Joint water sampling in eThekwini to avoid discrepancies

Ethekwini municipality has 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 2022, 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 has 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 in 2023 and continued with its own E. coli testing. 

In September, 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. 

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 and 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 were regarded as comparable because they clearly fall within the guidelines for excellent or poor.

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