Consistently high water quality at Cape Town beaches over festive season

06 January 2025

Cape Town’s popular beaches showed consistently high water quality over the festive season, based on an independent analysis conducted by a laboratory that is SANAS accredited for sea water samples. Of 297 water samples at designated swimming areas across the City’s 30 most popular coastal recreational nodes, a full 100% were within recreational use thresholds over the festive season. This is based on enterococci counts, the internationally recognised gold standard indicator for coastal water quality in terms of associated risk to human health. The City is posting weekly water sample updates on its website for the duration of the festive season until the end of January 2025 for easy access and unprecedented transparency. The Summer Dashboard is available here: https://bit.ly/4dHk18h

‘The results of hundreds of samples across Cape Town’s most popular beaches this festive season affirm our city as a world-class coastal tourism destination. These sample results are all independently analysed by a laboratory that is SANAS accredited for sea water samples based on strict protocols. Results are published on the City’s online Summer Dashboard to inform the public about water quality patterns at their favourite beaches this festive season.

‘Cape Town’s Blue Flag beaches are also subjected to additional water sampling by a second sea water SANAS accredited laboratory under the auspices of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA), which independently confers Blue Flag status on South African beaches, providing further assurance of acceptable water quality to the public.

‘Because it takes a few days to analyse water samples, this data cannot give a real-time indication of water quality. However, trends over time do give an indication of risk levels for the public to make more informed decisions. This is why the City conducts such extensive sampling throughout the year and makes the data available to the public,’ said Alderman Eddie Andrews, the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment.

The City further notes findings of water sampling in the ‘Project Blue’ report, acknowledged by the authors to be a ‘very limited survey’. The City has requested and is awaiting supporting information from the authors upon which findings and statements of the report are based, but can respond as follows in the interim:

The report finds that, out of seven water samples at two Blue Flag beaches between 26 November to 6 December, one sample was above-guideline thresholds for enterococci at Camps Bay, and two at Clifton 4th beach.

While the exact locations of Project Blue sampling points are not known, nor has the City examined the testing protocols, it can be stated:

Regarding Camps Bay: Based on the outcome of 371 City sampling tests over the last 12 months from four locations at Camps Bay beach, results show consistently high water quality at this beach throughout the year. A full 100% of the 10 most recent water samples were within recreational use-guidelines at three locations along Camps Bay beach over the festive season, including samples taken on 6 December when the Project Blue sample returned the solitary above-guideline enterococci result.
Regarding Clifton 4th Beach: While City sampling dates at Clifton 4th differ to those of Project Blue, 100% of independently-analysed samples at this beach for December and January have been within recreational guidelines over the festive period.

‘Where specific pollution incidents are identified, the City responds swiftly to address the pollution source, install warning signage, and take water samples until results show it’s safe to swim again. This responsiveness and commitment to transparency is what sets Cape Town apart as a world-class tourism destination, enjoyed by record numbers of visitors and locals this past festive season.

‘In general, after rainfall events and due to the flushing of the catchments, the water quality usually declines for short periods. This is a common phenomenon in urban areas around the world, but as it currently stands, Cape Town’s coastal water quality is of a very high standard at our popular beaches,’ said Alderman Andrews.

Other locations sampled in the Project Blue report

The Project Blue report makes reference to five samples analysed at Strand surfing area, colloquially referred to as ‘Pipe’, one of which returned an above-guideline result on 6 November.

The City has conducted extensive sampling in this area over the past year, the results of which shows that both the Pipe surfing area, and Strand swimming area generally meet the standards for recreational use during summer when no rainfall events have occurred. This is based on the outcome of weekly sampling between October 2023 and November 2024 and daily sampling (Monday to Friday) from 23 September 2024 and which is ongoing at these nodes. The results for the daily samples at these two locations throughout December are excellent.

Saunders Rock tidal pool reports excellent water quality based on recent City samples, as does the Project Blue result for this location.

At Maiden’s Cove, Project Blue’s limited sampling results yielded one above-guideline result - on 6 December. The City’s last ten samples at Maiden’s Cove all show results 100% within recreational guidelines.

The City further notes the Project Blue sample findings at known chronically polluted locations at the Soet River mouth and Lagoon Beach, where the City has in fact closed the coastal waters to public use. Warning and information signage is in place amidst broader City and societal efforts to address the multiple sources of urban pollution impacting these catchments.

The City’s Summer Dashboard provides the weekly enterococci results for the 30 most popular recreational beaches:

Atlantic coastline: Melkbosstrand; Big Bay, Small Bay; Milnerton; Saunders tidal pool; Clifton 2nd; Clifton 4th; Maiden’s Cove tidal pool; Glen Beach; Camps Bay central, Camps Bay south; Camps Bay tidal pool; Llandudno; Mariners Wharf Hout Bay; Chapman’s Hout Bay
False Bay coastline: Seaforth; Long Beach Simon’s Town; Fish Hoek swimming area; Dalebrook tidal pool; St James tidal pool; Muizenberg central (Surfer’s Corner); Strandfontein tidal pool; Strandfontein beach; Mnandi east; Monwabisi beach; Monwabisi tidal pool; Strand beach; Gordon’s Bay; Bikini beach; Kogel Bay

Included in the dashboard are:

The results for the last 10 samples taken at these nodes. Thus, it gives the public a view of the water quality over the past two-and-a-half months at these recreational nodes
The data (number) indicates the number of enterococci bacteria measured per 100ml, as is the standard way of reporting
An individual count of <240 (less than 240) is regarded as sufficient for recreational purposes
As new results come in, the oldest result will be removed and the latest added

Summary research reports on water quality at Camps Bay, Green Point, and Strand beach

Over the last 12 months, intensive high frequency research water sampling has been undertaken at a number of beaches. These research summary reports on water quality at these locations are now available on the City’s website at: https://bit.ly/4dHk18h

A further summary report for Hout Bay is being finalised and will be published on the City’s website as soon as it is ready.

The public is encouraged to go online, and peruse the Summer Dashboard to find out more about the water quality at their favourite beaches and to engage with the research reports.

For further information on Coastal Water Quality in Cape Town, please consult the following FAQs document on the City’s website.

• Those interested in the results for other recreational nodes and coastal monitoring points can find the latest data on the City’s website. The data is updated weekly, visit the Coastal Water Quality page at: https://bit.ly/4dHk18h

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office