The City of Cape Town is at war with academics working with an environmental group who have challenged the City’s claims that Cape Town’s sea water is of a pristine quality.
The Project Blue report, a limited, citizen-driven investigation, unveiled a concerning picture of sewage contamination at popular Cape Peninsula beaches.
Project Blue was conducted by environmental group RethinkTheStink between 4 November and 6 December 2024, to investigate water quality at popular Cape Peninsula beaches around both Table Bay and False Bay coasts. The study revealed contamination at key recreational sites and discredited some of the City of Cape Town’s own water quality results at Blue Flag beaches.
In response, the city has alleged that two labs used by the project were not Sanas (South African National Accreditation System) accredited for the analysis of E. coli and enterococci in seawater, and that the report lacked citation of scientific literature.
An irate Thursday morning statement from DA Western Cape spokesperson on environmental affairs, Dave Bryant, demanded a public apology from Project Blue, whose work he said “relied on unaccredited laboratories”.
Daily Maverick has, however, seen evidence of valid South African National Accreditation System accreditation which is indeed possessed by the two labs used for the project. Project Blue has stated that one of the labs was especially chosen because the City had previously used it.
Litter at the Soet River-Greenways location. (Photo: Jamii Hamlin)
City Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said: “It is of great concern that the Project Blue report — which incorrectly attributes Sanas accreditation to its results — is used to cast aspersions on water quality data from not one, but two laboratories that are in fact Sanas accredited for microbiological analyses of seawater samples.”
Andrews continued: “This is at best a major oversight by the three academics named in the Project Blue report or, at worst, a major misrepresentation of the facts with the intent to mislead the public.”
In response to these claims, RethinkTheStink reiterated that this was a short-term pilot study intended to investigate public concerns, that was now being expected to meet forensic standards by the City.
Sewage off Camps Bay ‘10 times too high’
The Project Blue report tested the collected sea water for levels of E. coli and Enterococci, the presence of which indicates faecal matter in water.
According to the report, on the Table Bay Side, exceedances of safe limits for E. coli and Enterococci occurred on 42% of sampling dates. On the False Bay Side, exceedances occurred on 38% of sampling dates.
The authors, Dr Jo Barnes, an epidemiologist whose research concentrates on environmental health, and Emeritus Professor Leslie Petrik of the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape, relayed key findings from their report:
- Camps Bay Beach sea: Enterococci levels were 2419 cfu/100ml on 6 December 2024.
- Clifton 4th Beach: Enterococci levels were 596 cfu/100ml on 26 November 2024 and 281 cfu/100ml on 6 December 2024.
- Saunders Rock Beach: Enterococci levels were 1553cfu/100ml on 25 November 2024, 312 cfu/100ml on 5 December 2024, and over 2419cfu/100ml on 6 December 2024.
To comply with E. coli standards for beaches, units cfu/100ml must show results of less than 250, and in enterococci tests, units cfu/100ml must show results of less than 100.
In other words, bacteria levels for Camps Bay water were almost 10 times higher than the acceptable amount in the sample tested.
The report also pointed to severe pollution at the Soet River mouth in False Bay, with extreme contamination of water and sand, posing significant risks to beachgoers and dogs.
The project called for the City to implement more advanced sewage treatment technologies, stringent regulations, and regular monitoring, and to build cooperation between the municipal authorities and the inhabitants of urban spaces to address sewage pollution of beaches and the sea.
City goes to war against Project Blue
Now both the City and the DA have waged war against Project Blue, which Bryant accused of having “threatened Cape Town’s reputation as a world-class coastal destination”.
Much of the wrangling involves the specific nature of the accreditation held by the laboratories used by Project Blue.
Deputy Mayor Andrews said in a statement: “The laboratory used for analysis of samples from the False Bay sites is not accredited at all for enterococci sampling in any medium, let alone for seawater. Although the laboratory used for the Atlantic samples has previously held Sanas accreditations for seawater microbiology analyses, that accreditation was lost and their current Sanas accreditation for the two bacterial analyses is for multiple mediums, but excludes seawater for microbiology.”
Bathers are warned of polluted water at the Soet River-Greenways location. (Photo: Jamii Hamlin)
The deputy mayor said that this was “misrepresentation” and should be a major concern to the public, as well as the lack of any scientific references within the document.
Daily Maverick obtained the current South African National Accreditation System certificates for the two laboratories in question. One is certified for testing for E. coli in potable water, effluent and environmental samples. The other lab is certified for testing both E. coli and Enterococci in saline water.
[Since publication of this article, the City of Cape Town has demanded that Daily Maverick clarify that the lab is certified for testing "saline water" rather than "sea water".]
Daily Maverick is not naming the two laboratories here due to concerns from RethinkTheStink that the labs in question would face pushback. On Thursday, the City revealed to Daily Maverick which laboratories it uses for its own testing.
RethinkTheStink director Caroline Marx told Daily Maverick: “The Table Bay samples were specifically chosen as it is the same laboratory used by the City when City was forced to outsource E. coli testing in 2023.
“Are all previous results done by other laboratories now regarded as invalid? Where is the legislation that states that laboratories other than these are not qualified to do this analysis?” she said.
(Above and below) Water quality sampling taken at the Soet River-Greenways location for Project Blue. (Photos: Jamii Hamlin)
Marx told Daily Maverick that Project Blue was a short-term pilot study intended to investigate public concerns. She said they never claimed that these results were representative of all coastal waters of Cape Town, as alleged by the City.
“It in fact clearly states that it is a limited, citizen-driven investigation into the seawater quality at a few selected beaches. It is disappointing that the City has taken such an adversarial and intimidating approach rather than listening to the concerns of its citizens,” she said.
Project Blue co-author Petrik criticised the fact that the City was questioning their data but did not release its own raw data, the labs it used, or allow independent monitoring of its own sample collection, handling, transport and cold chain management, “making their claims of excellence doubtful”.
“This is especially so since even their own ‘Know your coast’ reports over many years show high bacterial exceedances in coastal seawater from time to time. Nothing has changed in terms of the poor efficiency of local wastewater treatment plants or marine outfalls, so it is very odd that the City data is consistently so very ‘excellent’ in late 2024,” Petrik said.
Read the report here:
The City has said that all its data and findings were available for viewing at City offices.
Public trust deficit
Anthony Turton, professor in the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State, independently advised on the sampling protocols and conclusions of Project Blue.
One of Turton’s conclusions was that “the test protocols chosen by the (City) are inadequate in assessing the human health risks”.
Turton told Daily Maverick that there was a massive public trust deficit and a long-standing history of stand-offs between the City and various concerned special interest groups in the area.
“The investigation was conducted because there’s a coalition of special interest groups. I don’t speak on their behalf, but that coalition includes surf lifesavers, canoeists, paddlers, yachts people and what have you. They all look after their own special interests, but they all have a common understanding of the fact that their people are being exposed to risk,” Turton said.
Complaints were being made that the City Health Department was regularly abdicating responsibility for the risks of using potentially contaminated coastal waters by simply putting up a few warning signs when an incident occurred.
Jamii Hamlin, a lifelong surfer who represents surfers and other beach users in the Helderberg area, has been urging swimmers, surfers, canoeists and all beach users to report any illness they suspect could be from using contaminated coastal water to City Health as the department has not been coming to the fore to address their concerns.
Hamlin told Daily Maverick that they had raised substantial concerns and sent letters or statements from swimmers, surfers, and paddlers who had become ill and infected with pathological reports, and that these hadn’t been attended by the City in any credible way.
“There was a big altercation about the unwillingness of the City to put appropriate signs up where it was quite clear that there was sewage pollution,” Turton said.
Turton said that because of the stand-off and confrontational nature between the City and these groups, the fallback position was to get private funding and conduct independent testing and see if they found the results to be any different.
He highlighted that sewage pollution was caused by untreated or poorly treated sewage, leaks in sewer systems, and marine outfalls that discharged raw, untreated sewage into the ocean — as well as the fact that the majority of wastewater water treatment plants in South Africa were dysfunctional in one way or another.
“Against that background, it is unrealistic to assume that there will be no contamination. So the question there now is… what is an acceptable level of contamination? And that’s where the public trust and confidence comes in,” Turton said.
“The intention is not to be misleading and not to be malicious in any way,” Turton said, but added that there was a history of intimidation against some of their members.
“We look to the city of Cape Town with respect and want to engage with them as respectful citizens. But we also want them to treat us with respect,” Turton said.
In a statement on Tuesday, Andrews said that the City had never claimed that any coastal area was risk free, but published water quality results that were shown to be excellent as aligned to National Water Quality Guidelines — which state excellent as a less than 2,8% risk, not as zero risk.
City results vastly different
On receiving the report, Andrews said the City was immediately concerned about the results published by RethinkTheStink, which were markedly different to the City’s results at some of the same locations on the same days.
Andrews told Daily Maverick that on 6 December 2024 at Camps Bay, when Project Blue recorded the result of more than 2,419 enterococci cfu/100ml, the City recorded a result of 39 enterococci cfu/100ml.
The City has also accused Project Blue of collecting water in known pollution hotspots.
In response to the initial release of the report, the City released a statement stating that 297 water samples taken at 30 of its popular beaches showed consistently high water quality over the festive season, based on an independent analysis by a laboratory that is South African National Accreditation System accredited for seawater samples. This was based on enterococci counts.
Turton said that the core issue was not whether Project Blue’s methodology was better or worse than the City’s, although “that is what the City is trying to make it about”.
Turton said: “The City naively made statements (in December 2024) to the effect that the water quality was outstanding, that there was no deviation from any readings and Blue Flag Status was claimed. That is a foolish statement.”
Turton said this was particularly the case given that three Cape Town marine outfalls discharged millions of litres of sewage into the ocean every day.
Turton said that statistically, it was not possible for the City to draw the conclusion of “excellent water quality at Cape Town’s popular beaches” as it did in this statement in December, based on a limited number of samples — 225 samples tested across 24 key recreational nodes.
“Project Blue came in wanting to demonstrate that there were in fact times when those parameters had been exceeded… The intention is simply to reach consensus for robust testing protocol,” Turton said. DM