Latest sampling confirms excellent water quality at Cape Town’s popular beaches

13 December 2023

The latest round of coastal water sample results once again confirms excellent water quality at Cape Town’s most popular beaches this festive season. This is based on an independent analysis of water samples taken over the past seven weeks, the latest being 5 and 7 December 2023.  

All eight of Cape Town's Blue Flag beaches – the most visited in the city - show 100% compliance with Blue Flag water quality standards based on the independent analysis of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). All three Blue Flag Pilot beaches also show 100% compliance with Blue Flag water quality standards.

The Blue Flag beaches are Bikini Beach, Camps Bay, Clifton 4^th Beach, Fish Hoek, Llandudno, Melkbosstrand, Muizenberg and Silwerstroom. Pilot blue flag status was also awarded to Mnandi, Strandfontein, and Hout Bay.

Blue Flag beaches are independently accredited by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) based on 'excellent' water quality results from festive season water sampling analysed by the SABS laboratory between 1 December and 31 January each year. WESSA uses 33 criteria across four categories for Blue Flag accreditation, including Water Quality, Environmental Management, Safety Services, and Education and Awareness.

The City's Coastal Management branch is further monitoring trends at 25 other popular beach locations over a 12-month rolling period in addition to the weekly samples taken at the Blue Flag beaches:

• Across a total of 225 samples tested across 24 key recreational nodes, 94% met excellent water standards over 9 weeks as part of Coastal Managements research programme
• Based on 9 rounds of water sampling from 3 October – 5 December, 16 of 25 locations had 100% excellent sampling results, two had 89% excellent results (8/9 samples), five had 78% excellent results (7/9 samples), and two returned excellent results 66% of the time (6/9 samples)
• Water samples are analysed by an external accredited laboratory – the SABS Lab – for the number of enterococci per 100ml, the World Health Organisation's Gold Standard for water quality analysis. The cut off is 180 enterococci per 100ml.
  
   
  
  'I want to encourage residents and visitors to enjoy their days out on the beach, and to make the most of what our wonderful city offers during the festive season. The results obtained from our monitoring programmes for enterococci over the past seven weeks, confirm the water quality at Cape Town's most popular beaches is excellent by global standards.
  
   
  
  'These results are the most reliable and best indicator of coastal water quality this festive season as they show the situation right now, rather than a 365-day average result which can be skewed by winter rainfall and urban pollution run-off into water bodies,' said the City's Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
  
   
  
  When a pollution incident is detected, the City has specific protocols to swiftly contain and rectify the situation. This may entail a temporary pause on swimming along a section of beach until water sampling confirms the water is safe again. Signage will be displayed in these instances to keep the public up to date.
  
   
  
  Latest enterococci results for Blue Flag beaches (official Blue Flag sampling period 1 Dec – 31 Jan):
  
  

  Blue Flag Beach	Date 29 November	Date 7 December
  Silwerstroomstrand	0	0
  Melkbos	0	0
  Clifton 4th	2	0
  Camps Bay	0	16
  Llandudno	0	37
  Fish Hoek	2	1
  Muizenberg	3	2
  Bikini Beach	7	0
  Pilot Beach (Strandfontein)		2
  Pilot Beach (Mnandi)		4
  Pilot Beach (Hout Bay)		0

   

Weekly Enterococci results – 25 popular recreational nodes (CFU/100 ml)

Like every coastal city in the world, Cape Town also has some areas where land based pollution does impact on the shoreline more regularly and may cause more variable results. These sites are almost always in close proximity to a river mouth or a substantial stormwater drain that services a large catchment area with various sources of urban pollution. These areas include Diep River estuary mouth and adjacent Lagoon Beach, Disa River Mouth in Hout Bay, Else River Mouth in Glencairn, Silvermine river mouth in Clovelly and Gordon's Bay River.

Sampling adjacent to river mouths and known sources of pollution:

To address these issues, Cape Town has a Mayoral Priority Programme focused on improving inland water quality, and driving record infrastructure investment in Water and Sanitation services.

End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office