Cape Town - Just a few months after public uproar over the contaminated water at some of the metro’s beaches, the City is seeking to gain the prestigious Blue Flag accolade.
The City Council has approved a contract worth just over R5.2 million with the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) to manage the Blue Flag system until 2032.
However, the Blue Flag system has been a subject of serious discussion among environmentally concerned parties recently.
“I have serious reservations about the adequacy of the Blue Flag system to promise environmental water safety, as the net of samples used for the decision to award that status has gaping holes in it,” said eminent epidemiologist Professor Jo Barnes.
CEO of the National Sea Rescue Institute, Dr Cleeve Robertson, also questioned the independence of the testing of the samples of water conducted by WESSA.
“There’s an integrity issue regarding the independence of testing. WESSA is paid by the City to do the testing,” said Robertson.
He also said the testing regime was inadequate and questioned whether it was merely rubber-stamping the status.
“We don’t have Blue Flag beaches, we only have Brown Flag beaches.”
A new study by scientists from Cape Town and Norway carried out over a span of four years found that marine pollution around the Cape Peninsula coastline was on the rise.
Environmental nano-chemist at UWC, Professor Leslie Petrik, said: “Our coastline from Green Point all the way around the Peninsula and including False Bay from Miller’s Point to Rooi Els is contaminated by chemicals from inadequately treated sewage.”
Camps Bay and Clifton 4th Beach, which currently enjoy the Blue Flag status, were plagued by sewage leaks in 2022 that led to temporary closures.
Despite the concerns, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) granted the City permission to continue pumping sewage into the ocean for the next five years.
In 2015, WESSA wrote to the City raising concerns about the “continuing impact of the discharge of effluent” from Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay outfalls, particularly its potential impacts on the CoCT’s Blue Flag status beaches.
In a letter, WESSA encouraged the City to reconsiders its bid “to simply continue to discharge inadequately treated sewage from these three outfalls, because it is simply cheap and convenient to do so”.
“We believe that to continue to implement the status quo is to jeopardise one the key economic drivers of Cape Town and its hard-won Blue Flag status tourism beaches, and will place the City at a similar reputational and economic risk that Durban has already experienced. Instead we urge the City of Cape Town to use this opportunity to create a world benchmark sewage treatment system, which demonstrates leadership in meeting a city’s welfare and environmental responsibilities,” said WESSA in the letter.
A study done in 2018 by scientist and climate advocate Professor Edda Weimann also stated that the Blue Flag status was inappropriate as a health standard in Cape Town.
The study said the water at Blue Flag beaches were contaminated by E coli. and bathers reported skin rashes, stomach cramps and other ailments.
Film-maker of the documentary “Bays of Sewage”, Mark Jackson, viewed the Blue Flag programme as being useful in setting targets or aspiration for citizens to keep the beaches clean.
“However, I take strong issue with how the City seems to use Blue Flag as an indication of health standards, when in fact it is no such thing.”
He added that it only required testing of water quality once every 30 days, and only for three months.
“Contamination can come and go in a matter of days, especially sewage that washes back from our marine outfalls that dump raw sewage just 700m from shore.”
“The Blue Flag is a useful marketing initiative, but not any kind of health standard, and in no ways any true reflection of the health and safety of the beach,” said Jackson.
According to WESSA Senior Sustainability Programme Manager Tevya Lotriet, eight beaches in Cape Town had applied and were awarded the Blue Flag status for the 2022/2023 season.
She said Strandfontein and Mnandi beaches were previously awarded and on the programme but due to a "few water quality" sample failures, they would not have been compliant with the Blue Flag water quality criteria if they had applied.
Lotriet said she was "not aware" of the 2015 concerns as she joined WESSA "much later".
"Blue Flag is not necessarily an assurance that everything at the site will always run perfectly, all the time, but rather a management tool to make sure that when issues come up, there is a plan for mitigation which includes adequate communication to users.
She insisted that the Blue Flag status was also an indication that the bathing water quality was being regularly tested and monitored during the season.
"Essentially a Blue Flag beach must be clean, ablutions and surrounding areas well maintained, bathing water must be safe for swimming so regular testing is required, appropriate safety measures should be in place and the beach should be accessible for all. A Blue Flag beach is about much more than just water quality, although water quality is an important aspect", Lotriet said.
Lotriet said the only money the organisation received was the application fee per site and only accepted water samples from independent labs.