eThekwini municipality joined forces with independent laboratories to sample beach water weekly.  

The municipality said this would enable credible comparison of test results in the interests of transparency and public safety. 

“Until recently, eThekwini municipality and independent laboratories have not been sampling jointly, leading to different beach water results. This led to confusion among the public regarding the results,” it said. 

The city has been repairing flood-damaged and vandalised pump stations which have resulted in high E. coli levels since last year, prompting the closure of several beaches.

On October 5, the municipality jointly sampled with Adopt-A-River, an NPO whose samples are tested by independent laboratory Talbot.  

“Joint sampling was done at Point Beach, uShaka, South Beach, North Beach, Battery Beach, Country Club, river at Kingfisher Canoe Club, river at Riverside and river below the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works,” the municipality said.   

The results showed the water quality at most of the city’s popular beaches was excellent while the quality at rivers at the Kingfisher Canoe Club and Riverside Road was poor. 

Adopt-A-River tested water quality at beaches and rivers in Durban in conjunction with Talbot since February 2022.

The city previously partnered with Talbot to conduct joint readings in December, but abandoned the partnership early this year and continued with its own E. coli testing. 

Last month there was a discrepancy over readings conducted by the city and Talbot, with the former saying the beaches recorded acceptable water quality readings. Talbot's readings, however, recorded excessively poor quality at some Durban beaches. 

In response, the city said it would welcome a partnership.

Water and sanitation unit head Ednick Msweli said joint sampling with Adopt-a-River will be done for the next few months. 

“Our intention is to compare the results, but also to educate the public about the processes of water testing because there’s often a misunderstanding when the public compares results by the city with those of independent organisations. 

“If the same sample has not been taken at the same place at the same time it is inevitable that the results won’t be the same, hence the joint sampling. This is because environmental conditions change all the time,” said Msweli. 

The results have guidelines for compliance. 

“For the quality of water to be regarded as compliant for recreational use such as bathing, E. coli levels must be between 0 to 500 and anything above 500 is poor to critical.

“You may notice the numbers that indicate quality of water are not identical,” said Msweli. He said, however, the results are regarded as comparable because they clearly fall within the guidelines for excellent or poor.

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