E.coli alert raises big stink at Clifton

It is home to some of the country's wealthiest and a magnet for tourists, but there is a stink about the water at Clifton Fourth Beach in Cape Town.

It has Blue Flag status - an international award for excellence in safety and cleanliness, according to the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa.

But Professor Edda Weimann, of the University of Cape Town, fears that the water quality at Clifton and some beaches around the Cape Peninsula could be getting worse.

There are several sewerage stations around the peninsula that pump sewage into the sea. "Only debris and larger particles are filtered out," said Weimann.

An environmental justice organisation in Durban has also warned that the water off many beaches there contains toxic chemicals.

Desmond D'sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance said this week that although he had not taken samples at Durban beaches, there were high levels of E.coli at many of them due to illegal dumping.

Officials from the City of Cape Town and the wildlife society gave the assurance that the water at Clifton was safe - and ultra swimmer Theodore Yach confirmed that he would continue to train there.

But Weimann has been monitoring Clifton and noted the yellow foam and bad smell. Last week she photographed pollution at Grotto Beach in Hermanus - another Blue Flag beach - and dead seals on Pearly Beach and Die Dam.

She published an article in the Macrothink Institute's Journal of Environment and Ecology this year after testing the seawater off Clifton in February and March last year.

"Foam and yellowish colouring of sand was associated with elevated E.coli counts," she wrote. She also highlighted that an adult swimmer could swallow 10ml to 100ml of seawater and children even more.

The wildlife society's Morgan Griffiths said water was tested at Clifton every two weeks and authorities posted the results on a public notice board.

This week, Clifton tests yielded a slightly elevated E.coli level, but when another sample was tested the following day, it was clean.

The reading, said Griffiths, could have been a false positive from an algal bloom.

"Or there had simply been a multitude of people swimming at Clifton at the time of testing, which can cause the spike in E.coli washed off the human bodies," he said.

"The public does not need to be stressed that they are swimming in sewage water - they are swimming in some of the cleanest and independently lab-tested seawater."

But Weimann said results were only put up on notice boards days after bathers had been there.

"Real-time monitoring and surveillance as introduced in Scotland should be mandatory, to be on the safe side. My intention was to raise awareness for citizens to take precautions," she said.

Zolile Nqayi, of the Department of Environmental Affairs, said it was municipalities' were responsible for monitoring water quality.

Benedicta van Minnen, the Cape Town mayoral committee member for health, saidstringent testing had shown that Clifton's water was safe for bathing. In addition to Blue Flag testing season - October to April - water was monitored throughout the year, she said.

"During winter, the seawater is vulnerable to increased poor-quality stormwater runoff. However, our data shows that Clifton Fourth Beach is not at risk," said Van Minnen.

D'sa said this week that many of Durban's beaches had an E.coli problem because of illegal dumping . In addition, he said, Durban's sewerage system had collapsed because of a lack of maintenance over the years.

"I haven't checked the latest results, but in October and November the results of E.coli tests were very high," said D'sa.

He said Durban had published the latest results in 2013 and "I think that the city has not done anything since then".

He said high levels of E.coli in Durban's seawater should be cause for concern, because bathers could get diarrhoea from the bacteria.

"Diarrhoea is a problem and beachgoers should be wary of swimming at the [specified] beaches. Beaches north and south of Durban are the most affected. Even the central beaches can be affected, depending on the current."

Ednick Msweli, the eThekwini municipality's head of water and sanitation, was not available for comment because he was on leave, but according to the municipality's website, the city's coastline, which is more than 100km long, was safe.