The City of Cape Town reported a notable decrease in sewer overflows during the festive season compared to previous years. Picture: File
The City of Cape Town reported a notable decrease in sewer overflows during the festive season compared to previous years.
According to Water and Sanitation Mayoral Committee member Dr Zahid Badroedien, these improvements contributed to maintaining clean and safe beaches for residents and visitors.
He said this at the back of an independent investigation by RethinkTheStink’s Project Blue uncovered widespread pollution in Table Bay, with many Cape Town beaches, including Blue Flag beaches.
Badroedien said: “Overflows dropped from 9,917 incidents last year to 7 578 this year —a significant improvement that reflects our proactive approach to water and sanitation management.
“Key to this success was the city’s Pump Station Control Room, which uses cutting-edge digital monitoring to oversee 404 sewer pump stations, 57 water pump stations, and 60 reservoirs. Coastal pump stations received special attention, including backup power installations, regular maintenance, and rapid response to incidents.
“Even with challenges like blockages in Kalk Bay and a power disruption at Clifton 4, our teams acted swiftly to ensure these incidents were resolved without disrupting beachgoers. Over 92% of pump station failures were resolved within 24 hours, exceeding our performance targets.”
He explained that proactive maintenance played a big role.
“We cleaned 145.6km of sewer lines by December 2024, which was on track to surpass 2023’s total of 266km. Wet-well cleaning, bulk sewer line maintenance, and infrastructure replacements kept the system resilient. A total of 96.8km of sewer pipes were replaced in 2023, with 57.8km already replaced in the first half of last year.
“These interventions ensure cleaner beaches, safer public spaces, and a more resilient sewer network for Cape Town. We’ll keep pushing to improve, but it’s clear we’re on the right track.”
Despite these advancements, an independent investigation by RethinkTheStink’s Project Blue uncovered concerns about pollution levels in Table Bay and other areas.
This study revealed widespread contamination, including harmful bacteria such as E. coli and Enterococci, at several Cape Town beaches, raising serious public health concerns.
The Project Blue survey revealed significant pollution issues at several Cape Town beaches, with exceedances of 90th percentile contamination limits noted on 42% of sampling dates for Table Bay and 38% for False Bay.
The Soet River outfall at The Strand is heavily polluted, with risks to both humans and animals observed. High levels of sewage-related organisms were detected at multiple locations, including Lagoon Beach, which is permanently closed but lacks visible warnings.
Despite intermittent exceedances at Blue Flag beaches like Camps Bay, Clifton, and Saunders Rock, no public health warnings or signage were observed. This lack of communication exacerbates the risks to beachgoers and highlights the need for better public awareness and stricter management of polluted areas.
Project Blue Team’s Caroline Marx said they had not made allegations about water quality but alerted city officials to the results of their findings.
“A citizen-driven independent investigation into the seawater quality at a few selected beaches in the Cape Peninsula between 4 November and 6 December 2024.
“The process was overseen by top academics, strict protocols were adhered to with an independent observer attesting to this, and samples in cooler boxes with ice packs were delivered to the laboratories within four hours of sampling with an unbroken chain of custody and analysed on the day of sampling.
“Project Blue was initiated after requests from concerned community members and water user groups and funding was community donation based with no single donor providing more than 20% of the project costs. As many donors are regular swimmers and kayakers, it is surely evident that they would prefer that no evidence of pollution be found, there is thus no outside agenda.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
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