Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
With reference to the ongoing dispute between the City of Cape Town and various water and environmental scientists regarding the sea-water quality in Cape Town for recreational use:
- Whether his Department audited, monitored or evaluated the City of Cape Town’s and/or the independent scientists’ water quality testing; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether his Department developed any provincial environmental health policies, guidelines, norms and standards that are applicable to water quality for recreational use in the province; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) what steps have Environmental Health Services taken to ensure that the City of Cape Town implements or complies with those policies, guidelines, norms and standards;
- (a) what standards are applicable for the testing of water quality for recreational use and (b) who (i) monitors, (ii) evaluates or (iii) audits these tests for compliance;
- whether he will intervene if the water quality continues to be of concern or the presence of harmful bacteria or substances continues to be alleged or reported; if not, why not;
- with regard to the media report of 3 March 2025 in IOL with the title “Near-death incident at Cape Town beach raises alarm over water quality”, what is his Depart-ment’s response to the alleged environmental health risks associated with the recreational use of sea water;
- whether his Department has conducted any independent testing of the sea-water quality, given the conflicting reports; if not,
- whether his Department has any plans to conduct one in the future; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
This Department deals with land-based pollution impacting areas above the high-water mark and thus is not mandated to deal with coastal water quality. Consequently, this Department is not responsible to audit, monitor or evaluate coastal water quality and/or reporting by the City of Cape Town and/or other institutions/stakeholders and is unable to provide further comment on the questions raised. The National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) is the lead Department in this regard.
For purposes of providing some insight, the DFFE is the responsible authority for regulating point source discharges into the coastal environment through issuing Coastal Water Discharge Permits (CWDP). The City of Cape Town’s Wastewater Sea Outfalls are complying with the conditions set in these permits.
The South African Water Quality Guidelines for Coastal Waters, Volume 2: Guidelines for Recreational Use was published in 2012 by the then National Department of Environmental Affairs and is available online. The guidelines provide target values for various water quality parameters and also provides guidance on monitoring protocols including: maintaining sampling log charts, sampling periods and frequencies, sampling procedures and analytical methods.
