Despite widespread concerns over ocean-bound raw sewage in parts of the metro, the City of Cape Town has assured the public that regular testing has confirmed that the water quality is within an acceptable range for acceptable national water quality, Cape {town} Etc reports.
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In response to a media enquiry, Eddie Andrews, the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, said that the City collected samples directly in front of the Green Point Lighthouse on a regular basis and these results were generally ‘very good’.
‘The City currently monitors two locations weekly at Hout Bay Beach, namely the Chapmans Peak side and Mariners Wharf side,’ Andrews explained. ‘These are the two sides of the beach that are used for swimming.’
Andrews added that the results for these two areas are all within the range for acceptable national water quality as per the guidelines.
‘The City has noticed that the coastal water quality declines significantly after a rainfall event.’
‘As a rule of thumb, if there is an urban river, like the Disa River in Hout Bay, the public are advised to not swim at a river mouth but to swim at a distance of least about 150m each side of the river mouth.’
Andrews said that the lower Disa River is heavily polluted and the general recommendations to all users was not to swim in it and to be mindful that heavy rainfalls result in a general decline of water quality.
‘The City will continue to monitor sampling results closely as they come in and alert members of the public if there are any concerns.’
In a statement last week, the FF Plus expressed significant worry about the increasing amount of sewage thrown in the sea surrounding Cape Town, which constitutes a growing environmental risk, particularly when pump stations fail, as happened recently at Sea Point.
In February, GroundUp reported that Cape Town has been pumping approximately 32 million litres of raw or untreated sewage into the sea every day since last year.
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According to the party, the most affected regions are Green Point, Sea Point and Hout Bay, with an estimated 2 million litres of sewage pushed out to sea everyday at Camps Bay alone.
The FF+ stated that the beaches in these places draw millions of people each year, and the growing risk they pose to everyone who lives in the neighbourhood is obvious.
‘Finding a solution to the problem has been put off for too long and with the Metro’s fast-growing population, swift action has to be taken before the situation turns into a full-blown health crisis,’ read the statement from the party.
‘Cape Town has been pumping sewage into the sea for decades and a feasibility study conducted earlier this year showed that it will cost up to R8 billion to either build new wastewater treatment plants or pump the sewage to existing wastewater plants.’
‘The City Council adopted its 2024 strategy for water management last week to secure more funding from the National Treasury for water management in the city.
The FF Plus urges the City of Cape Town to take this seriously. The existing infrastructure is decaying and inadequate, and rehabilitation should begin immediately.
Dr Jo Barnes of Stellenbosch University told Lester Kiewit on Cape Talk that she had done tests and found frightening levels of eight million E. coli per 100 cc of water in the Disa River, which drains into Hout Bay Beach.
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‘The footprint of this massive sewage intrusion into the sea is much larger than what the engineers used in their models,’ she said in the interview, emphasising that the willingness to address this issue is ‘seriously lacking’.
‘The City has got a big job in improving the sanitation in informal settlements.’
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