risk” for public health and recreational use.
The results from Zeekoevlei taken on October 29, show at three different sampling points over 100,000 cfu/100ml. Outside the Zeekoevlei Yacht Club, it was as high as 980,000 cfu/100ml, and 940,000 cfu/100ml at the inlet of the Big Lotus River.
The City was reportedly putting measures in place to rehabilitate the water, until a sewage spill in mid-October caused E. coli levels to rise again.
Another worry in the Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei is hyacinth, an invasive species that is spreading rapidly as a result of the sewage in the water. The E. coli count in the water increased drastically on October 15, with five sampling points on this date measuring over 100 000 cfu/100ml.
The latest results taken on October 29, measured 430,000 cfu/100ml at a sampling point opposite the Imperial Yacht Club. On the same day, some lower counts of E. coli were also recorded with 7,800 cfu/100ml at the northern area of the vlei, 5,800 cfu/100ml at a sampling point in the outlet channel, and 3,800 cfu/100ml at rubber weir.
After Zandvlei closed again, the City released a statement in which it stated that it was “working around the clock to determine the source of the high levels of E. coli.”
The latest water quality tests conducted at Rietvlei measure E. coli counts way above acceptable levels at two sampling points.
On October 29, 460,000 cfu/100ml was measured at a stormwater channel, while 82,000 cfu/100ml was measured at another sampling point. However, three other samples on the same day showed levels well below the 4001 cfu/100ml benchmark.
The City also released the water quality test results of the Milnerton lagoon and the Diep River from January 2020 to October 2021. The lagoon has had pollution problems for many years due to untreated sewage that flows from informal settlements and failures at the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works, according to a City statement.
The water quality results show that sampling points in the lagoon and Diep River have often measured levels of E. coli way above the acceptable limit, however, readings have differed since January last year. The latest measurements on October 15 showed over 1 million cfu/100ml at a sampling point in the Diep River and 69,000 cfu/100ml at the mouth of the Diep River.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has recently released a statement calling on the City to make water quality test results of the Diep River estuary and Milnerton lagoon “easily available” for residents, and that these should be updated and published regularly.
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