Bay of Sewage

17/06/2026

fyi

Rietvlei reopened on 15 June 2026 after a partial closure due to elevated E. coli levels linked to sewage pollution.

Raising E. coli concentrations in a large water body such as Rietvlei, which exceeds 6 metres in depth in places, would appear to require a substantial sewage input.

Yet no clear explanation has been provided regarding the source and scale of the contamination, nor why it took almost two months to resolve. Not good enough City of Cape Town

17/06/2026

Sharing this here, only because if Aucamp, our current Minister of the Environment, moves to Agriculture, then we’ll get a new Minister overseeing the release of the investigation into our Marine Outfalls permits (under investigation since 2023!)

A quick recap:

2023: ANC Minister Creecy ordered a full review of the outfall permits process, AND a proper public participation exercise.

(We’re told by the city that this garnered the largest public participation response ever, but as far as we’re aware, the full results are yet to be released to the public... We wonder why.)

2025: New DA Minister Dion George lifts all carefully-calculated-by-the-CSIR outfall volume limitations at all three outfalls, pending the outcome of this permit review... A shocking decision.

2026: New DA Minister Wille Aucamp assures us ‘an expert team’ is reviewing the permits.

(We are still waiting to know who exactly this expert team is, and why it’s taking them 3 years to come up with an answer)

2026: A New DA Minister is being lined up for the DFFE role. Will anything change for the better?

DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove his predecessor, John Steenhuisen, from the Cabinet.

14/06/2026

Read all about it! - Charcters allegedly undisclosed to the public, with expertise or conflicts of interest also allegedly undisclosed to the mere public, being given the power to make Billion Rand municipal decisions that affect us all? Sound familiar?

Sharing this article here, because sadly, this is what we experience with so much of our city and national sanitation decisions - taking place behind closed doors, involving 'independent experts’ who’s identities are not easily available.

Think for example of our new Minister of the DFFE, promising us that expert independent advisors are right now busy adjudicating on whether to renew our city’s license to dump effectively raw sewage directly into our two Marine Protected Areas.

Who are these expert advisors? We haven’t been told. Have you?

Or for example, when, in our corner, the highly regarded Professor Petrik (ranked in the top 5% of most cited scientists WORLDWIDE - far outclassing in rank any city official we know of) raises her hand to protest some aspect of our water reuse (sewage to drinking water) master plan, we are told city independent experts disagree with her.

Who exactly? We don’t know. Do you?

This is why we strongly support bringing the current political party below their current 58% majority, to anywhere under 50% that will require some kind of power sharing. We’re certainly not anti- or pro- ANY particular party. We just think that breaking any outright majority is more likely (but never guaranteed, sadly) to shed vital light on what goes on behind the dark curtains of power.

The city belongs to us residents and ratepayers. Almost NOTHING should be withheld from us, ever. City walls should be made of glass. End of story.

As members of Cape Town’s municipal planning tribunal can now effectively serve for life (as revealed in Part 1 of this series), Daily Maverick interrogates the tribunal’s lack of official employment …

08/06/2026

“...held together by creatures most people have never seen, and over which our city is dumping millions of litres daily of effectively raw sewage.”
There, we corrected it for our Mayor.

Our beautiful 'Great African Seaforest' featured in Time Magazine 🌊😍

"At the edge of Cape Town’s city lights, one of the ocean’s most intricate ecosystems is held together by creatures most people have never seen."

📲 Full article: https://time.com/article/2026/05/28/ocean-kelp-forests-biodiversity/

03/06/2026

We would like to reiterate that we think it is crazy to:

a) again try desalinate the heavily-contaminated waters of Table Bay - which we know are in part contaminated from our effectively-raw sewage Green Point Marine outfall. And not forget the contamination entering via our rivers.

And b) sorry but we know that even our new SANS241 drinking water standards are far below par, and will not keep us safe from the persistent pollutants present in our contaminated seawater. Until SANS241 standards are raised to meet, for example EU standards, we should not attempt desalination!

Residents and political parties express concerns over Cape Town's proposed R5 billion desalination plant, emphasising the need for transparency and addressing potential financial implications as the city seeks long-term water security.

27/05/2026

Until the municipal manager is made personally accountable (and he/she is the 'accounting officer’ after all, ie the accountable one, not the accountant...) - until such officials are made personally liable, these fines just get added to the ratepayers bill and nothing changes.
In China, such failures by officials would probably lead to executions, no?

Knysna Local Municipality has been hit with a suspended R10 million fine after pleading guilty to a string of environmental crimes linked to years of sewage spills, illegal dumping and pollution that contaminated rivers and flowed into the ecologically sensitive Knysna Estuary.

26/05/2026

Lest we forget - our city commissioned plans to treat the sewage at all three of our marine outfall sewage pump stations - and these plans have been available since Feb 2024. Sadly our city is dragging their heels on implementing them.

Looking back over Maiden's Cove towards Clifton and Lion's Head, with the plume of raw sewage from the Camps Bay Marine Outfall clearly visible on the surface.

19/05/2026

A ‘responsible city’ our Mayco member claims? Responsible for what? Toxic effluent on fields is one thing, but the MUCH bigger issue is, WHY does CoCT continue to send toxic sewage sludge to city farms, for use on vegetables that we eat?
And which farms exactly are recipients of our toxic sludge?
How long do others think it will be, before city officials are one day subjected to a class action lawsuit, for knowingly poisoning the public in this way?

19/05/2026

Just imagine what our coastal waters are like?

But our much bigger concern, is this type of pollution is what we might soon be DRINKING, when CoCT’s water reuse scheme goes ahead.

Why? Because our NEW SANS 241 water regulations are some 300x weaker on a certain chemical marker, than EU standards.

Also, what’s very interesting about the below quote, is it shows that chemicals should not be tested in isolation, because in reality they combine to form new compounds that are not safe.

"In some samples, pollution was 13 times the safe threshold for coastal waters. Others, which were below legal limits for individual chemicals, failed tests for combined toxicity."

And against this background, our new SANS241 law will allow for CoCT to self-regulate, when it comes to decide which of the 15,000 chemicals of concern to test for. Now what are the chances they’ll miss something?

Study of Channel finds levels of toxic Pfas in Solent at 13 times safe limits in some places, with much coming from treated sewage

18/05/2026

A brilliant post that shows just how effluent from the Black River/ Diep River can spread along our coast.
Now just replace, in your minds, the naturally occurring sand visible in this picture, with the invisible sewage pollution - with some virus able to survive months at sea, and one soon gets to appreciate the true scale of our sewage pollution problem.
And this is where CoCT, in their infinite wisdom, wants to draw water for desalination from?