. Despite Project Blue’s concerns, the City of Cape Town maintains that its independent water tests show high-quality standards, ensuring safety at popular beaches.
Image: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
Cape Town - A woman’s leisure swim at Saunders’ Rocks Beach resulted in a near-death experience due to infections from E.coli septicemia, and streptococcus.
The incident has prompted others to report similar experiences, with many left hospitalised from gastrointestinal and other bacterial infections caused by the contaminated sea water.
This has resulted in urgent calls for the City of Cape Town to address water quality concerns, with the municipality calling on medical professionals to report it if observed.
Several residents from the Atlantic Seaboard Community Forum shared their experiences on Facebook, while an independent survey is being conducted by Mark Jackson, who runs the “Bay of Sewage group”.
The alarming claims come just weeks after weeks after RethinkTheStink’s Project Blue, a citizen-led investigation, revealed widespread contamination of sea water along Cape beaches.
Dr. Jo Barnes, Senior Lecturer and Emeritus Epidemiologist at Stellenbosch University, and Professor Leslie Petrik,
Professor of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape, revealed that during November and December 2024,widespread contamination in Table Bay was discovered, with 42% of sampling dates exceeding safety limits for E. coli and Enterococci.
The City refuted the claims in January and showcased numerous readings done as they challenged the data.
Now, the resident, whose name is known to Cape Argus, shared via her Instagram that she nearly died after experiencing severe abdominal pains and body aches resulting in septicemia due to streptococcus and E-coli that attacked her body.
Her mother said she had been in agony and was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered the infections.“ She nearly died from septicemia from Saunders’. It started off with body pains and then five hours later she developed a very high temp of 39.5.“I called the CSO at 11pm who arrived within minutes. They put up a drip, which brought the temp down to 37.8, and asked her if she wanted to go to hospital or see how she felt in the morning. “We managed to get into the car and drove straight to our GP, Michael Waynik, who diagnosed her immediately with peritonitis and sent her straight to ER with a wheelchair.“
Her blood pressure was so low that they couldn’t scan her. They thought she had a burst appendix that was poisoning her blood. “Twelve hours later the doctor of infectious diseases found it to be streptococcus infection and E-coli. It took a week to heal.” A nursing sister on the same post said their emergency rooms had been filled with people being treated for septicemia following a swim at Saunders’ Rocks Beach.
The City in response to the claims via ward councillor Francine Higham, called for medical reports in order to issue an alert and cautioned against allegations without any findings. “The City understands the distress caused by water quality issues and assures the public that we take such matters seriously,” she said.
“It is, however, difficult to speak to the specifics of these incidents without medical proof. “That is why we urge anyone who experiences symptoms of diarrhea or feeling unwell, to consult their health-care provider for a thorough clinical assessment and appropriate diagnostic tests. If the healthcare provider suspects the cause is linked to a waterborne illness or another notifiable disease, they must report this through established procedures as outlined by legislation.
“This reporting mechanism ensures that both Provincial and City Health officials are promptly notified, allowing for an investigation into the case and the identification of the potential source of infection to prevent further outbreaks and safeguard public health. “The City strongly recommends that healthcare professionals reach out to City Health if they have concerns regarding potential contamination, so that it can be communicated to the relevant districts for further investigation and appropriate action. ”Dr. Cleeve Robertson, former esteemed CEO of the National Sea Rescue Institute, told the Cape Argus the issue of contamination for humans was very likely.
“I agree that Saunders’ Rocks is polluted and it is possible that these people are getting sick because they swim there. The cause is a storm water outlet that flows directly onto the beach.
“The storm water is clearly polluted and contaminated, a problem all over Cape Town. Storm water is not captured and treated by the City, it should be.
“Cape Town has serious water pollution issues as evidenced by its own inland water quality reports and it is trying to catch up! Too slowly. It’s a huge engineering, health and environ-mental problem.”
Earlier, 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 health risks.
Jackson said: “A result of 185 means the water quality is likely to be classified as ‘poor’. “However, too often our City stops the lab analysis when they hit a reading heading above 150, and simply refer to it as >150 (greater than 150).“So to play it safe then, we must assume then that any ‘no data’ result, or result ‘>150’, should be taken as meaning the results are bad.”