Cape Town Fights Uphill Battle Against Ocean and Waterway Sewage Spills

Sewage contamination incidents around parts of Cape Town's coastline, and the City of Cape Town's marine outfalls in Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Green Point, where sewage is pumped into the ocean daily, have sparked debate about public health, pollution and infrastructure failures.

Camps Bay Beach was temporarily closed after a sewage pump failure at its marine outfall in July 2024. In Green Point, a mechanical pump failure at its marine outfall led to an "emergency" sewage release into the ocean in September.

In Hout Bay, the City of Cape Town has come under public scrutiny for the pollution levels of waterways after Dr Jo Barnes, a senior lecturer emeritus at Stellenbosch University's Department of Global Health, revealed alarming levels of eight million E. coli per 100ml of water in the Disa River that flows into Hout Bay Beach from water quality tests taken by her and fellow researchers towards the end of 2023.

However, Barnes said that nothing much had changed over the intervening period since the city's own data also show pollution above acceptable levels, from 30 April to 3 September 2024.

Every day, millions of litres of untreated sewage is discharged into the ocean through Cape Town's three offshore marine outfalls at Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay. The practice has been heavily criticised by residents, opposition parties and activists with the city now exploring future alternatives for marine outfalls.

Several short-, medium- and long-term options were put forward...

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