Water, both fresh and salty, is a problem for tourism this summer, with businesses along South Africa’s 3,000km coastline hoping that taps don’t run dry and that beaches pass their E coli tests.
There are reports of sewage pollution off Western Cape beaches and rising E coli levels off Eastern Cape beaches, but it is KwaZulu-Natal that is struggling the most after the floods of 2022 wreaked havoc on water and sewerage infrastructure.
The KZN south coast has five (out of a national total of 54) blue flag beaches. It also has seven beaches in the blue flag pilot programme. Durban, which abandoned the blue flag system in 2008, has since returned to the fold. During the 2020/2021 season, 12 beaches had blue flag status.
eThekwini spokesperson Gugu Sisilana tells the FM that the municipality is still rebuilding roads and sewerage networks damaged by the floods, but water quality off the city’s beaches is “not as dire as it is in other coastal cities”. On December 8 she told the FM the quality has consistently been “excellent or acceptable … especially on Durban’s popular beaches along the Golden Mile”. Just a week later Durban’s main swimming beaches were closed again because of high E coli levels after heavy rains.
Brett Tungay, east coast chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa, says Durban is not to blame, it’s just “where the crap ends up”.
“The sea has nothing to do with it. It is just the final recipient. The problem starts in Pietermaritzburg and the Dusi basin, which flows into the uMngeni and to Durban.” Flying over the area recently, he observed that the Dusi “is not a river, it’s an effluent waste disposal channel. When the water level drops, you can see all the toilet paper. It’s disgusting.”
He says pleas from struggling local businesses a year after the floods have fallen on deaf ears.
It’s an effluent waste disposal channel. When the water level drops, you can see all the toilet paper. It’s disgusting
— Brett Tungay
The province’s water problems are not just in the sea. Tungay says there are municipal water supply or quality problems along the south coast and in Durban. “In Ugu [municipality, on the south coast] there’s a hell of a lot of water but it is not getting to the taps.” Resorts are drilling boreholes and installing water tanks. “Tourism businesses are having to pay municipal rates but also having to provide their own services,” he says.
Nelson Mandela Bay does not report E coli levels and a local conservancy has gone to court to force it to do so. Last month an independent investigation found that blue flag beaches at Hobie and Humewood had good water quality. The beaches at St Georges Strand were clean but high levels of E coli were found at nearby New Brighton beach.
Of the smaller beaches along the Garden Route, Herold’s Bay, in the George municipality, has temporarily closed its beach because of high levels of E coli. It has also lost its blue flag. The nearby Victoria and Wilderness beaches have retained their blue flag status.
In the Kouga municipality in the Eastern Cape, popular destinations such as Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis have good seawater, enabling local authorities to focus on banning alcohol from beaches. Mayor Hattingh Bornman says the motivation is to ensure people’s safety.
In Cape Town, which has three sewage outfalls on the western shoreline of the peninsula, Camps Bay and Clifton have retained blue flag status. Monitoring of coastal water quality is done by an independent laboratory. It samples water at 99 sites twice a month and the results are categorised as excellent, good, sufficient or poor.
High bacteria counts, with associated health risks, have been found at a number of beaches including Fish Hoek, Strandfontein, Hout Bay and the Camps Bay tidal pools, according to the city’s water quality review. Water quality is “chronic” at central False Bay beaches, Lagoon beach at Milnerton, from Macassar to Gordon’s Bay and at Three Anchor Bay.
Remote stretches of the coastline are usually free of such problems. Indeed, some provide unusual discoveries. In Port Nolloth, the water may be cold but the beach is pristine and recently provided excitement for scientists who found an iridescent blind mole, long thought to be extinct, in the sand dunes.
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