Eight City beaches have been given Blue Flag status for meeting water quality targets, among other criteria, but the rating is questioned by some who say it hides a water pollution crisis.

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) announced the Blue Flag awards for the 2024/25 season during a ceremony in Cape Town late last month. Fish Hoek, Muizenberg, Silwerstroomstrand, Clifton 4th, Camps Bay, Llandudno, Bikini Beach and Melkbosstrand got the Blue Flag nod.

The Blue Flag season runs at all accredited beaches from December 1 to January 31 next year.

"During the operating times posted at these beaches and confirmed by the visual presence of the Blue Flags flying over them, beachgoers can look forward to pristine coastal conditions, sea-water quality tested weekly, well-maintained facilities and enhanced safety measures," the City said in a statement.

Wessa senior manager for advocacy, membership and governance Morgan Griffiths said that if testing showed the water quality was below Blue Flag standards, the flag at the beach would be lowered and raised only once the water was clean again.

Mr Griffiths said Cape Town's water quality was often poor and below Blue Flag standards during winter when rains flushed stormwater drains and flooded sewage systems spilled into the near-shore environment, but water quality improved during the summer months of the Blue Flag season because that flushing wasn't happening.

"The summer south-easterly winds also blow the marine outfall outflows further offshore,” he said.

Professor Leslie Petrik, an expert in the field of environmental remediation, said the Blue Flag status remained questionable.

“Testing bimonthly for just enterococci is not an adequate safety measure in terms of health. There are many different disease-causing bacteria and viruses that do not get tested for.

“The wet sand or swash zones where children build sandcastles are not tested and these zones harbour higher numbers of bacteria. Moreover the sampling sites do not always correspond with the places where people swim.

“Furthermore the beaches and shoreline are contaminated with a very diverse range of sewage-related persistent chemical contaminants, which have a very adverse impact upon marine biota in the form of chronic toxicity and point to poor cleanliness and persistent environmental damage.”

Jamii Hamlin, from the Strand Surf Life Saving Club, said the Blue Flag classification was simply intended to promote good water quality during a brief peak season.

“The Blue Flag is isolated and ignores the broader considerations of water safety from a water quality aspect. The increased volume of pollution and litter entering our ocean also reflects a broken social understanding to our environmental responsibility and the utter failure of water and sanitation and urban waste management to amplify efforts, especially in informal and low income communities where greater investments of basic services in desperately needed,” he said.

Paul Jacobson, a City councillor and business owner in Sea Point, said water testing should be done regularly and the results shared with the activists.

“The City’s website is not user friendly. They are supposed to test for enterococci and E.coli, and they are not testing for E.coli, so they are in contravention of the DFFE (Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment) instructions regarding water clarity, and I believe the DFFE will be serving papers on the City,” he said.

Mayoral committee member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien said the water activists were spreading false information on social media, which had negative consequences for businesses.

“Our marine outfalls, as it currently stands, have almost no eco-toxic effects on the ecosystem in those places. The water quality at Camps Bay, Green Point, Hout Bay is excellent enough for our residents and visitors to enjoy.”

Mr Jacobson should study the entire fourth-quarterly report of the water and sanitation committee before interpreting parts of it, Dr Badroodien said.

“This is a public document and can be accessed in either the portfolio committee agenda or the agenda of council. The councillor’s irresponsible and selective use of information to distort and misrepresent the City’s efforts in investing into our infrastructure and protecting our environment is unfortunate,” he said.

Professor Petrik said Dr Badroodien was out of touch or deliberately obfuscating the hazards posed by sewage on the coastal environment.

“The City does not provide real-time data and does not make sure that this is conveyed in a timeous manner. By the time an alert is raised it is usually two-to-three weeks too late to protect beach goers.”

Communities reported seeing and smelling sewage, but the City constantly refuted this anecdotal and sensory evidence and claimed conditions were safe based on “very belated dated”, she said

Referring to Dr Badroodien, Mr Hamlin said: “He appears to be influenced by political ambitions and aloof to the expertise of independent researchers, scientists, health experts, water safety interests and the wisdom of the numerous water activists, conservationists and the 'user experience' feedback of beach goers and observers.”