The Zandvlei has now been closed for recreational use for nine weeks.

Rietvlei, Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei have suffered similar closures. There is a major crisis occurring in the inland waterbodies of the City of Cape Town.

As far as Zandvlei is concerned, the official information is that the water quality is “compromised” and that “E. coli counts remain elevated above the acceptable thresholds”.

Yet at Rietvlei it was announced that ‘E.Coli counts of up to 100,000 in May’ were recorded and that counts remained “between 30,000 and 80,000 at multiple sites into July”.

If the figures for Rietvlei can be released why can the figures for Zandvlei not be made public?

The press release also stated: “Further complicating the response to and management of the closure has been that no single source of contamination into the vlei has been located, instead, we believe a series of inputs have occurred within the catchment leading to this prolonged closure.”

Why has the source of these continued sewage leaks not been identified. What is the City doing to find the source?  

We need answers.