The City of Cape Town remains in contention over sewage management with environmental advocacy group, Project Blue.

While the City promotes its water quality standards and extensive testing processes, environmental activists have raised issues about trust, sample sufficiency, and public health dangers.

Professor Anthony Turton, an award-winning environmental advisor and spokesman for Project Blue, raised two issues about the sewage situation.

The first is a “trust deficit” between City officials and the public, and the second is the City’s sewage management challenges.

“That complexity is centred on the fact that sewage is discharged into three different aquatic ecosystems – rivers, lagoons/wetlands, and the ocean – in the Cape Town context. The river discharge is from effluent coming from various wastewater treatment plants, some of which are outside of the CoCT jurisdictional limits, in other municipalities over which they have no control. The wetland/lagoon discharge is often from broken pumps or blocked sewers, so it typically consists of raw untreated sewage. The ocean discharge is from three marine outfall pipelines (MOP’s located at Camps Bay, Green Point and Hout Bay. These three MOP’s collectively discharge 53 megalitres of sewage per day, with peak flows significantly in excess of this. That’s a staggering 53 000 000 litres a day, or 53 million litres every single day, and nobody is talking about it,” Professor Turton said.

“The Project Blue position is simple. We believe that 297 samples is inadequate to deal with the level of complexity that I have explained above. That’s about one sample per site per week, which is simply incapable of mapping out the sewage risks from rivers, wetlands and the three MOP’s,” he said.

He said the trust deficit needs to be addressed and the “aggression” shown by the City merely hardens attitudes and widens the gulf between the parties.

“For example, when we share data, it is used against us to discredit us. This is not conducive to the reinstatement of trust and it merely drives polarisation, which is the opposite of what we are about,” he said.

According to deputy mayor Eddie Andrews, 297 water samples collected throughout the holiday season at 30 prominent coastal recreational hotspots met recreational usage standards.

“This is based on enterococci counts, the internationally recognised gold standard indicator for coastal water quality in terms of associated risk to human health. All water samples underwent independent analysis conducted by a laboratory that is SANAS accredited for microbiological analysis for sea water,” said Mr Andrews.

Zahid Badroodien, the City's mayoral committee for water and sanitation, said only two sewage overflow incidents occurred during the holiday season: one in Kalk Bay on January 4, due to a blocked sewer nearby that did not reach the beach, and one at Clifton 4th Beach due to a power outage that was contained and did not reach the sea/bathing area.

“These outfalls are designed to safely discharge effluent well away from recreational areas and Blue Flag beaches where it disperses safely. The City is actively pursuing options for enhancing the treatment of effluents discharged into the ocean, including potential upgrades or even replacement with new wastewater treatment facilities over the longer term,” said Dr Badroodien.

He said the feasibility study’s findings, environmental factors, and finances will determine the next steps.

Mark Jackson, director of the short film Bays of Sewage, has labelled Blue Flag Status as a “weak standard”, poorly applied and said the public should lower their expectations of this status.

“For starters, Blue Flag itself does not comply with WHO (World Health Organization) Water Quality Reporting Guidelines. WHO demands 100 water samples per site, preferably taken over a 5 year period, plus consideration of other factors, in order to to classify water as safe for swimming, or not,” Mr Jackson said.

He said the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) points to the shortcoming of their testing regime, stating on their website: “Note: Water quality results are correct on date of testing. Thereafter, they may fluctuate and we cannot guarantee water quality consistency.”

WESSA said it acknowledges the challenges presented by urban sewage systems and other environmental pressures.

“In the event of a pollution incident, the Blue Flag is lowered as a precautionary measure, and follow-up water quality samples are taken to confirm whether the water is safe for swimming. This precautionary principle ensures public safety while maintaining the integrity of the Blue Flag programme. It (lowering the flag) is a signal to beach goers that the beach is not compliant and therefore they need to take precaution. We urge all Blue Flag beach operators to inform the public immediately if a pollution event that could be harmful to the public has occurred.”