The City of Cape Town has rejected claims that a Stormers rugby player contracted an E.coli infection after swimming at Camps Bay beach, despite ongoing concerns raised by experts about water quality testing protocols.
On Thursday, the GOOD Party called out the City to engage with experts and academics in the marine conservation field after the citizen-led “Project Blue” investigation revealed widespread contamination along Cape beaches last year.
Dr. Jo Barnes, an epidemiologist at Stellenbosch University, and Professor Leslie Petrik, a chemistry expert at the University of the Western Cape, found that between November and December last year, 42% of the sampling dates in Table Bay exceeded safety limits for E.coli and Enterococci.
The GOOD Party said they had written to Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in January to request an urgent joint committee on the issue but claimed their request was ignored.
“Instead of engaging with the scientists to discuss their methodology and explain their findings, the City ignored them and rather put their PR machine on overdrive,” they said.
“Now, just a month later, a Stormers player is reportedly out due to an E.coli infection allegedly picked up at Camps Bay.”
In its response, the City said there was no evidence linking the player’s infection to Camps Bay. “There has been no confirmation that the infection was contracted while swimming at Camps Bay. It would be imprudent to state it as fact,” the City said.
They added that no sewer spills had been reported in January and that water samples continued to meet recreational safety guidelines.
“We recommend that healthcare professionals contact City Health if they have concerns about potential contamination. All notifiable diseases, including waterborne infections, must be reported to the National Department of Health.”
Dr Anthony Turton, Environmental Advisor and spokesperson for Project Blue said in their response that the City did not have the correct protocols in place to determine the health risks.
“The City currently has no effluent quantity discharge limit after the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Dion George suspended the limit.
Dr Barnes, who was part of the investigation said since she was not given details of the case at hand she could not draw a conclusion but that there were definitely E.coli organisms originating from sewage in the seawater at Camps Bay from time to time.
She urged the City to take a cautionary approach rather than dismissing concerns.
“There is a possibility that it could have been acquired from contact with contaminated seawater and as such the City should at least show an interest in the case and make sure that such risks are minimised, instead of dismissing it.